Topic: darkroom film troubleshooting

[jojonas~]

a little query to check my own conclusions.. I was developing two 135 rolls with some of the last bits of my fomadol r09, 1+100 standing development, agitated the first 30 sec and last 30 sec.. probably went over time with 15 minutes though.
I am 100% sure that I did the chemicals in the right order (dev-stop-fix) and the stop and fix worked last month when I did some caffenol so... I'm thinking it's the developer, it was bought and startet to get used summer last year and have given no problems (that I've noticed at least) up till now.

here's a shot of the film strip.. there's no trace of developed frames and the information is nowhere to be seen. I bulk my own and it can be a bit balnk space but I usually see something on two rolls atleast (if I remember corretly, I roll ilford fp4+). the only thing I see on the film is these milky white-ish streaks in the middle.

any thoughts and input is appreciated

[Andrea.]

If it's the old R09, it might have gone off. The 'new' R09 is the same as rodinal and doesn't go off. I had this too.

[Heather]

I think I've heard of R09 having sudden death problems like this. The newer stuff labelled R09 One Shot is the actual lasts-forever Rodinal solution these days in the UK.

1+100 dilution can be a bit risky too if you're using less than 10ml of stock Rodinal for each roll (I think some people stretch that definition to 5-8ml per roll for high dilutions like 1+100). This is easy to do if you do 300ml of working solution (standard for Paterson tank and 35mm), where that'd be only 3ml of stock chemical per roll. The solution to the problem is that you should use 500ml of working solution and 5ml of stock solution just to be on the safe side of actually having some chemicals in there for it to work. Hrm but you said you did 2 rolls? so that'd be 600ml + 6ml yes? But.. the recommended amount is still per roll so it'd still be effectively at 3ml per roll (half and half)... just not enough solution in there.  

[jojonas~]

I think I've heard of R09 having sudden death problems like this. The newer stuff labelled R09 One Shot is the actual lasts-forever Rodinal solution these days in the UK.

1+100 dilution can be a bit risky too if you're using less than 10ml of stock Rodinal for each roll (I think some people stretch that definition to 5-8ml per roll for high dilutions like 1+100). This is easy to do if you do 300ml of working solution (standard for Paterson tank and 35mm), where that'd be only 3ml of stock chemical per roll. The solution to the problem is that you should use 500ml of working solution and 5ml of stock solution just to be on the safe side of actually having some chemicals in there for it to work. Hrm but you said you did 2 rolls? so that'd be 600ml + 6ml yes? But.. the recommended amount is still per roll so it'd still be effectively at 3ml per roll (half and half)... just not enough solution in there. 

ah, so it is.. I did use 600ml + 6ml. I think it has worked before though. but mostly I do a half stand at 1+50 so then I have more developer to work the film with.

is there a quick way to check if the developer is ok? besides developing a bit of film start to finish then. (I'm using the one shot kind)

[sapata]

I've been developing my films for the past year using Rodinal stand development 1:100 and in most cases using my tank with only one roll of 35mm, which means 350ml solution ( 4ml Rodinal/346ml water ) and never had any problems.

Did you say you left developing for the total time of 15 minutes? If it is I guess is not enough for the dilution. I leave for 1 hour on the spot with a gentle 1 minute agitation at the begining and never had any problems.

[jojonas~]

I've been developing my films for the past year using Rodinal stand development 1:100 and in most cases using my tank with only one roll of 35mm, which means 350ml solution ( 4ml Rodinal/346ml water ) and never had any problems.

Did you say you left developing for the total time of 15 minutes? If it is I guess is not enough for the dilution. I leave for 1 hour on the spot with a gentle 1 minute agitation at the begining and never had any problems.

no, I might have written that a bit clumsily. I meant that it stood for 1 hour and 15 minutes

[Francois]

You can always test the developer (if you have a few drops left) on a film leader. It should turn completely black.

[jojonas~]

ah, thanks francois. I'll have to measure what I left first though. haha, not much~ but then I'll know for sure so that's good

[Dave Elden]

there's no trace of developed frames and the information is nowhere to be seen.

= fix used instead of developer OR bad developer (very bad).

the only thing I see on the film is these milky white-ish streaks in the middle.

= under fixed?  As well as bad developer?
I always pour the dev back into the graduate I mixed it in at the end of the dev cycle.  I don't discard it until I have washed the film and seen that all is as expected - and I no longer need that used dev as "evidence" to investigate any problems.  And I use D76. That always works