MrZylinder
Hi everyone,
I’m slowly reaching the end of my tether. I’ve been conducting black and white development at home for a long time now, from medium format upwards, without any problems. Now I’ve tried it with 35mm colour film and the Digibase C41 kit, and the results are driving me mad.
Cross-processing with transparency film: No problems
Negatives: An awful lot of haze and spots on the negatives
I’ve attached a (very poor) scan to show you what the negatives look like. I’ll be doing some tests at uni with a Flexight in the next few days – but the results are unlikely to be much better. The sharp dots must be dust – I didn’t clean the scanner. :D The camera was a Holga.
What I’ve already tried:
- Pre-rinse bath prepared with distilled water
- Stripped films / didn’t strip / used stripping tongs
- Rinsed them under a hot shower (in a dry place) before drying
Suspicions:
- As the water in Mannheim is extremely hard, I should prepare all the chemicals with distilled water. The argument against this is that I’ve never had such problems with black-and-white film – using the same water.
What do you think?
Regards,
Hannes
michael-kielgmxnet
I’d definitely give the distilled water a go. I only use distilled water for the Digibase chemistry and have never had any problems. For the final wash, I also give it a quick rinse with distilled water before the Stabi bath. The Stabi bath itself should definitely be prepared using distilled water. However, if the washing is thorough enough, you can perform more than the specified level of dilution; I only use half the concentration. This reduces the risk of drying spots.
Oh yes, something else just occurred to me: how do you develop your colour films – in a rotating tank or using a tilt-and-turn method? If the latter, insufficient agitation could also be to blame for the cloudy result.
MrZylinder
I develop using the tilt method at 25 degrees. The negatives actually look fine – good detail – but when I scan them, everything ends up upside down. The strange thing is that transparency films turn out almost perfectly with this chemical solution (see attachment), and I’ve never had this sort of problem with my black-and-white negatives.
Could it be down to the film itself?
michael-kielgmxnet
Hmm... I don’t think it’s down to the film, unless you’re using some ancient, expired film.
I’ve had another look at the scan. The grain looks really rough – I’d almost say it’s like wrinkled grain. That obviously suggests excessive temperature variations during processing. But it could also be that the scanner is simply over-emphasising the grain. The scratches and spots are usually ironed out by the correction if the scanner supports ICE.
MrZylinder
So I can actually rule out grain – I always develop a negative film and then a slide film on top of it, without changing anything.
The film was a Kodak KB 400. I expect some grain – just not clouds or streaks. I hope I’ll get round to testing the film with a Flexight in the next few days to at least rule out my home scanner as a source of the problem.
I’ll shoot a whole roll of slide film and develop it again in the next few days for comparison.
ThomasPauly
The first thing you notice in the photo is the thread-like defects. These are unlikely to be caused by chemicals. And where there are fluff particles, there’s bound to be dust too. Conclusion: it looks very much like a handling issue. Was the film perhaps wound onto the canister using a transfer pouch? That’s where this sort of contamination can build up.
Best regards,
tepe
MrZylinder
Jupp had been a bit of a pain – as usual. I’m going to give the following a go:
- Use a different film and switch back to medium format.
- Clean the film bag
- Prepare the chemicals again using distilled water
If that doesn’t work, I’ll eat my hat.
