Response to water and tank info

I have trouble believing it's the water. The water around Rochester, NY can be pretty hard, but that's what Kodak is used to and their chemistry works OK with it. I've done work nearby using well water that was almost undrinkable due to iron, sulfer, and gas (yes, some people near here can actually light the tap and have it burn!). It really had little effect on the photographic results. I do have a friend in NH who had highly radioactive water, but hopefully not enough to fog film! The town actualyl had to change their water supply to another source to eliminate the problem. One clue is the short developing time. Anything shorter than 5 minutes risks unevenness- I like dilutions that put me out at 8-15 minutes. At high temperatures you may want the higher dilution. You said "full coverage". Good agitation requires some air space in the tank. I measure the volume to just cover the top reel and always use that exact amount of developer. Trouble printing past negs is another good clue, and I've been through this same thing. I think most of it is just differences in paper over the years, but I don't have any frozen samples of the old stuff to prove it. You might try printing a simple step tablet from white to black and critically examining it for clean whites, even tones, and decent blacks. Did you do a safelight test using lightly exposed paper? One more thing- I discovered my Multigrade filters had faded over the years, plus Ilford changed the design somewhat. If your filters are more than a couple years old, it might be wise to replace them. I resisted this way too long!

[ Previous | Next ]