David, Ryuji's advice is right on. If you must use ascorbic acid, then use sodium hydroxide to neutralize it. My experiments using baking soda resulted in the same dismal negatives you got. Hydroxide with ascorbic acid will work, but I too strongly urge you to get sodium ascorbate. Most healthfood sources stock sodium ascorbate, but if you don't have it available locally, Now Foods, among many other sources, sells it via the internet.(posted 8082 days ago)Also, considering the films you are using, you might want to try a catechol based developer such as Pyrocat-HD. (The formula is available at Ed Buffalo's site, unblinkingeye.com.) Acros and TMX respond very nicely in catechol formulas, with negatives exhibiting very high sharpness, tight grain and excellent tonality.