bw ifrared processing

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Help! I took 100 (aprox. $1000,00.00)rolls of Kodak bw infrared 35mm to Africa and after exposing 8 rolls suspected that the lack of electricity (hence refrigeration) and overabundance of heat,was going to heat fog my film. Upon returrning I developed it as usual, 11 minutes straight D-76 68 degrees. it was fogged. Kodak then suggested adding 3 grams benzotrialazole per liter of D-76 to compensate for the fogging. Result: the CLEAREST film I've ever seen, not even the word "Kodak" appeared. it was as if the benzotrialazole negated all developing capacity of the D-76. At this point my remaining film is about worthless, so I can't really do anymore damage.The moral of the story is if you're going to spend months in Africa with no fresh water or electricity, shoot T-Max! Please any ideas as to how to save my film and sanity would be gratefully appreciated. I am even willing to try voodoo and incantations1

-- Kim NaVarre (navarre@dacor.net), October 08, 1998

Answers

Was the film developed normally *completely* fogged, or was there some image?

-- Peter Hughes (leonine@redshift.com), October 08, 1998.

I will start by saying that I have virtually no experience with infrared film. Benzotriazole is a restrainer that I like to use in my paper developers. Your mix of Benzotriazole may be too strong. I usually start with a 2% mix; 20 grams to 1 liter of water. With paper I will start by processing a small piece of paper in just fixer and then wash to see what a clear blank piece should look like. I then start taking small pieces of paper and run it through the whole process adding a little of the 2% benzotriazole to the developer, maybe 10 ml, each time until the paper that went through the developer, stop and fixer is as clear as the Fixer only piece. I would think you could sacrfice 1 roll of film and do some kind of test like this to find out the correct amount of restrainer to add. I would think that a small amount of fog would be ok, with paper too much benzotriazole makes a big difference in the speed of the paper so I think it would be important not to go to far with the restainers strength. I hope this helps.

-- Jeff White (zonie@computer-concepts.com), October 08, 1998.

Try some different developers with the benzotrialazole.

Before I found out that low-cost dark bags aren't really that dark, I ruined about $80 worth of Kodak HIE loading my developing reels.

Next time you venture into hot climates, try Ilford SFX 200 with B+W 092 filter. It has the highest storage temerature of any IR film I've seen (75F, I think).

-- Brian C. Miller (a-bcmill@exchange.microsoft.com), October 09, 1998.


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