I've got two questions.

#1 I recently used TMAX 400 film. I exposed it normally, using the correct meter readings. I had more than enough light. I developed it for the recommended time. When I got done, I noticed that the negs were very flat -- gray and white instead of black & white. I'm not even sure if I can print them well. I have used TMAX in the past and got good, contrasty negs with it....what went wrong? Oh yea, I used HC-110 developer - dil B.

#2 Also, with any film I use -- be it Tri-X, SFX 200, Universal 400 or this TMAX, I have had to essentially refix the film each time. I'll pull it out of the fix after about 5 mins and it looks like it was touching. Even though it loads fine. Then, I'll fix it longer, say 5 more minutes or so, then it will look normal. Am I just not fixing it long enough the first time, or is this some strange phenomenon that I'm not aware of? I never had this happen when I was in school. And the prints print normally.

Thanx in advance!!! :)

Erin C.

-- Erin C. (ericon_22@hotmail.com), November 16, 1999

Answers

#1 does sound like under-development. Is it possible that your developer was old? Does it look brown?

#2 sounds very similar. Make a test with the fixer: Put some undeveloped piece of film into it, and measure the clearing time. It it exceeds 3 minutes, use fresh fixer instead. If it is less than three minutes, use twice that time for fixing your films (three times that time for T-Grain films).

Such would be the suggestions if the problems were uncorrelated. As the problems sound so similar, one should, however, consider a common cause. It could be insufficient circulation of the chemicals around the film. The most trivial cause for this might be the wrong method/rythm of agitation with the correct time. If your reels allow it, try to look between the film layers to see whether there is sufficient space, when you take the reels out of the tank after processing.

-- Thomas Wollstein (thomas_wollstein@web.de), November 17, 1999.

#1 Is it possible that you messed up the dilution of the HC110 and got it too dilute? Also was your developer unusually cold?

#2 Sounds like your fixer is depleted. Get some hypo-check and see if there is too much silver in it. Or better yet mix fresh fixer. Then go back and refix the films you had problems with because if the fixer wasn't any good they weren't adequately fixed even though they cleared.

-- Fritz M. Brown (brownf@idhw.state.id.us), November 17, 1999.