Originally posted by Alex645 Just to make sure it's not the scanner.....are you seeing dark spots on the negatives with a light table and a loupe?
And out of curiosity, what scanner are you using?
I'm using the Epson V700. I don't have a light table or loupe. If I hold the negatives up to my monitor with a white background, I can't see the spots.
However after development when the film is still wet, it does look a little 'gritty'. This might be a red herring though as I suspect that the spotting I see on the negatives is much smaller than the 'grit' that I think I can see.
Originally posted by tuco I've had those spots too. I'm not sure what causes it but I think it is contamination of some kind. Here is what I've been doing in an attempt to circumvent the problem.
I got more graduated cylinders to measure the developer and mix it in. One set for each developer I use and I wash them out with distilled water. And I use distilled water to mix all the development chemicals. If you use an acid stop bath with distilled water and with fixer, your film will not see tap water until wash time and by then everything is done. And I also use distilled water with the wetting agent and that helps with water spots. So far no spots but I haven't been doing this new procedure that long. I often wonder if it's an issue with a batch of film. The spots seem to come and go. I stopped shooting Rollei Retro 80S because of too many quality control issues with that film ruining pictures. I will wait a year and see if they get resolved before using it again.
I only pre-soak the film when using PMK Pyro because it's a requirement. And, again, I'm using distilled water for that. But other developers I've used do not have a pre-soak in their procedure.
Thanks Tuco. I think that I will adopt a similar approach as you and use distilled or RO water for everything, and be strict with the measuring containers.
What gets me though is that I have never had a problem like this with any other film. Perhaps very minor cases of spotting however nothing like this. So I wonder what is different. I will likely develop a roll of Tmax soon so will see if I get the same thing on that roll. I am also tempted to get a roll of the FP4plus developed by a lab to hoepfully rule out any issues with the film itself.