[Todd Adamson]

I'm inexperienced at this, and hoping the answer to this question is something obvious. I was doing a stand development protocol with Rodinal, 1:90. 30 inversions initially, then a 75 minutes stand. I've done this 5 or 10 times so far, with various films and pretty good results. This time I got a brown stain encroaching from the edge of the film roll. I was developing 2 rolls at once (I've done that before), and the stain was on the roll that was on top. I'm 99.9% sure this wasn't a volume issue, because the tank calls for 600 mL of fluid when doing two rolls, and I had 650 or a little more. So I think the film was adequately covered. I am positive this roll was the top one, and I assume (but can't say for sure) that the brown edge was the upper edge. Anyone have any ideas what might have caused this?

[k0og]

Todd,

Well, I don't have that much experience either (especially with Rodinal since I just started using it this year). However, I have had problems with bromide streaking in the past. I have a theory, and hopefully someone else can confirm or refute it...

Perhaps with the long stand development and two rolls of film there is an accumulation of some byproduct compound in the tank and it is separating into a layer at the top of the tank, thus leading to the stain. It could be that a contributing factor might be significant temperature differential between the developer and ambient temperature, thus leading to some slow laminar convective circulation and separation.

If my theory is correct, a couple of possible solutions might be:

1) Do semi-stand where you do one very gentle inversion every 20 minutes or so, and shorten the development time (say, to 60 minutes instead of 75). Just guessing on times there...

2) Make sure the ambient temperature and the developer temperature are the same.

Another theory: Maybe your fixer level was not high enough in the tank, or the fixer was not well-enough dissolved, or not agitated often enough, hence a fixing problem instead of a development problem?

What's interesting about your problem is that it looks like the negatives are fully developed in the stained strip, but are just stained.

Or, maybe all this is just random ramblings... Ha!

Please let us know your solution when you find it. I'm likely to have the same problem sometime!

-Joe-

[Todd Adamson]

Joe, some good thoughts there. I'd totally buy the by-product thing....maybe not enough "headroom" in the tank? ALso, the fixer not being high enough seems like a really good possibility. I will check tonight (because I have a definite amount of fixer I've been reusing, and I didn't measure that, now that you mention it), and see where the fixer level would have been in relation to the top of the film.

Thanks!

[brh]

That really looks like the browning of improperly fixed film to me, though I haven't seen it in a while… So I would second the recommendation to see how full your set amount of fixer fills your tank!

[Todd Adamson]

Just checked. It was definitely improper fixing: my fix volume was short by at least 100 mL.

Thanks for the help, guys.

[k0og]

Todd,

Excellent - glad you solved the problem! I learned something too. I'll pay more attention to the volumes I use in my tank to avoid these problems.

-Joe-

Just checked. It was definitely improper fixing: my fix volume was short by at least 100 mL.

Thanks for the help, guys.