Another processing batch gone wrong

6

Today I screwed up another two rolls of film processing them. I don’t understand what went wrong. You should be able to re-use the developer and fixer, and I have done so succesfully before. Yet this is the second time in a row that my films have come out blank re-using chemicals. Same brand of chemicals, same processing machine.
First time this happened I thought it was because I didn’t increase the processing time that second run. This time I did increase it (the amount stated in the manual of the chemicals), and it still came out blank. So what the hell am I doing wrong? I’t can’t be the temperature, that is handled automatically by the machine.

Here are the details of my processing run:
- I ran the cleaning program beforehand (I succesfully developed B&W film yesterday)
- I used Tetanl 2 bath chemicals (developer + bleach/fix) that had been used once before
(before using them the first time, I cleaned the hose that drains the chemicals, to prevent bleach/fix getting in my developer)
- developing time: 3.45 minutes
- bleach/fix time: 6 minutes
- result: blank film

If anyone can give me an idea what went wrong, I’d greatly appreciate it.

Another recent developing failure. Not cross processed, just normal C-41 film gone wrong.

written by stratski on 2012-01-28

6 Comments

  1. kneehigh85
    kneehigh85 ·

    I am not a darkroom wizard - but this happened to my chap once and somehow the Dev and Fix had got mixed up.

  2. maxwellmaxen
    maxwellmaxen ·

    either that or your stab does not work properly. i have now done 8 rolls with tetanal by hand on 30°C and it all works fine for me. and the question is, how old were the chemicals, the solution only lasts for about 6 weeks, i heard.

  3. stratski
    stratski ·

    @kneehigh85: Hm, I don't know. I'm sure I didn't mix up the two bottkles. But maybe I somehow got fixer in my dev during the first run.

    @maxwellmaxen: The chemicals were tree weeks old, that's not too old, I thought. But maybe my shed is too cold for starage? I never use stabilizer (I'm guessing that's what you mean by stab...), so that shouldn't be an issue all of a sudden.

    At present I'm leaning towards contaminated developer. I guess I'd better use new chemicals every time I want do develop something important...

    Thank you for your imput, both. I really appreciate it.

  4. maxwellmaxen
    maxwellmaxen ·

    i have an other idea, maybe you have switched the bottles, means you have blix in the cd bottle and cd in the blix bottle? that would explain, why the rolls fail, even if you follow the correct steps? this could happen to me, because i have the labels only on the bottle caps of my chemical bottles..

  5. laurasulilly
    laurasulilly ·

    I think the question of storage is really important, as you have suggested yourself. I stored my chemicals (B&W, though) in my darkromm which actually only is a tiny lumber room without a radiator. So it can get really cold in winter, and once, the cold temperatures ruined my fixer, ending up not in a blank, but in a spoilt roll nevertheless. I'd suggest storing your chemicals at room temperature in winter, just to be on the safe side :)

  6. stratski
    stratski ·

    @laurasulilly: Hm, you're probably right. Recycling my chemicals went okay in summer, it's been going wrong since the weather started getting colder. Pff, you live and learn... Thanks for your feedback.