A case of developer gone bad?

[pixelbrain]

Hey guys, just want to seek your advice on my recent dev screwup..

My 120 roll of trix souped in rodinal came out almost totally clear, with only little faint traces of black bits.. clear part of negative has pinkish hue to it..

Suspect it's my rodinal that has gone bad.. the concentrate has been poured and kept in a smaller bottle, and I've realized that crystals have formed at the bottom.. color has turned dark brownish red.. have been using from this small bottle for about 4 months..

is this a case of bad dev? just wondering how u store your rodinal.. always thought rodinal's shelf life is pretty good..

tks.

 

[raytoei]

should have some image....are you sure it isn't your camera ?

 

[pixelbrain]

should have some image....are you sure it isn't your camera ?

hi Felix, yup I can make out a bit of image in 2-3 frames, very faint..

also considered may be sticky shutter, but have been shooting with my rolleiflex without problems up till this point.. shutter speeds do sound correct and every speed progression sounds different.. so not entirely convinced it's the camera at this point..

here are a couple of shots of the developed negative:

 

[Benji77]

To prove that its not the Rollei, you'd need to shoot a 'control' roll (same film) with another camera at the same ASA. If it comes out the same, it could be your Rodinal, or maybe other chemical factors which we dont know about.

 

[Scandiacus]

Read somewhere that you can test your developer by cutting out a small piece of an undeveloped film (film leader) and developing it and looking at the results. If it turns black means it is properly developed.

 

[kgston]

No frame numbers/marking means developer not working.. only if frame markings are visible and image not visible then is a sign of camera fault

 

[pixelbrain]

No frame numbers/marking means developer not working.. only if frame markings are visible and image not visible then is a sign of camera fault

tks for pointing this out.. hopefully it's just an issue with the batch of rodinal I poured out.. rest of it is still sitting in the main bottle, which i hope still works properly..

which brings me to another point, are there any indicators to warn of rodinal that has gone bad? I don't want to contaminate the main bottle, and as such transfer the concentrate to a smaller working bottle of around 10ml. Guess in future to play safe, I'll discard & replenish the working bottle's contents every 2-3 months, or when crystal formation is discovered..

 

[Benji77]

No frame numbers/marking means developer not working.. only if frame markings are visible and image not visible then is a sign of camera fault

:thumbsup:
Steady lah Bro...I learned something new today.

 

[pixelbrain]

still find it hard to believe rodinal can turn bad so quickly.. read online that in concentrate form it stays usable for years, even if color is coke black with crystals!..

could it be something else in my development process that could have gone wrong?

FYI i mixed 7.5ml of rodinal with 750ml of water (1:100 dilution) at room temp, dev for 1 hour plus stand.. if anything, it should over-expose and negs should be black..

possible that fixer is to blame here instead?

 

[excelsius]

Looks like a possible developer being bad. But I too use Rodinal or HC110 when it waaaay past its expiry date with change of colors with no problems.
Best is to develop another test negative and eliminate the variables.

I dont think it's the fixer, it takes ALOT of fixing to affect the silver halides.

 

[kgston]

still find it hard to believe rodinal can turn bad so quickly.. read online that in concentrate form it stays usable for years, even if color is coke black with crystals!..

could it be something else in my development process that could have gone wrong?

FYI i mixed 7.5ml of rodinal with 750ml of water (1:100 dilution) at room temp, dev for 1 hour plus stand.. if anything, it should over-expose and negs should be black..

possible that fixer is to blame here instead?

More like your fixer is working perfectly fine.. haha.. as there are no unfixed portion.I haven't heard of any thing such as too powerful fixer.. over concentrated fixer just doesn't fix, I tried this before, so I can say for sure..

The stories of way expired Rodinal you hear all refer to the original Agfa Rodinal which came in glass bottles, specially sealed with nitrogen gas. The Rodinal you get today, is the R09/Adox version that comes in plastic bottles and not nitrogen filled for shelf life stability.