For several weeks now I have been getting very small, dark spots on my tri-x negatives. They are not dusts specks, as I cannot clean them off with film cleaner. They are part of the negative. I'm talking about a LOT of spots...sometimes 30 or more per frame.

What is strange is that the spots are showing up very prevalently at the beginning of a roll, and few if any show up on the end of the roll. I develop in stainless steel tanks, and the beginning of the roll is what is at the inside of the reel, so I'm thinking there might be some kind of connection. At first I thought they might be tiny air bubbles, but shouldn't air bubbles make transparent spots rather than dark ones?

Here's the other info you might need...tri-x diluted 1:1 at 68 degrees. I agitate for 10 sec every minute. I use kodak hardening fixer and a hypo clear, followed by a very dilute photo-flo bath.

-- Aaron Spurr (aaron@spurr.com), February 26, 2001

Answers

It sounds like your stop bath is not diluted enough causing pinholes due to the high acid content stressing out the film. Try diluting at least double what you are doing now.

-- Scott Walton (f64sw@hotmail.com), February 26, 2001.

One more thing I didn't mention in my original question. I'm not using an acid stop bath when I develop film. Sometimes I just do a water bath, but sometimes I just go right from developer to fixer. Either way, I'm still getting the spots.

-- Aaron Spurr (aaron@spurr.com), February 26, 2001.

Aaron:

It definitely is not a problem with pinholes. Pinholes are small ruptures in the gelatin material resulting from outgassing. This is usually caused when using a developer containing sodium carbonate. The carbonate reacts with the acid stop bath to put out a gas very rapidly, but it could also react with an acid fixer. You don't mention the developer you used, but most developers today do not contain sodium carbonate. Anyway, if you were having a problem with pinholes, you would be getting clear holes in the emulsion instead of dark spots. So, pinholes are definitely not the problem.

-- Ken Burns (kenburns@twave.net), February 26, 2001.

I also forgot to mention that I'm using D-76 diluted 1:1. Sorry to leave that bit of info out.

-- Aaron Spurr (aaron@spurr.com), February 26, 2001.

Could be you're not totally, thoroughly dissolving the D-76 so there aren't any specks. Check that, and filter the solution through a coffee filter in a funnel if need be. That they're more common towards the inside of the reel could be just showing you an agitation pattern.

You may also have a water problem; mix and dilute the D-76 with distilled water.

-- John Hicks (jbh@magicnet.net), February 26, 2001.