In Bruce Barnbaum's "The Art of Photography", he says (on page 94) the following:

"...Microdol-X has a strange flaw in its development characteristics. If the negative has a large dense area in direct contact with an area of much lower density, with a sharp edge at the point of contact between the two areas, there will be a slight "ghost" image developed into the negative. This will translate into a barely visible gray line within the light area on the final print. It is not very obvious, but it is there....."

I've never heard of this. Has anyone else fun into it?

-- Ben Crabtree (bcrabtree@mn.rr.com), May 30, 2002

Answers

Never seen the effect, but I think he's describing the phenomenon of surface flare. Some developers tend to work mainly at the very surface of the film emulsion, where there's an optical effect that tends to spread any bright light hitting the film.
I've heard quite a few reports of the effect, but never experienced it myself.

I seem to remember that some Glycin and Pyrocatechin developers are supposed to exhibit the effect as well, but my memory might be playing tricks here.

-- Pete Andrews (p.l.andrews@bham.ac.uk), May 31, 2002.