Tonight I was developing a role of film and having a really hard time getting the second powder to dissolve. Xtol Part A produces a nice brown color when dissolved and this clears when you add Part B. The first batch I made up remained cloudy and brown and I couldn't get Part B to dissolve. After some Googling, I decided to discard that batch and make up a second using warn instead of room temperature water. Same problem. Perhaps I wasn't storing the powders correctly? Could it oxidize in powdered form rather than after mixing? I decided to take a chance and develop the film. Nothing. The entire roll was as empty as if I'd taken all the pictures with the lens cap on. The emulsion was completely transparent, nothing but film base from one end to the other.
Somewhat disheartened I decided to try another roll. I quickly shot 15 frames of 6x4.5 and went back to mix some more developer. No distilled water this time; hot water from the tap. Maybe it wasn't warm enough (though I've never had that problem before, even with water at room temperature). Part A: measure out 8.81g. Part B... then I realized that I'd got the wrong jar. What I thought was Part B was actually fixer! So I'd just fixed the film for 6 minutes and then fixed it again.
Fetching the right jar, I mixed another batch which all dissolved perfectly. The 6x4.5 (4:46 at 29C - the first tentative test of my time temperature calculator) roll has just come out of the fixer and there's something there - so the Xtol's fine!
Going to be interesting to see what I have. 15 shots with complete
guesswork on the metering - all exposed at f5.6 with bounced flash. If I
get anything I'll be pleasantly surprised...
And here is one of them (admittedly one of the better ones: some were fairly thin).
This is Puggles, enjoying a late supper.
It's also my first roll of Arista 200. I'll probably use that over the Arista 100 since it appears no more grainy and gives me one more stop.
