Repeating streaks on negatives

timor · Sep 16, 2013

MBasile, what tank are you using ? This whole discussion about agitation starts to be very militiant. According to what was said here I should have bromide drag on every piece of film I developed. LoL. Bromide drag happens sometimes when the conditions are right. If you get it every time the fault is somewhere else, is not your agitation technique. Neither is it the developer fault, bromine for "bromide drag" comes from film emulsion, so no matter which one you use bromides are always there. However borax based developers may just have higher tendency to let the bromide drag to happen. Try to over-stand the second bath while using Stoeckler developer. Garantie there will be streaks. But in your case is a Rodinal, not much headache.
Internal construction of the tank is important as it controls the flow of the fluids, lazy areas or intense areas of the flow will cause uneven development. Remember the problems wit MOD54 ? The first model loaded with six sheets no matter how agitated was causing streaks on the negatives. Looking like bromide drag, just horizontal. I have MOD54, used with only 4 sheets and middle mount empty works just fine. After this all there is still a possibility of light leaking into developing tank. Looks like bromide drag. It fooled me to, until one day I had oblique streaks but didn't notice that dramatic changes in Earth gravity field to justify that.
So, maybe for now you change the tank and maybe get some different model. If still you will have identical streaks we gonna have to take a look at the water you are using.

MBasile · Sep 18, 2013

timor said:
MBasile, what tank are you using ? This whole discussion about agitation starts to be very militiant. According to what was said here I should have bromide drag on every piece of film I developed. LoL. Bromide drag happens sometimes when the conditions are right. If you get it every time the fault is somewhere else, is not your agitation technique. Neither is it the developer fault, bromine for "bromide drag" comes from film emulsion, so no matter which one you use bromides are always there. However borax based developers may just have higher tendency to let the bromide drag to happen. Try to over-stand the second bath while using Stoeckler developer. Garantie there will be streaks. But in your case is a Rodinal, not much headache.
Internal construction of the tank is important as it controls the flow of the fluids, lazy areas or intense areas of the flow will cause uneven development. Remember the problems wit MOD54 ? The first model loaded with six sheets no matter how agitated was causing streaks on the negatives. Looking like bromide drag, just horizontal. I have MOD54, used with only 4 sheets and middle mount empty works just fine. After this all there is still a possibility of light leaking into developing tank. Looks like bromide drag. It fooled me to, until one day I had oblique streaks but didn't notice that dramatic changes in Earth gravity field to justify that.
So, maybe for now you change the tank and maybe get some different model. If still you will have identical streaks we gonna have to take a look at the water you are using.

I'm using a stainless tank. Like I said though, the issue has been solved. Thanks everyone!

timor · Sep 18, 2013

I am glad you solved it. Steel tanks have less space between the coils of film so agitation sufficient for plastic tank might be insufficient for steel tank.
Streaks can happen anytime, I just got streaks in today's procedure. But they are not from bromide drag or wrong agitation. Streaks have different shapes and are of higher density then surrounding emulsion, some frames don't have them and angles are not consistent.T They are not tightly associated with sprockets holes. They were formed on the edge at the bottom of developing tank and that edge was top edge while in camera. My conclusion is: a camera back door light leak. Happens with old cameras with depleted light seals.
Good luck to you in film processing.