Re: [Largeformat] Re: Developing Problem with Tmax

["Pete Caluori" <pcaluori@hotmail.com>]

From: "Pete Caluori" <pcaluori@hotmail.com>

>From: Pete Groh <pjgroh@cros.net>
>
>Let me add my two-cents worth. While lurking on another forum, there
>was considerable discussion -- and displeasure -- that Xtol, unlike
>many other developers -- exhausted itself quite quickly.
>
>Might want to consider approaching your problem from that angle.
>Personally, I have never tried Xtol, so I'm passing this info along for 
>what
>it's worth.

Greetings,
I appreciate the input Pete.  I posted this, because I can't come up with a 
reason for why this happened.  I've been using Xtol for a couple of years 
and actually like the stuff.  I have read quite a bit about the debate this 
stuff has spawned, but feel that, like anything else, one needs to learn its 
quirks; nothing is "ideal."  What I used on this particular day was fresh, 
stock solution and solution from the same batch successfully developed some 
Delta 100.  With very few exceptions, I always use the developer as one shot 
and this day was no exception.

If I hadn't developed 10 good negs from the same box a couple of months 
earlier, I would have thought the film was defective, but I did get 10 good 
negs.  If they were all very dense, I would have figured they got fogged, or 
perhaps been exposed to excessive heat, but what I got was the exact 
opposite.  The same batch of stock Xtol developed the 10 previous negs 2 
months earlier and the same batch subsequently developed 10 Delta 100 negs.

Even if I wasn't paying attention and developed the the negs for twice the 
normal time, or half the normal time, I wouldn't have gotten the results I 
did.  I've made errors in the darkroom before, but I could always track down 
the problem/mistake, but this one has me stumped!  I guess what I'm 
thinking, but not wanting to say, because it does sound preposterous is: is 
it conceivable that half a box of negatives is defective?

Regards,  Pete