Hand Processing Conundrum

[Christian Flemm]

Dears,

First time in a communal darkroom, but I've been hand-processing 16mm film in my own space for awhile now. A friend gave me a roll of ORWO UN54 to be processed as reversal, which I ran in a 100ft LOMO tank. Results were unexpectedly disastrous (uneven, dense) and I'm puzzled as to what could have gone wrong. Please see the screenshots here...maybe someone on here with eyes more wizened than mine could point to the problem(s)?

I know that the film was overexposed in-camera, so if anything the results should be quite clear rather than dense. I tested the first and second developers yesterday evening and had no issues (in C4 chemistry, UN54 is suggested to be run in the first dev for 5 mins, and in the second dev for 3 mins, which I did), and apart from an issue with the developers I've no idea as to what could have happened here to get such nasty results. Fix was alright too (when developing I fixed the film for two minutes as prescribed...maybe not long enough?), and bleach certainly wasn't exhausted as it came out of the tank still yellow. Could this have been a re-exposure issue? 

As for the black gunk all over the film, my guess is that it's leftover remjet from a friend, who had just finished processing a roll of color neg in the same tank just before me. I think we simply didn't clean the tank carefully enough.

Best,

Christian

[Mark Dunn]

The clear area is due to insufficient solution- the emulsion just wasn't covered. The marks in (4) I would say are drying marks, so uneven drying/ not enough wetting agent or inadequate water removal.

Of course, reversal hasn't happened at all.

[Christian Flemm]

Hey Mark,

Insufficient second developer, you'd say? I had 2L of first developer on-hand. Thanks for your feedback.

Best,

C

[Richard Tuohy]

I reckon you have both a negative (from the first dev) and a partial positive there.  Looks to me like the bleach didn't work at all (as Mark says above) but also that the second dev was not good enough.  The edges of the film should be black after second developing, whereas they just look pale grey.  
was it permangenate or dichromate bleach?  The dichromate being much easier to use and better.
when it comes to second developing, don't worry about the time ... just do it until you have a really good black ... and if in doubt, do it longer.  You can't over do it.
You know, it is humanly possible to have inadequate re-exposure, but it is kind of hard to do.  That wouldn't account for the failure to bleach out the neg, but it COULD possibly account for the thin positive image.  In any case, there are at least two chemical problems here: inadequate or no bleaching action and inadequate second dev either because of inactive developer, inadequate time, or possibly inadequate exposure.

 

[Christian Flemm]

Hi Richard,

Thanks for the note. In the time since Mark's original response I figured that both the bleach (yes, dichromate and bottled for us by Andec) and second developer were weak. I'm happy that you are confirming my suspicions! Since, I've mixed new developers and am ready to get back to testing. As I said, I've run reversal many times before but have never had something like this happen as I've not been sharing chemistry, so I really appreciate your experience in problem-solving!

Again, thanks for the super informed, detailed reply. 

Best,

C