the godfather

It’s pretty much official now: T-Max 400 and I don’t particularly like each other. It has been refusing to cooperate with some of the worst negatives I’ve had in ages. I especially struggled with lots of unpredictable uneven fogging and bromide drag. This happened in the 3 rolls developed in Caffenol Delta Std that were practically ruined and also with the 2 rolls I pushed to 1600 in Rodinal. Would you believe that there were actually surge marks in the dark areas in those pushed rolls? Seriously, I’ve pushed some 70 rolls before and have never had surge marks like that! It was actually fog and not localised overdevelopment, since it happened all around the sprocket holes …! Well, so much for making T-Max 400 more interesting by pushing it. Of course, what’s missing from this rant about T-Max is that it also needs ages to fix and the pink anti-halation layer was dripping all over the place with the first few rolls too. I don’t know how this stuff could be any more annoying!

Sounds like I should be giving up, right? Well, no, I’m too stubborn and after that second failure there were still 10 rolls to be developed. The next step was obviously my usual Caffenol-CL mix with the added potassium bromide to combat fog. And finally some success! I developed only one roll this time so as to not to ruin too many if things go wrong, but luckily (or ironically) they turned out alright. In fact the negatives turned out quite a bit less ugly than T-Max usually looks to me. There is some hope for this stuff yet …!

All pictures taken with: Leica M6 + Zeiss ZM C-Biogon 35mm f/2.8.
dm Paradies 400 developed in Fuji Hunt C41 Kit.

© Lilly Schwartz 2015

© Lilly Schwartz 2015

© Lilly Schwartz 2015

© Lilly Schwartz 2015

© Lilly Schwartz 2015

© Lilly Schwartz 2015

© Lilly Schwartz 2015

© Lilly Schwartz 2015

© Lilly Schwartz 2015

© Lilly Schwartz 2015

© Lilly Schwartz 2015

© Lilly Schwartz 2015

© Lilly Schwartz 2015

© Lilly Schwartz 2015

© Lilly Schwartz 2015

© Lilly Schwartz 2015

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