Drying ? marks with colour processing

[petemcarthur]

I'm a bit stumped with this one, I have no problems processing B/W always dries without a mark. Our water is very soft.

Colour or XP2 is another matter, I'm always left with marks, never on the emulsion side. At first glance they look like drying marks that you see in hard water areas but they are not. The first thing is they take a long time to dry and when they are dry they leave a greasy smear which leads me to suspect it is more that water involved.

Using the Rollei Digibase kit and apart from the marks the negs seem fine.

Any ideas?
Thanks
Pete

[Mike O'Pray]

Hopefully someone will come up with an idea but it worries me as well now I hear of your problem. Previously I have never experienced a problem and I live in a hard water area. However I have never used the Digibase kit up to now but did purchase such a kit for future C41 processing.

Mike

[marty]

Hi there.
I had the same problem in the past, the cause might though be unrelated since we do have hard water here. I solved the problem adding a few drops of wetting agent to the stabilizer. I used three different brands of C-41 kits, Rollei among them. I can't say if the problem was peculiar to the Rollei kit. Hearing about your problem now I have a doubt if the problem was really the hard water, since I believe the stabilizer contains some kind of wetting agent on its own. However it is of no concern since the added wetting agent prevents somewhat the marks to appear.
I remember at the time I purchased a cleaner product that seems to contain isopropyl alcohol which got rid of the marks. It was a painful job, though, since I had to apply the cleaner and rub with a microfiber cloth several times in a row to make the stains to disappear. The real problem was in that the film scratched so easily...

Cheers, M.

[petemcarthur]

Originally Posted by marty

I remember at the time I purchased a cleaner product that seems to contain isopropyl alcohol which got rid of the marks. It was a painful job, though, since I had to apply the cleaner and rub with a microfiber cloth several times in a row to make the stains to disappear. The real problem was in that the film scratched so easily...

Cheers, M.

That's what I've been doing, isopropyl removes the marks but it is tedious with the ever present danger of scratches. The stabilizer in the Digibase kit seems to be full of detergent, very foamy but it might be worth a few drops of wetting agent.

[andresp]

I've given up on the modern stabilisers and mix my own now from formalin, wetting agent and demineralised water.

I had a feeling that re-using the kit stabiliser makes the problem much worse and formalin is cheap enough to use it for one-shot solution.

I'm aware of the health claims but I don't sniff from the bottle when mixing it and final solution is so diluted I can barely smell formaldehyde in it.

[JOReynolds]

Is the Digibase stabilizer supplied as a powder or a liquid? another member mentioned that it is frothy, implying that it already contains a surfactant.

[petemcarthur]

Originally Posted by JOReynolds

Is the Digibase stabilizer supplied as a powder or a liquid? another member mentioned that it is frothy, implying that it already contains a surfactant.

It is a liquid and looks and feels like soapy water

[B&W Neil]

The stabiliser may be more active / efficient when coupled to the soft water used in the process - especially if a wetting agent is incorporated. I would be tempted to try diluting it by about 30% with distilled or deionised water.

Neil.

[numnutz]

Try diluting the last bath (I assume that it is stabiliser) with more water preferably distilled. Add water until the problem stops be sure not to dilute more than 50%. I had this problem many years ago with Kodak C41 dip and dunk and that was the immediate solution. However it seemed to resolve itself fairly quickly.

nn

[John King]

After the stabiliser has been used i re wash the film and then give the film 30 seconds rinse in Kodak wetting agent using the JOBO rotary processor. I never get drying marks and I live in an area where the water isn't so soft.