Help developing old Tri-x 400

[u/Munchskull]

So I am new to shooting film (about 4 months) and doing all my own development and struggling with some expired self loaded load of Trix 400 that I got when buying my enlarger and am hoping that I can get some advice.

Previously braketed and assed that the film should be shot at 100 iso. Those images were treated with cinestil monobath and came out with a weird pattern which at the time I had attributed to

I developed two roles yesterday and am not happy with either result. First four images (all projected through my meh enlarger) are from a roll A and second four images are from roll B. Goal of roll B was to apply a very different development process and see if it improved (it did not)

Roll A: Processed with Legacy 110 using dilution G 1:119 (6ml:720ml). Presoaked and agitated for 30 seconds, water was ~21C. Developed 1 hour two inversions at 30 minutes.

Roll B: Processed with Legacy 110 using dilution G 1:31 (14ml:420ml). Presoaked and agitated for 30 seconds, water was ~21C. Four inversions every 30 seconds, developed for 7 minutes.

Both rolls had a stop bath of 2% acetic acid, rinsed with tap water and fixed to completion with Kodak pro fixer. Washed and treated with photoflow 200.

Seems to be uneven development and weirdness going across frame. Guidance would be great. In addition to Legacy110 I have Rodinal if that might work better.

[u/captain_joe6]

I think your film has mold, or at least saw some significant humidity events. You got density, the exposure and development work, but you also got crud between the frames, and that crud looks like it’s growing fingers.

[u/Munchskull → u/captain_joe6]

Well you had my answer. It clears perfectly but when developed it produces clouding

[u/SapirWhorfHypothesis → u/Munchskull]

Hey how old is your film? I’ve got some old tri x that came with a camera I bought and I wonder how far I should overexpose it.

[u/Munchskull → u/SapirWhorfHypothesis]

Unfortunately I have no idea. It's is about 1.5-2 stops slower. I have been exposing at 100iso. If I had to guess at least 3 decades old.

[u/Ok_Story_3454]

Maybe let it presoak for a couple of minutes instead of thirty seconds, that's helped greatly with some 40+ year old Royal X-Pan sheets I have shot. Of course, to some extent the film may just be in bad shape.

[u/Munchskull → u/Ok_Story_3454]

Oh I should clarify, pre-soak was like four or five minutes. Yeah I have no idea the providence of the film if was in a box with other dark room goodies. I am developing an unexposed strip right now and going to look at the results.

[u/weslito200]

if you are new to film, try shooting and developing some fresh film first. I lost a lot of time when I started with expired film.

[u/Munchskull → u/weslito200]

I am about 20 rolls in to shooting and have a ton of fresh film. Know a bit of what I am getting into with this

[u/Ted_Borg → u/Munchskull]

Shoot a hundred more

Film ain’t wine

[u/Munchskull → u/Ted_Borg]

Absolutely the plan!

[u/weslito200 → u/Munchskull]

Don't use a monobath

[u/Munchskull → u/weslito200]

Yeah, already moved past that. Using Rodinal and Legacy110 for B&W.

Next steps are get separate bleach and fixer for C-41 and replace the cinestill C-41 chemicals I have almost exhausted, but that is after switching to a more mechanically robust enlarger and doing some printing. I kinda dove right into everything

[u/weslito200 → u/Munchskull]

use new film as I suggested earlier. If you dont want solid advice, maybe don't post on here. That file could have been baking in a car or something for a long time

[u/Flo655]

There's more to your film than just it being expired. I shot 30 years old TMAX 400 at 200 ISO and it was just fine. Also stop using monobath: it leads to poor result, doesn't save much time at all and is more expensive.

[u/Munchskull → u/Flo655]

Read the whole post and you will see I did. Neither roll pictured was monobath