My first Hasselblad Successes!

Congrats! You have a gem of a camera. I'm envious of Hassy owner.

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Originally Posted by sandermarijn

Perhaps your negatives are not underexposed but underdeveloped. It can be hard to spot the difference. If there is sufficient detail in the shadows then your negatives are probably only underdeveloped.

In case there is underdevelopment this may have been caused by insufficient agitation or by too small a ratio of agitation time and total development time. (There are other possible causes of underdevelopment, but they shouldn't be relevant in this context.) Too little agitation in turn may give rise to uneven development. So yes, there could be a causal relationship between uneven development and underdevelopment mistaken for underexposure.



Two initial inversions is a bit little. Try at least 30 seconds of initial agitation. Proper initial agitation is crucial in obtaining evenly developed negatives.

Also, if you're using the smallest size Paterson tank, try to get one size bigger (the one that takes two 135 films). Agitate such that all developer is allowed to clear the film, in other words invert fully and not too short. This allows the agitation to 'look' the same to any random area of the film.



The film and the camera seem unlikely culprits.

Good luck.

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sandermarijn, thank you very much for your input.
I have been using Spur HRX-III for two years now and developed many films (ca. 60) in it, sticking to the development instructions. I experienced this kind of uneven development like 3 or 4 times and was/am confused what might have caused this, when all other films turned out fine. :(

Congrats on your Hassy, unfortunately i am a happy owner of digi Hassy but not with my film body [501CM], but sure i will never get rid of this beauty, i love the handle of it.

The shots are nice, i hope one day i can visit London and shoot with film there, but then i don't know which body i should use, LOL.

Haven't been on line for a while, but back on the track. I agree with Sander on at least two points: (1) yes, jglass your uploded image (say something about ther contact sheet later), as well as Sanders pictures, shows the typical kind of "vertical-run-120-film-developing-desease" I talked about (if the 120 film runs horizontal in the camera, you are not perhaps so disturbed by a too light sky and a foreground that needs some burning in, but when the sun comes both from right and left it's another thing and the developing problem obviouis!). (2) Surprised that this developing problem in not more discussed! (One of the very best and well known Swedish photographer, Hans Gedda, once publiced a book (most pictures made with his H-blad camera) and several of the pictures had this problem; probably the printing system raised the contrast such that the problem was more obvious compared tho his original prints, but the problem was there all the time)

Looking att your contact sheet, jglass, something about picture #8 and# 9 (assuming that the last raw is #10, 11, 12) has a very sharp light/dark thing going at the right side (assuming you rotate the sheet properly, otherwise at the bottom). That thing doesn't look like this kind of developing problem, nor light leek of the kind Sirius Glass exactly described; some other kind of light leek, in any case not what I called the "vertical-run-120-film-developing-desease" – though the developing problem has of course nothing to do with the fact that the film is running vertical in the camera, just that if it does, the problem is easier to see, and more disturbing!
/Bertil

Thanks Bertil. That very sharp contrast fall-off on a couple of the frames also is bugging me: really it must be some issue on top of the developing issue. I've changed seals in my backs and I'm going to incorporate yours and Sander's development suggestions and we'll see if I get this again. It's altogether possible I stupidly half=pulled the darkslide with the back open or something like that! I do dumb things like that all the time.

This have been very helpful to me and will avoid messing up future rolls. Thanks for checking back in Bertil and for the pm!

Hope it will work for you!
/Bertil

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Originally Posted by Bertil

"vertical-run-120-film-developing-desease"

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I like that term, although it does want to make me run to toilet.

I have also once seen in print this phenomenon but I cannot recall where. Of course in many of these cases it is not the photographer him/herself to 'blame' but the lab instead (one that doesn't do dip and dunk then). Not sure if that makes a better case for the photographer though :(.

Off to toilet now.