blurred out imprint information...

[dreamingartemis]

Hi,
I'm seeing very strange with the negs I developed. But a little background first, I have an Nikon F6 which can imprint shooting information on the space between shots on the negs. Whenever I get slides or c41 film developed, the shooting information is very clear and sharp but when I do my own black and white film, the shooting information is very blurred. I was wondering which part of self development would cause that? My process is

1. Developing with HC-110 at 5 minutes at Dilution B (although I'm going to use Dilution H next and double the time).
2. Stop bath with distilled vinegar at 1:9 for one minute
3. Fixer with Ilford rapid fixer at 1:4 for one minute.

Even though the negs came out alright, but the imprint information on the side looks blurred, I know the imprint is working alright because of the slides and C41 I sent to the shop to be developed which looks fine so problem with the F6 is unlikely.

Has anyone ever encountered such a problem before?

[George Collier]

Do you know how the information (that gets blurred) is "exposed" into the film?

[tkamiya]

Your fix time may be too short. Using Tmax, it takes something like 45 seconds to a 90 seconds to clear. Using Tri-X, I think it took something like 30 seconds. (I'm going from memory here)

Imprinting is a very high contrast exposure. The transition area (edge) may not be completely clear making fuzzy impression.

[dreamingartemis]

Do you know how the information (that gets blurred) is "exposed" into the film?

Well, the Nikon F6 has a built-in shooting information imprinter. How is does it, I'm not sure. With led lights?