What happened to my negatives?

[ymc226]

I use 1000cc Paterson tanks, loading 2 reels in each tank (adjusted to fit 120 film). I loaded 2 rolls per reel for a total of 4 rolls/tank.

The negatives were taken with a Hasselblad 205FCC with a 180CFE and a combination of 9 different film backs. These were taken indoors using strobes, using the lens in the C mode (leaf shutter) with the camera body set to C as well.

Out of 60 rolls, about 14 were completely blank except for the rebate indicating the film information and shot number. There was no real pattern where it was the top or bottom or inner or outer roll that suffered from this.

A few were as pictured below, either blank on one end or only partially developed with a sharp margin between a recognizable image and completely clear.

Does anyone with experience using a 200 series Hasselblad recognize if this is a leaf shutter problem or a problem with the camera body such as the focal plane shutter failure to "deactivate" when the camera is set to use the leaf shutter?



In the same session, I also developed 135 film (3 reels/tank) without any issues at all.

Most of the rolls were well developed (I used Xtol, replenished, with 80cc Xtol/roll used in replenishing). I've done this many times before and used either the Hasselblads or Fuji 6x9 and never had this kind of failure before. Any ideas?

 

[ToeInTheWater]

Hi - I've never used a 200-series camera. But I sympathize with anyone who posts a serious question and gets no response, so here are my ideas if only to fill the deafening silence.

OK. So I notice a couple things. First, the demarcation or shadow terminator is not sharp. It's blurred or jagged. You are using strobe which is equivalent to a very short shutter speed, so the blur or jaggies is not likely due to the motion of the occluding object. If the focal-plane shutter of a 200-series is something like the focal-plane shutter of my old 35mm camera, then the demarcation line should be precisely parallel to a film edge and it should be very sharp. Yours is neither. Accordingly I do not favour a focal-plane shutter hypothesis if the shutter works like I am surmising.

Does the 200-series body have a flip-up mirror like my 500C does? If so, and if your partial occlusions are always on the same side, then that would be the basis of my hypothesis on the basis of the shape and characteristic of the demarcation terminator. That there is a sync issue between the strobe and the mirror, or the mirror is sluggish or binding.

Again, I don't know about the 200, but on my 500C I can check for severe sync issues by taking the back off, opening the lens up as wide as possible, then crack off a whole bunch of back-less shots using your strobe while looking through the body from where the back would be. If you always see a nice bright white round circle through the lens as your flash pops that's great but not so great because your problem remains unsolved. But if the mirror is sticking as frequently as it appears to, hopefully you will see that readily (the white circle will be partially or fully occluded) and then you can go from there to your camera mechanic.

Good luck!

 

[bcphoto]

Ymc226

YMC226,

I'll try to help some:

Leaf shutters open from the center so they won't make a line across the film if the sync is off and they also sync at all speeds. Focal plane shutters will make a line across the image -- cutting off the exposure if they are out of sync. I am not familiar with the focal plane Hasselblads but I would assume that the shutter travels left to right or the opposite and not up and down. Your images are cut off aligned with the length of the film.

If the mirror hangs up it should make something across the image 90 degrees to what you see since the film moves through the back vertically. The mirror would cut off across the width of the film and not the length.

On the C bodies there are two black flaps or blinds that have to open and I suspect the F bodies don't have that. But those would be the same as the mirror -- cutting off across the width of the film.

So to me it appears that there is some kind of malfunction with the focal plane shutter operation and sync speed being off.

Can you determine if those lost frames were at a shutter speed higher than the sync speed?

Regards,

BC

 

[Olof B]

I notice that you haven't got any clear answer here at the forum.
Have you got any answer somewhere else?

You hade quite a tricky problem, so if you have got a solution please help us other.

Sorry for not beeing able to help you.

regards
Olof

 

[Zeta3]

Maybe you should try to develop just a single roll, varying the use of focal plane and in-lens shutter. From the results you show, there is a soft demarcation of image, which suggests more of a tank or development or chemical problem. Have you got a smaller tank?

Or take some more shots of your results and submit to apug forum where a lot of home development knowledge sits.