HUMILITY in my darkroom........

Greetings all,

I hope everyone is healthy and prosperous in the new year.

I have been processing all manner of B/W film in Pyro formulas
(straight-up, ABC, Rollo, you name it) with fair success for several
years now. . . until tonight. A batch that I just pulled from the Jobo
looks like it's been shot with a microscopic shotgun. There are
miniscule holes all through the images.

Seems I recall, from posts on this list some years ago, that this might
be caused by water chemistry. . . ?

And that's the one variable that varied tonight. I went down to the
corner to my usual dealer and, alas, she had no Distilled Water. So I
purchased Purified Water instead.

. . . Is Purified not Distilled. . . ?

. . . is Purified merely filtered, perhaps. . . (gasp!). . . and
therefore inferior. . . ?

More to the point (get technical, I can take it): What causes the cute
little shotgun holes? Are they in the emulsion surface, or in the
photo-active layer, or in the substrata. . . ? --or all of the above,
like a highway sign that's been shot?

Even more to the point: Is there a chemical solution to this problem if
ever again my dealer is lacking in Distilled Water. . . ?

Giving a *hole* new meaning to *pinhole* (;~>),

(and thanks for your help)

John
_________________________
John Campbell
PhotoGecko Studios & Gallery
1413 South First Street
Austin, Tx 78704

(512) 797-9375

www.photogecko.com
Received on Tue Jan 13 00:26:10 2004