Super tiny white specs all over inverted negatives
Inspired by No Grain No Gains’ ECN-2 video on YouTube, I wanted to start mixing my own developer, mainly for long-term storage and cost reasons. I basically follow his process, but on top of that, I also mix my own bleach and fixer.
Recipes I used:
Bleach:
- Distilled water: 900 ml
- Potassium ferricyanide: 40 g
- Potassium bromide: 29 g
- Borax: 1.5 g
- Distilled water to make 1 L
Fixer:
- Distilled water: 500 ml
- Sodium thiosulfate: 200 g
- Potassium metabisulfite: 20 g
- Ammonium chloride: 50 g
- Water to make 1 L
I also use 10% white vinegar diluted to 1% with distilled water as a stop bath.
Apart from the specks, I’ve been pretty satisfied with the results. I’ve mainly been cross-processing C-41 film in it. The first time, I thought I just hadn’t been careful enough about dust, but after a few rolls and trying my best to create a dust-free environment for drying, the dots persist.
I’ve tried running my chemicals through coffee filters to remove any debris, but there was no improvement. I develop with constant agitation, use proper washes between steps, and finish with distilled water and Photo-Flo.
I’m not really sure what to try next or what could be causing this and how to fix this. I don’t think it’s dust, since even Digital ICE doesn’t really register it.
One think to maybe note is that I bought my CD-3 powder locally from a guy on auction website. It’s not exactly the same pure white as the CD-3 shown in the No Grain No Gains video, (although it was in vacuum sealed package) and when mixed, the solution is fairly purple. So I’m not sure whether it’s simply different or has degraded/expired. That said, it seems to develop the film just fine, and the colors also look respectable.
The attached photos are Fuji 200 (so basically Kodak Gold/ColorPlus) and last one is gold 200, scanned on a Plustek 7500i and inverted in NLP.
Pics and videos of the negatives: https://imgur.com/a/GXAyn9Y
Edit: Attached pictures and videos of negatives