Carestream dental X-ray: "self-bleaching"?

[Rafael Ramos]

As some of already knows i've been making experiments with Carestream dental X-ray developer. got some good results:

hp5 NE(near enought) times for stock
400-800 - 5min
1250-1600 - 8min
5000-6400 - 12:30min

neopan 100ss (yep, very old)
100 - 4min for a quite dense negative

by the looks of it i would say it would be like a high concentrate of HC-110 or a D-19. yields an artsy negative that, as bernard_L observed well, reminds Moriyama-sama high contrast, crushed blacks and bright white highlights.

I kept testing with xrays film exposing them in the canon ft-b. in sunlight ei 100 comes good negatives, but i noticed that it has a 'limit' in pushing (only noticed in the xr. didnt tried on film yet) and if you let them sit too long in the developer the black 'highlights' start getting lighter, as if there were a kind of bleach, as the light 'shadows' keep developing to the point that the x-ray gets all midtone gray.

also seems to be some suspended metalic silver on the dev: gives a brownish-gray color and very fine particulate deposit.

have you guys heard of such a behavior in a developer?
is it usefull somehow?

 

[MattKing]

I'm wondering if it could be dichroic fog?

 

[Rafael Ramos]

I'm wondering if it could be dichroic fog?

it has some signs of it: brownish color, loss of contrast. (just gave a quick look uppon the subject, never heard before. will keep studying it)
but doesn't explain the the loss in density of the already developed silver. (as far as i saw the dmax stays the same)

btw: i develop the xray by inspection and the safelight never gave any fogging with id-11, no matter how long or close i held the film near it, or how long i left the film into it. (i use a french Fulton 'vietnam' L-flashlight with the red filter and white diffuser on). that is why i know it was WAY darker (ink black) and then got lighter (would say 18%grayish).