Hot take: Water rinse instead of stop bath fixed my streaky film
Everyone acts like stop bath is a must to stop development fast. I followed that rule for a long time but my negatives always had lines. So I switched to a quick water rinse and let it sit. Now my rolls develop with no marks at all. Why do we keep pushing a chemical that might not be needed?
Ever run into that same problem with stop bath eating into your highlights? I had a batch of Tri-X come out with weird, harsh lines in the gray areas, like little scars. Switched to a solid minute under the tap, then straight into fixer, and it just stopped happening. Sometimes the old rules are just habits.
Old rules are just habits" is the realest darkroom truth. Sometimes I think people treat their stop bath routine like it's holy scripture instead of, you know, a jar of sour water. Your fixer-only rebellion is probably saving you cash on weird chemical bandaids too.