Is this from not using a hood?

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shikuro

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Dear all,

I appreciate if anyone who's seen this before can offer an opinion. I'm stumped by my last few rolls of XP2s that i shot. All three rolls had banding across the negative, however the band is positioned differently on each roll (but consistently in the same place within each individual roll).

I.E.
Roll#1 - Vertical banding close to the middle
NYC095.jpg


Roll#2 - Horizontal Banding
NYC091.jpg


I suspect two things: 1) Lack of a hood (I use a 35 Summilux Pre-ASPH) or 2) Messed up during processing.

I've always left the hood off my lens and never came across anything that drastic. Also the camera should be in tip top condition as I had it serviced by Gerry Smith of Kinnderman in Ontario (pretty reputable guy) and these were the first few rolls i shot immediately after.

I'm hoping that it is the fault lies in processing. 😡

Thanks you
 
Is this happening on every frame? are there horizontal bands next to vertical bands? Has it happened before? Do the bands extend into the area between the frames? Flare would only show in the frame and not between. Are these bands on the same roll? Are you running your own film?


thanks guys for the prompt response. Very much appreciated.
To answer your questions:

Is this happening on every frame?
Yes it is consistently happening on every frame of each roll. And if roll #1 was a horizontal band it would all be horizontal, roll #2 was vertical it would all be vertical.

are there horizontal bands next to vertical bands?
No, the horizontal bands are not next to verticals

Has it happened before?
I have seen this once before when i developed some tri-x myself but it was towards the lower left edges, never this bad.

Do the bands extend into the area between the frames?
The bands do extend into the areas between the frame.

Are these bands on the same roll?
The bands appear in every roll but differently for each roll (i.e. horizontal for one roll then vertical for another)

Are you running your own film?
No I am not running my own roll, these are not expired film that i bought either.

I will try to get a contact sheet from one roll

thanks again guys
 
i very much doubt that this is caused consistent flare (per roll) due to the lack of the hood.

as for processing... odd that it was the same vertical during in every frame for roll#1, and also odd that the line on roll#2 is not a straight horizontal.

then i thought that it could be your enlarger lens, but you mentioned that these were negatives (scans not prints)...

leading me to guess that you have something funky on your filter, which might have rotated between rolls? but if it extends into area between the frames, it would be the lens...

which then brings back the body... which body are you using?
 
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The bands do extend into the areas between the frame
Click to expand...
If the bands extend into the areas between the frames, then that pretty much rules out flare, shutter problems, and lens. A leaking shutter could perhaps cause something like that, leaking light into the inter-frame bits when you wind, but the fact that you sometimes get horizontal bands and sometimes vertical ones pretty much rules that out. The same thing makes the possibility of light getting into the back of your camera seem unlikely too - you wouldn't expect it to be so consistent within each film, but so different between films.

So, I'd guess the most likely possibility is that stray light is fogging the film sometime during processing.
 
If you look at the negatives, does the line cross the frame boundaries? If it does, then it might be a light leak somewhere in the back of the camera or in the processing sequence. If the line stays inside the frame, then it's a camera issue of some sort.

It almost looks like the line you get when you have a cable release hanging in front of the lens. Is there something in the camera? Open the back and look through the lens with the shutter on "B".

UPDATE: Okay, I missed that the lines are crossing the frame boundaries. Then it's a light leak. To rule out processing, try shooting a roll of 400-speed slide film, which will use a different processing sequence than XP-2.
 
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thanks all, I'm leaning heavily towards processing but would like to be sure. David Goldfarb, that's a great idea, I'll burn a roll of Velvia (that's all i have).

Here's a contact sheet from the roll with the horizontal band, it's not as clear in the brighter pictures, but in the darker ones you can clearly see a band running through the middle and through the spaces between frames

Untitled-1.jpg
 
The band also appears between the frames. This hints at a problem in film processing.

EDIT: If it were a light leak inside the camera the band should be much more inconsistent.
 
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Sol33, the more I read what others here are saying the more i think its processing. Sigh...there goes 4 rolls of film 🙁

I've still yet to confirm this as I'm burning an unfinished roll and sending it to get process tomorrow.

Thanks everyone for your generous time and answers, I'll keep you posted on what i find with the new roll.

BTW, someone asked which camera i am using; M6, and it was recently serviced by Gerry Smith at Kindermann, very nice gentleman and highly experienced with a workshop decked out in official Leica testing and repair equipment.
 
That's looking very much like uneven development to me. Might be bad rolling on the tank's spool, exhausted developer, lack of agitation, a mix of the above, and if uneven development is the case the vertical vs horizontal position of the banding could be related to using a handheld tank for the horizontal banding and a Jobo processor for the vertical banding. I would tend to exclude a light leak on the tanks due to the position of the banding. Sending the remaining film to a different lab sounds like a good idea to see if developing is the culprit.

Good luck!
 
Encinalense, is this what X-Ray does to the film? I went through La Guardia and Toronto airport, checked my bags through with the films inside. However, I've also traveled across Indonesia, where the X-Rays machines i'm sure are not as sophisticated, with no problems. I did however found a roll or two with similar characteristics but very faint spot on the corner of the frame when i got back from Tokyo airport. I can confirm it tonight when i get the roll back, as it has left overs from my trip in NYC.


John Elder, yep i did just that. He's pretty stumped too, but offered immediately to recheck the camera. I'll wait for the roll to be developed by tonight. This is the first time I'm using C41 processed film entirely for my vacation, and I'm already regretting it ! Nothing like processing tri-x yourself.
 
Hey guys thanks for all the response.

I got the newly developed roll of film back today, and there was no banding at in any frames.

I've concluded that it's not the camera for sure, and I think its actually X-Ray (thanks for the link Encinalense). I hand carried my camera with this roll of film in it, that's why there was no banding. I wish i saw that link earlier, I just assumed that most X-Rays these days were film safe.

cheers
 
I too, have had a banding problem with XP-2. In my case, it was more pronounced than the examples shown. Look at the film in an oblique light. Is there a green tint to the banding? I concluded my problem was from outdated, poorly stored film.
 
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