120 backing paper numbers on negatives.

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Just had some three and four year old negatives processed. Kodak Ektar 100 and some Kodak 160 VC.
Upon scanning in Nikon 8000 ED I can clearly see the backing paper numbers and the film grain is not too good either.
Now the grain I can expect to be an issue with late development but the numbers and arrows are coming out as blue in colour.
I have cleaned with Pec-12 but nothing has changed.
They were stored in dry and cool area as well.
So anyone else had this issue as well ???
 
I had noticed this with some of my Holga photos and had assumed it was due to the red film window needing to be taped over.
 
No red window, taken with Hasselblad SWC/M and a 503CW with A12 backs.
It is nothing stuck on the negative but I believe it was and only after developing, was it washed off in the rinse.
The very same film was used on Santorini eight months ago and they all came back in superb condition. So the damage must have taken place after exposing and rolling up the film. Never X rayed at the airports either.
So from now on each vacation will be followed with a colour processing session.
At least my digital images and the black and white I took and personally processed at the same time survived.
Need to get a digital back for the Hasselblads.
 
This has been a concern over the years with 120 film and it keeps popping up periodically. I had it with a batch of Ilford Pad F in the 80s and I've heard that it's been a problem with some Kodak b&w films in recent time. It seems that solvents in the ink that prints the frame numbers on the backing paper print off onto the film as its rolled onto the spool. I don't know that there's much that can be done about it as the problem seems to evade a solution. In my case Ilford replaced the affected rolls I had but that was cold comfort as I had several good images that were wrecked by the print-through. I've never made it back to the place where those images were made.
 
Am I reading correctly, that the film was exposed 3-4 years ago and just recently developed? I guess this gives a lot of time for dyes or such to off-gas and affect the plastic base or the emulsion of the exposed film?


I wonder if this is a recurring problem for people who like shooting expired film? Or is film more sensitive to things such as inks after it is exposed?
 
I've noticed on recently bought rolls of Portra 160 that the backing paper is now glossy. After a quick google search I found out that apparently Kodak had some problems with frame numbers on film a couple of years ago so they now use coated paper.
 
I had problems with Tmax400 several years ago. Same issue with frames numbers appearing on the negs. Many others had the same issue. I believe that they said that the ink was fluorescing under certain circumstances and printing thru to the emulsion. Kodak replaced all of my film from those lots, but obviously didn’t pay for my wasted time and effort.
 
Jamie123 said:
I've noticed on recently bought rolls of Portra 160 that the backing paper is now glossy. After a quick google search I found out that apparently Kodak had some problems with frame numbers on film a couple of years ago so they now use coated paper.
Click to expand...

I had this happen to a 5-pack of Ektar that I took my sweet time developing (about 3 years, cool and dark, but not cold storage). Had it developed by Adrian at Simple Film services, and he said he’d seen it before, and heard it was a bad batch of backing paper that would decompose prematurely. Bad ink or coating, exacerbated by age.
Not an official source, of course, but from a professional lab that had experienced it before I did and confirmed I wasn’t the only one.

Not sure if it extended to BW stocks, or if the method of the reaction acted differently...I had a couple rolls of TMax from the same time frame that showed no evidence of such.

I’ve got some old Fujicolor NPC that’s probably even older; interested to see if it manifests on that roll.
 
Had the frame numbers on my negatives in a Lubitel using Fomapan. Shifted to Ilford HP5 and had no further problems. I assumed it was thin backing paper combined with the red window at the time; all the film was new.
 
I got a bad batch of Kodak Portra 400 (3452 013) that has purple splotches throughout the roll. The lab tech at Icon said it was a known issue with defective backing paper. I'm hoping that there was a recall and I can exchange all of my Portra for a good batch.
 
I recently contacted Kodak about a batch of Tri X 120 which had this problem. I had 8 pro packs of it and even though it was dated to expire in 2016 they replaced the lot. I was quite surprised and very pleased.
 
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