Fomapan 100 defects or user error..?

[Fwatson1990]

Recently bought some Fomapan 100 just to try out and see how it performs, has any one got any helpful user advice for this film?

I just developed my first roll with ilfotec DDX and have noticed these white splotches on a few frames and what seems like over exposed areas along the top and bottom of the film on other frames. Is this part of the Fomapan quality control ive heard much about or user error on my part? I'm new to film development and still learning my ways.

The bottom of the bench photo shows the overexposed area and the tree photo has the most white blotchy marks on it. Apart from these defects i actually quite like how the pictures look.

 

[tsiklonaut]

Could be too agressive shaking during development. I have had something similar (with other films). My theory is with hard inversions (rapid vertical motion) you force more developer into edge of the film (or sprocket holes accordingly) so those areas overdevelop in realation to others.

I only hit against the table (but not hard) once during the start of development to dislodge bubbles but then on only very smooth inversions, especially with the developers that can push the speed (those developers are very suspect creating overexposed corners or overlit sprocket hole surroundings). When I use agressive developers that develop near or under 5 minutesI I prewash for 1 minute (more even dev) and just rotate the tank (only smooth horizontal motion enough yo provide fresh developer on the emulsion area) after first bubble hit. This has helped me avoiding those defects.

Beware you need to test dev times with this method as well. They are usually a bit longer, but if you prewash it can be a bit shorter.

 

[zenza]

Really hard to see anything on 500px wide images.

The overexposed top and bottom, is that on the negatives? I ask because sometimes curled film allows extra light to pass through during scanning.

 

[retinax]

Agree, the issue on the edges of the frame could have to do with agitation. The highlights bleeding into adjacent dark areas like in the tree picture is halation. The light is piped away from where it lands on the film. It's not a quality control problem as much as a quality problem, Foma supposedly uses older tech than the more expensive films in that regard, but no film can completely eliminate this issue. This should only be an issue in very high contrast, probably also worse if you overexpose. And maybe a too shiny pressure plate in the camera could contribute to it.

 

[charjohncarter]

I remember Greg Mironchuk saying this on his HC-110 website:

I want to be gentle to my precious film. If you are a constant or frequent agitator, your times will need to be signifigantly shortened, and your overall contrast may be "skewed"... with your film exibiting high contrast in the highlight areas, and low contrast in the shadow areas.

He isn't describing your problem with the contrast stuff but being gentle is probably right.

Here is his site, it is HC-110 but some information for a first time developer. http://www.mironchuk.com/hc-110.html

 

[Fwatson1990]

Sorry about the small size of the images its the only way I've found to upload the photos, it always says 500 longest side when I go to upload...

Thanks a lot for the quick replies, I'm pretty sure I haven't been overly aggressively agitating the tank when developing, its something I've been aware of and always made slow controlled inversions when turning the tank upside down.

I've just looked at the negative of the bench and it doesn't seem as if its overexposed on the negative so maybe while scanning ive made an error, my negative holder clamps all around the negative, it is part of the olympus OM slide copier and holds the negatives very tightly so it should be completely flat but maybe not...

The tree picture was a very contrasty scene, so that explains that perfectly thanks.