HuubL
hunter-gatherer
About three years ago I got this unopened box with 30 meters of FP4. I put it in a drawer where it lay hidden between my other old junk until two weeks ago I ran out of Fomapan. I spooled two rolls into Leica cassettes using a Watson film loader. Shot the rolls in my "new" Leica II with 11 o'clock Elmar. Developed them in 1:50 Rodinal. On initial inspection most of the negs were well exposed: proof that the Leica II still functioned as it should be. But disappointment came after scanning.
All the negs had scratches, most ran along the entire filmstrips. However, there was a repeated pattern of scratches at the same place in each of the negs. See the pics:
I checked:
1. The camera. No sharp hooks in the pressure plate, no film snippets in the film gate or anything obvious to cause scratches this deep.
2. The cassettes. Opened and closed without problem, no sharp hooks.
3. The developer tank and spools. Film spooled easily onto the reels. Can't see any problem there.
3. The film loader. The gate through which the film is pulled with spooling has rather sharp edges. Initially I thought perhaps a softer lining, velvet or similar, might be missing, but I've used the loader for ages and never had this problem.
4. Today I checked the film itself. Took the roll out of the loader in my darkroom and cut a 1m piece off. Lo and behold, the undeveloped film has scratches in the emulsion with a repeat of approximately one film frame!
So it's Ilford themselves. I got the roll from the photo lab at work when they cleaned out for moving. It's a roll with a 1983 due date (!!). Never frozen. Stored at room temp as long as the lab existed. Remarkable that a 30 year old film still performs so well upon developing.
The box says: "This product will be replaced if defective". Do you think they would exchange it if I send the remainder of the roll back to them? 🙂
All the negs had scratches, most ran along the entire filmstrips. However, there was a repeated pattern of scratches at the same place in each of the negs. See the pics:
I checked:
1. The camera. No sharp hooks in the pressure plate, no film snippets in the film gate or anything obvious to cause scratches this deep.
2. The cassettes. Opened and closed without problem, no sharp hooks.
3. The developer tank and spools. Film spooled easily onto the reels. Can't see any problem there.
3. The film loader. The gate through which the film is pulled with spooling has rather sharp edges. Initially I thought perhaps a softer lining, velvet or similar, might be missing, but I've used the loader for ages and never had this problem.
4. Today I checked the film itself. Took the roll out of the loader in my darkroom and cut a 1m piece off. Lo and behold, the undeveloped film has scratches in the emulsion with a repeat of approximately one film frame!
So it's Ilford themselves. I got the roll from the photo lab at work when they cleaned out for moving. It's a roll with a 1983 due date (!!). Never frozen. Stored at room temp as long as the lab existed. Remarkable that a 30 year old film still performs so well upon developing.
The box says: "This product will be replaced if defective". Do you think they would exchange it if I send the remainder of the roll back to them? 🙂
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