hopefully this is the right place i need help with a film problem

[Carsten]

the problem is with ultra fine xtreme 400 film

Does anyone have any experience with this film? i bought a 100 foot roll but i think i may have gotten a bad roll because everything i shoot is just not sharp at all. I have shot many rolls of tri-x and hp5 through the same cameras i am shooting the ultra fine with but when i shoot the ultra fine everything looks as if it is completely out of focus.

I am self developing with d76 stock solution

Here is what i am getting:

This is some hp5 shot with a canon rebel with 500mm 1.4
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonathanschertzer/8259535215/

Everything looks awesome and great.

now here are some shots with the ultra fine with the same camera, same lens, same dev, and same scan process.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonathanschertzer/8319155645/

I didn't even bother uploading the rest of the scans because they all look like this, even the ones i shot at f16 with infinity focus.

i checked other samples of the same film online and people are getting really sharp results, is it possible that i got a bad roll? is it possible for a messed up emulsion to look like this?

 

[Phil_F_NM]

A messed up emulsion wouldn't look obviously soft. Could your camera have taken a hit or something which knocked the mirror out of place? Do you have a diopter setting wrong on the eyepiece? (If there is such a setting on your camera.)
It looks like your lens was out of focus.

As for the roll of film itself, does it curl strongly? It could be bowing out of the film chamber by a bit. You can test this by shooting some test shots up close against a ruler or a few static objects along a table at different distances. This would also indicate if your mirror is out of adjustment as well.

Good luck.

Phil Forrest

 

[Pioneer]

Based on what you posted on Flickr, the HP5 shot was a shutter speed of 0.6 seconds while the one with ultrafine extreme was 3.2 seconds? What are you basing those times on, are they actual shutter speeds? Those are both very slow shutter speeds so having some sharpness issues is probably expected, as well as some reciprocity issues on the ultrafine example. If those are not then we may need the actual aperture and shutter settings as well as whether or not you used a tripod.

 

[Carsten]

Based on what you posted on Flickr, the HP5 shot was a shutter speed of 0.6 seconds while the one with ultrafine extreme was 3.2 seconds? What are you basing those times on, are they actual shutter speeds? Those are both very slow shutter speeds so having some sharpness issues is probably expected, as well as some reciprocity issues on the ultrafine example. If those are not then we may need the actual aperture and shutter settings as well as whether or not you used a tripod.

That is my ghetto scanning process of using my 60D with a macro lens on a tripod.

The actual film was shot at normal shutter speeds(250th and up mostly, especially when i pushed a few rolls), these were shot at around f/4 with auto focus so human error for the focus is not an issue. also even when i shoot a landscape or something at f/16 or higher with the focus set to infinity there is still this lack of sharpness.

I've shot about 5 or 6 rolls of this ultra fine film in various cameras and with all of them it comes out looking out of focus.

Could it have something to do with my development?

I would really like to get to the bottom of this so i can figure out if i need to call the company and try to get a replacement.

Also as far as i can tell the film is fairly flat in comparison to hp5 so i dont think curling is an issue

 

[John Bragg]

The results look fogged and lacking in contrast. Is your developer fresh ? Give a roll to someone else to try on your behalf in different developer. Has the bulk roll got fogged ?

 

[MrFujicaman]

I'm wondering if you loaded it backwards...IE the backing towards the lens

 

[Jani_from_Finland]

It looks a bit like its been loaded the wrong way into the film casette, can you check this?

 

[Carsten]

My developer is relatively new, the film could have been loaded wrong but I used a loyd bulk loader, I can't imagin how the film could be upside Down unless it was put onto the bulk roll upside down. Also I don't think it could have been fogged in anyway, te bulk roll comes in a black box, I in boxed it in my dark back and loaded it into the the bulk loader. Maybe I put the bulk spool into the loader upside down? I guess I will go into the bag and flip the spool to see if that helps

 

[Pioneer]

I'm wondering if you loaded it backwards...IE the backing towards the lens

This is your next best option. It is easier than you would believe to load things backwards. It may have even been spooled backwards by the factory, but this is less likely.

 

[Carsten]

So i made sure the film was the right way(dull/sticky side to lens). I mixed up some fresh chemicals, and shot some stuff with my pentax Me with 50mm 1.4. Made sure everything was in focus. unfortunately its the same result. no contrast, no sharpness, lots of grain(blotchy gross grain). Any other ideas?

 

[Photo_Smith]

Can you post a digisnap of the actual film? It is possible your lens is not achieving infinity focus, also it should be noted that F16 isn't the sharpest aperture (but it should look better than this)
If i didn't know better I'd think it was was over exposed, and blurred due to halation. It is possible that although your shutter speed states 1/250 your shutter is only firing at 1/60 (manual back up speed on some cameras) which would give over exposed results under some conditions–check the shutter.
This doesn't look like a film fault, try taking a series of images with different focus points using a mid aperture say ƒ8 with different shutter speeds.
Then show the results in negative form with a digisnap of the negs.
I doubt this is a film problem could be over exposed or over developed–only the negs will tell the story.