Neopan 400 uh oh

[squirrel$$$bandit]

So this is odd...I just souped two rolls of Neopan 400 in Rodinal 1:50, and when it came out of the fixer, the black exposed leader was flaking wetly off in my hands. Not the base, just the emulsion. By the time I noticed, I had already wiped down the roll but thank goodness, the actual pictures did not rub off. Same with the other roll--leader flaking away, pictures fine.

I fixed for four minutes, and I'm only halfway through the 25 uses of this batch of fixer...and the fixer has worked perfectly with its first dozen rolls. Is this normal, or weird? It's never happened to me before.

 

[squirrel$$$bandit]

Well, dang. I found some little black flecks of the stuff on one of the rolls--I probably sponged it there by mistake. And so I washed the film again, and the black stuff came off, but everywhere it landed, the emulsion is now eaten away. Wrecked half the roll! The other roll is fine...

 

[pbhome]

Do you have the lot number? It should be on the box, if you still have it, or on the film near the frame number.

-PB

 

[cjm]

All I can say is that your not alone. It's happened to me before, quite possibly with Fuji Neopan 400 but I don't specifically remember. Unfortunately I have no idea what caused it. 🙁

 

[squirrel$$$bandit]

Do you have the lot number? It should be on the box, if you still have it, or on the film near the frame number.

-PB

Looks like 485TJ1 and 485TJ3.

 

[chris91387]

just bought 4 rolls of neopan 400 today from freestyle. fingers crossed.

- chris

 

[squirrel$$$bandit]

I usually shoot Tri-X at 400....I think I will continue to in the future...

...this has never happened to me with Neopan 1600, I should add.

Oh hey one other thing. When I was loading the film, it occurred to me that the leader felt kind of weirdly thick. Perhaps the end of the film was double-coated with emulsion somehow. I'm not familiar enough with this film to know for sure, though.

 

[le vrai rdu]

no trouble with neopan and rodinal 1+50 for me, so far the finest grain I ever had 🙂

 

[Trius]

If the emulsion was double/over coated, I would think the density would be way off ... do the exposures look "normal"?

Other than mis-manufacture of the film, the only other thing I can think of is chemical contamination.

Strange indeed.

 

[chris91387]

Looks like 485TJ1 and 485TJ3.

weird, i don't see any numbers like that on my boxes.

under "Emul No." on the boxes there's a printed number as "270001" with a dec 2010 expiration date.

fingers crossed.

- chris

 

[drewbarb]

I've souped hundreds of rolls of Neopan (mostly 400, but some 1600) in Rodinal, and never had anything like this happen. What fixer are you using? I can't see how that would make a difference, but it might be a weird chemical interaction. It could also have something to do with your water content, but again, it would take a better chemist than I to decipher...

 

[MartinP]

I think this is one of those times where it is worth a call to Fuji professional support. I assume there is a telephone number for that somewhere, though I have never contacted them, only Ilford (many years ago about some pre-Delta test rolls a customer bought in). Your observations sound really strange and unusual. I hope you can track down the problem.

 

[squirrel$$$bandit]

Images all look normal to me. I'm using Ilford rapid fixer, and I've used this batch to fix Arista Pro 400, Neo 1600, and Eastman 5222-XX, all with no problems. I used the same bottle of Rodinal for all those, too. All chemistry is mixed in bottled distilled water.

Chris, these rolls didn't come with boxes, I just got a bag of canisters from B&H. The codes above are the only other numbers on the film other than the frame numbers, brand name, and film type.

I'll drop Fuji an email, sure!

 

[squirrel$$$bandit]

Actually, screw Fuji--I just went through seventeen &^#%ing support menus and can't even get the website to cough up an email address or phone number. What a pain in the ass. I will mix up some new chemistry...

 

[MartinP]

I just went to the UK Fujifilm site (I am English but don't live there anymore) and within three clicks had the following information :

Professional Film Products
professional@fuji.co.uk​

Fujifilm UK Ltd
56 Poland Street
London
W1F 7NN

Tel: 020 3040 0404
Fax: 020 7483 1419

When I thought I'd be helpful and do the same on the US site . . . like mabelsound says, it seems impossible !!! I wonder what their web-designer was smoking, or maybe it wasn't an accident.

I'd suggest mailing the UK site, or the one in Japan (they have a simple web-form thing on the 'global' site), or contacting the supplier of the film (B&H ?) for help on finding the contact number, assuming that other sources of information don't come up with a cause.

Note that I suggested the "Professional" support details, as that is the area where the black-and-white film is found in the Fuji product-range.

 

[Trius]

Another + for EK, I suppose. Published telephone numbers, or I could provide with a few personal email addresses.

 

[hans voralberg]

I've had that problem with Rapid fixer once, with HP5, I just reduce the number of reuse to 5-6 times and haven't seen it again since. No idea why though.

 

[twopointeight]

I've shot maybe 2000 rolls of Neopan 400 with no emulsion problems. But once or twice I experienced similar problems and traced it back to contaminating my fixer with either used developer or hypo clear.

 

[manfromh]

The Fuji US site has a little "contact us" button at the bottom of the page, which leads you to a form you can fill in. https://www.fujifilm.com/mail/form.cgi?code=244-59899-54331

 

[squirrel$$$bandit]

The Fuji US site has a little "contact us" button at the bottom of the page, which leads you to a form you can fill in. https://www.fujifilm.com/mail/form.cgi?code=244-59899-54331

Thanks a lot--message sent.