Neopan - blotches on negative

[ChrisN]

Could I get some opinions on the image attached below. You can see the blotches in the sky. This is cropped to 50% of the original 35mm negative.

I bought two bulk rolls of Neopan 400 from Megaperls, the boxes are dated 2008-9, and I'll assume they were stored properly before sale.

This is from the first roll. I developed this according to my standard procedure which has been working fine for other films (adjusting the times of course). Dev in Ilford DD-X 1+4 at 20 degrees C for 7 minutes.

I don't think the blotches are drying marks. I've not suffered drying marks for some time with my preferred process, and another film (Ilford Delta 100) I processed in the same session (different tank of course) shows no drying marks. I've examined the negative carefully, and there are no corresponding marks or deposits on the shiny side of the film, and nothing stands out on the emulsion side either. The blotch appears to be embedded within the emulsion. Similar blotches appear on most of the other negatives on the roll in the sky parts of the images. It's only apparent against thet type of clear, light background.

Any thoughts? I'm starting to wonder if I've got some bad film that's been contaminated?

 

[MartinP]

Assuming the photo is not taken through a window pane (when the marks could concievably be reflections, though it's unlikely) then it looks as though the film on the emulsion side has touched something either when drying or during loading maybe ? Or are the marks at the start end of the roll - perhaps there was some contamination of the cassette or outer part of the bulk-roll ? I haven't seen marks exactly like this, so am clutching at straws as apparently no-one else can come up with a solution either.

 

[ChrisN]

Thanks Martin. It looks like this has everyone stumped! The film was left hanging to dry, with zero chance of touching anything, and another film hanging nearby at the same time drief fine with no marks. The only thing I can think of is that I might have contaminated the film while loading from the bulk roll (in the dark, directly to a Leica cassette with the technique described by Tom Abrahamsson). Maybe I touched the emulsion while doing that. I'll see how the next roll goes.