Noblex 135U - blue line on negs?

[chambrenoire]

I bought a bunch of cameras from this guy here in my hometown the other week and in the bunch was a Noblec 135U. Nice camera! I had a Widelux 1500 before but it was too unreliable mechanically and had a big white light leak on the left side of the huge 120-film negative.

Anyways, I popped in a roll of Superia 400 in the 135U and was glad it worked nice. Came home, scanned the negatives and notices there is a small thin light blueish line in the middle of the negative! The horror.
Anyone know if this could have been done by the lab or is it a common problem with this camera? Any ideas at all?

You can see some examples here:
http://marchi.ownit.nu/NOBLEX/

Thanks for any help! 🙂

 

[MickH]

Maybe it's just me, but I can't see the line on all of those shots. Is it visible on the negs, or just the scans. Daft question I know, but perhaps there was a glitch when you scanned those particular snaps?

 

[robertdfeinman]

I don't see the line on your samples. Is it vertical or horizontal?

A horizontal line would indicate a scratch on the film. A vertical line is probably a light leak or a reflection.

I added some black tape to mine under the pressure roller mechanism to cut down on reflections. Also check the way the back closes at both edges.

You might be able to spot something with a small narrow beam flashlight.

If you turn the camera off and press the shutter you can rotate the barrel backwards so that the lens is in operating position. Then with the back open shine the flashlight around the front and see if you notice anything.

 

[chambrenoire]

It's horizontal. Here is a crop from one of the negs... I can't see anything on the negs themselves though!
http://i30.tinypic.com/1h2p1j.jpg

 

[MickH]

Must be a scanner glitch then. Especially as the line isn't there on all the snaps.

 

[chambrenoire]

It's a brand new Epson V750-Pro! Sure don't hope its the scanner. I'll do a new scanning now to see.

EDIT: I just re-scanned one of the negs and the exact same lines are there, visible. It must be the film that is scratched? Now - was it the camera or the mini lab I used? :|

 

[MickH]

Perhaps not the scaner itself, but some sort of glitch/interruption while scanning that introduced some noise into the scan? Interesting that the negs are OK, but the line seems to be, more or less, but not exactly, in the same place on scanned images.

 

[chambrenoire]

I have a roll in the camera now so I can't see if there is anything in the back of the camera that would make it scratch. I bet it's the lab..

Thanks for your input!

 

[sjw617]

The line is in the Exact same place? Did you load the scanner the same? What if you scan it upside down?
I don't know why a scratch would show up as a blue line... seems more scanner related than film related.

Steve

 

[chambrenoire]

I load the scanner like I always do - four strips of six negs each at the same time. I tried putting the strip on different locations in the neg holder, same results.. I'm still convinced it's the film! 🙂 I'll do some more experimentation...

 

[RML]

To me it does look like a scanner thing. It sure doesn't look like a scratch on the neg. And glitches in the data transfer IMO wouldn't result in the same line again and again. It might be a faulty cable or connector, though.

You may want to try scanning different negs, and perhaps scan them upside down, just to see if you can repeat the problem.

I had a similar problem years ago with an HP S20, the neg scanner I loved the most; sadly long discontinued.
It started with a single red line but soon developed into a red and a green one. Not long after there were three. I changed the cable. Tried loading differently. Thought the scanner got too hot, and cooled it. All to no avail. I ended up buying a new Minolta SD3, which I still have (but hardly ever use any more since going digital 99%).

 

[chambrenoire]

I did try to scan the neg upside down, same results. There is just no logic saying that it's the scanners fault in my opinion, having scanned the neg upside down, different locations on the scanner glass, other non-Noblex scans are just fine without the blue line.
Thanks for your input though, I appreciate everyones help 🙂

 

[1948nikon]

Scratch Marks from processing

Scratch Marks from processing

I would bet my left $#%@$!*& the marks are from processing and not from scanning.

 

[joachim]

Does it go away when using ICE? If it is a fine scratch ICE should detect it as such. You might want to get a trial of vuescan. In vuescan you can get a visual clue (pixels in red) of where the defects in the neg are.

 

[MickH]

Here is a crop from one of the negs... I can't see anything on the negs themselves though!

That's the bit that gets me. If you think it's the lab that's doing it then surely there would be marks on the negs. ?

 

[chambrenoire]

I just found a magnifying glass - there seems to be a scratch on the negatives!!!
Problem solved. Will pass the lab later and complain.