Small bubbles on film

[Ionex56]

I've been re-scanning some of my images and one roll in particular had terrible small bubbles on the film, in addition to micro-scratches everywhere. I've not seen this kind of bubble before; if it was a developing issue the bubbles should be larger?

I suspect it is my film sleeves. I currently use Printfile sleeves and even when I'm careful with handling micro-scratches appear and the issue seems to get worse. Then the bubbles started appearing, so I'm concerned whether this is also a side effect of the sleeves.

The film was developed at a local lab. I've had my film developed at Precision Camera in TX, as well as other labs in Taiwan, and none of them show the heavy scratching or bubbling issue. They were also stored in different sleeves (the ones that the lab gives you).

Here are the full-res .tiff files scanned on my Nikon Coolscan V (recent CLA, so it's unlikely that there is a problem with the rollers/dust): https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ip524dmlt61t75o/AADvshz_-Hi0LbP7CSTt6ApOa?dl=0

The bubbling is most prominent on the Golden Gate Bridge photos.

I'm not sure what the problem is (the lab? sleeve?) and if someone could point me in the right direction that would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

Dust on the negatives will show as spots on the scans. If you're scanning negatives, the spots will be white; if you're scanning transparencies or slides, the spots will be black.

 

[Ionex56]

Unfortunately it isn't dust. Looking at the scans again, it seems like the film is blistering. I forgot to add that the film used is Portra 400 negative film.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

What does the film look like?

 

[Ionex56]

The film looks fine? The blistering/bubbles don't appear even through a loupe (probably too small), but is very noticeable after scanning.

Apologies for the dusty film: https://imgur.com/a/SYSJ9Ib

Here's the link to the self scans: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ip524dmlt...CSTt6ApOa?dl=0

 

[Larry H-L]

Those bubbles seem to be everywhere on the bridge frames, it almost looks as if the emulsion is pulling loose from the film base. I've never seen anything quite like that. I don't think it is your scanner, because the pattern is different in each frame. Could the film have been exposed to heat, such as a hot car trunk? Or, a defective batch of film?

 

[Steve M.]

It probably isn't the print sleeves. They shouldn't scratch your negs unless you have grit or dust inside the sleeves before you slide a neg into it. It sounds like you had some bad developing or some bad film.

 

[Ionex56]

No, the film wasn't exposed to any extremities. I keep my film in binders for storage/transport so if the bubbling occurred from heat exposure the other rolls should've been ruined too. It could be a defective batch, but I'll have to re-scan/check the other rolls (I buy Portra 400 in packs of 5).

As Steve suggested, could it be bad developing? Perhaps something to do with the blix/fix or lack thereof, causing the emulsion to blister off over time?

 

[brbo]

IMHO, that's the effect of ICE doing a poor job of removing dust. Scan with ICE disabled, and see if bubbles are gone and dust visible.

And clean those negatives 😉