white spots on 120 negatives..

[orenrcohen]

Hoping someone has some helpful advice. The last few rolls of 120 films I've developed have had some frames with multiple tiny little white dots. The dots are bright white, they look almost like spots of white out right on the negative. Not all the fames have them though maybe one third or half of them.. My fixer was fresh and hypoclear was fresh.. I was developing Tri-X 120 film in Rodinal. I developed 35mm film immediately after such a 120 occurence today (Tri-X in Rodinal again) using essentially the same chemistry and they came out perfectly.. Only seems to happen with 120 film. Any thoughts??

Thanks,


Oren

 

[JohnTF]

Spots on base or emulsion side? Have you tried to clean them off?

Are they spots or holes in the emulsion, Foma had a lot of trouble with dust in the emulsions of 120 film, holes would show up white if you held it to the light.

Regards, John

 

[orenrcohen]

They kind of look like holes.. not very noticeable with the naked eye but very noticeable on a light table with loupe.. Looks like white pin holes..

 

[Keith]

I had this happen with a roll of 120 Foma a while ago ... it affected the entire roll but was definitely worse on some frames than others.

This was a straight scan of one of the affected negs ... I've never used Foma again!

 

[nikon_sam]

I've had this problem with a brick of Tmax 400 (that's 20 rolls)
It's been in the frige since I bought it, wrapped in plastic, in the sealed box and in their wrappers...
I get black spots throughout the negs...image and non-image areas...I checked the last roll after developing and the spots are on the emulsion side imbedded in the film beneath the top layer...
It's not a chemical problem as I can develop a roll of Neopan 400 using the same equipment with no problems...
The next test I might try is developing a roll without exposing it at all..my guess is I'll get the black spots...
I've decided to just use the film for testing cameras...

 

[JohnTF]

I had this happen with a roll of 120 Foma a while ago ... it affected the entire roll but was definitely worse on some frames than others.

This was a straight scan of one of the affected negs ... I've never used Foma again!

Keith, this was a well known problem years ago, and Foma actually replaced some of the film. My friend Misha visited the plant and thought it was poor dust control, it seemed to be only in the 120 films-- have no idea if they ever sorted it out. I never heard that it was also a problem with their sheet film.

I really liked their ISO 200 film, under several names, and the 800 had a niche following for its extended red sensitivity and its grain. Patterson sold it under their name. Misha was the original importer, and I sold some locally at a local camera store.

But I stuck with 35mm after a few bad experiences with the 120.


Regards, John

 

[orenrcohen]

I showed the negatives to Bob Brooks, legendary instructor at SVA for 40 years. In his opinion it was the stop bath eating into the emulsion. Could be that Tri-X 120 film has a delicate emulsion.. He suggested that I lose the stop bath and try using just water..
Thanks all for weighing in.. 🙂 🙂

Oren

 

[mathomas]

I had white spots, similar to what Keith shows, on several rolls of 35mm Efke 100 I did in Diafine. I had some nice landscapes that were completely ruined (spotting the scans would have taken forever). I blamed my chems (or myself), but then developed some Plus-X in the same batch of Diafine and fixer as an experiment, and it came out beautifully. Now I can't decide whether to bother with the rest of the Efke (probably not).

I vote quality control problem.

 

[nikon_sam]

This problem with the spots has been limited to this brick of film...the other brick did not produce the spots...
The spot show up whether I use D-76, Rodinal or HC-110 and I don't use a Stop Bath...
The spots are not on the top of the film but rather deeper in the film...I think it's just a bad batch of film...I don't use it for actual photos outside of testing...
I have actually found a good developing time and ASA setting for this film from testing with it...I finally like the results using Tmax...well, I would like it if the spot weren't there...

 

[JohnTF]

Had not thought of the stop, have not used it for 20+ years for film, though I had heard stories of reactions with strongly alkaline developers, never saw it. Should not be very strong regardless.

I had some problems with Kodak and some Konica film years ago, sent them a sample, they spent some time on it, Kodak nailed the problem right away (contamination of the bleach bottle cap), and Konica went so far as to send the film back to Japan, but never found the problem-- some odd blobs in the sky-- but they did spend some time on it.
Might be worth your time to post a sample?


Regards, John

 

[ARCHIVIST]

I had this problem several years back on many types of 120 emulsions.

It started to also appear on some 35mm films as well.

This was most unusual as previous processing was carried out with the same emulsions / chemical combinations with excellent results.

The problem was in the wash water - the white spots turned out to be microsopic calcium (from the water) build up in the emulsion. It eventually stopped.

This was a very rare problem but may not be yours.

Regards
Peter