Topic: What happened here?

[al]

Any idea what happened here?  Two frames on this roll (the first 2) are covered in marks like this.  Every other frame looks fine!  Can I just put this down to the somewhat dubious quality of the film in question (cheapo Shanghai GP3) or is it something else?  Agfa Isola, Chinese GP3 film, Stand developed in rodinal 1:100 for 1hr

[LT]

black marks would indicate pinholes.  The fact that all other frames are ok would indicate a manufacturing issue or other physical problems rather than processing. Unless you had a load of sticky dusty material in the changing bag/ darkroom that stuck to these two frames and prevented the developer from getting to the areas they covered? Or is it likely that the camera spat a load of decomposing light seal all over these frames?  Was the camera left with this film loaded around these two frames for a while?

If not, I reckon the problem is poor quality control in manufacturing.

Remedy? Get a fine paint brush, spot each hole with retouching inks (or do the same in p'shop) Alternatively, try Ilford films

[al]

Not changing bag dust, not seals, it was left with these 2 frames for a while (a few weeks) but that's normal practice for me!

One thing I forgot to mention,  with a couple of frames left to go I wanted to use the camera with different film, so wound it all back to the original spool in the darkroom, stored it it a cupboard for a few weeks, then later wound it through another camera to finish off the last 2 frames (yeah, I really don't like wasting film!)

I wonder if the emulsion is fragile/brittle and didn't like all that curling/uncurling (it's horrendously curly film  anyway) and these two frames got the worst of it being so tight to the centre of the take up spool.  Perhaps the emulsion got damaged doing this?

Next time I will indeed be feeding less food to the children so that my cameras can be assured of high quality films every time 

[astrobeck]

I rewind film often enough to use on 620 rolls and have never had this problem.
Film is tougher than one would expect and will endure a bit of roughness, but I normally use Kodak or Ilford when re-spooling so expect their QC to have higher standards.

I'm going with a manufacturing problem on this one. It just looks like the emulsion wasn't evenly spread.

Just my thoughts though, the real reason could be something else of course.  

[Paul Mitchell]

Had the roll been exposed to bright light prior to processing? the speckles could possibly be the texture in the backing paper showing through?... just guessing really. Pity as it's a great image of the tree at Iken.

Paul

[jojonas~]

I think it has something to do with the paper. but I could be wrong. I think I've seen it before but I'm not sure. their paper ain't got that plasticy covering like other films and I think it can leave a mark on the film if it has been in unfortunate storage.... or just magically extra sensitive.

I've shot a few rolls with varying quality but this is pure speculation haha

[Francois]

This is really puzzling... it's random with no apparent pattern. I would guess a manufacturing defect.

If you don't want to spot the whole thing (which would really be a b**** of a job), you could try camouflage using either a texture screen or simply "salting" the print...

[al]

Pity as it's a great image of the tree at Iken.

I had a bit of a  moment with that comment! How did you know where this was?  Is this some iconic tree which photographers world over flock to photograph?! 

Couldn't resist some research and found the weekend thread where you AND Late Developer had posted photos of the same tree:
http://www.filmwasters.com/forum/index.php?topic=4297.0

The thing is I can't be sure of the exact date but this was taken around the same time as that thread.  Spooky!

[al]

This is really puzzling... it's random with no apparent pattern. I would guess a manufacturing defect.

If you don't want to spot the whole thing (which would really be a b**** of a job), you could try camouflage using either a texture screen or simply "salting" the print...

Think I'll just leave it as it is.  Some people have to download an app to get this effect 

[Francois]

Pretty much the simplest thing to do...

[al]

Just to conclude this thread, I've just been reading various posts of flickr describing the exact same issue with Shanghai film.  I've also been examining other scans from the roll and some also show the problem to varying degrees.

It seems (unsuprisingly) that the film is a bit of a lottery in this respect (especially older packs which were sealed in red paper rather than foil). Sometimes it's fine, other times.... well, you get what you pay for! 

[moominsean]

yeah just looks like shady film. i've had ekfa look like this, and it's fairly common with expired film. also sometimes the paper backing sticks to the film and causes damage. could be poor quality control or poor storage.