Foma 100 Problem: developer or ?

[mandoman7]

I've been trying out a recently purchased box of Foma 100 4x5 from Freestyle and have been getting these small specks; white on the print, black on the neg). It seems to happen most strongly in the black areas. I've attached a sample of the last test shot, which I finished with a careful wash in distilled water. In a prior run, I happened to have Delta 100 in the same developing tank with the foma and no spots showed up on those negs, so I'm thinking its associated with the Foma film only and not my procedures. Using PMK in a Jobo 3010. Is it me, or a bad batch of film?

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[Mark Woods]

It looks like dirt. Have you looked at both sides of the neg obliquely to see if there is anything debris on the neg?

[Jay DeFehr]

How old is your fixer?

[mandoman7]

It looks like dirt. Have you looked at both sides of the neg obliquely to see if there is anything debris on the neg?
Yes it does look like dirt, but the Delta 100 negs from the same batch didn't have any spots. And when I did another test run with a careful wash in distilled water as the final step, the specs were still there on this batch of Foma. My fixer is not exhausted, and several water baths are used between dev & fixer rather than stop bath. I've developed sheet film since the 80's with many different methods and have never gotten this particular result. I think I'll try some different chemistry tomorrow and see what happens.

[Jay DeFehr]

This is just a thought, so please disregard if I'm off base. I've had this kind of problem before. My fixer was old-- still working/ clearing film, but old, with a lot of silt in the bottom of the jug. So, my first roll would be ok, because I poured off the top, while the silt was settled on the bottom, but processing the first roll stirred up the silt, which was then deposited on the next roll I processed, exactly like your results. This might not explain your results, but it is one explanation for results like yours.

[UlbabraB]

I developed about 200 foma 100 negatives (4x5 and 8x10) and only had a few pinholes in a couple of 8x10 sheets from the same box. I've had dirty specks on 4x5 Efke 100 once and I assumed that the cause was the alkaline fixer associated to a very hard tap water

[mandoman7]

I appreciate the input but am still perplexed. I've run additional tests with a sheet of delta in the same processing run with the same result; small dot pattern on the Foma, none on the Delta. This morning I took a sheet and just fixed it without shooting or developing, and it still came out with this very small dot pattern. In this example I've scanned it to emphasize the dots, the film appears blank to the naked eye. I've done darkroom work for 30 years and have had my share of dirty negatives, but this appears to be more even a pattern than you'd find from dust spots.

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[Jason Greenberg Motamedi]

I had the exact same problem with Foma 100 and earlier with Efke 100 (http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?84865-Problem-Solving-Advice-Needed-Black-spots-on-Efke-film) using both Xtol and Pyrocat. I never resolved the problem with either film. For what it is worth, I haven't seen these spots in Foma 200, but I have switched back to Ilford to be sure.

[mandoman7]

Finally some corroboration. Thank you, Jason. I've tested this batch of Foma with PMK and Pyrocat so far and have some D76 I might try. But I'm certainly not going to be using this film for anything important. I have a new box of Foma arriving today (ordered before I realized this problem). If I get this pattern on a test from that box, it would be returned if such a thing is possible. I'm stocking up on my old standby Ilford, however, and cancelling this little exploration. Its only a few bucks more for better quality control, apparently.

[Jason Greenberg Motamedi]

Freestyle has a great return policy, send what you have left back to them for a full refund and buy some Ilford.

[John Kasaian]

Are you using a chemical stop bath, or water stop?

[mandoman7]

Its a water stop bath. I did another run today with some sheets of HP5 along with the funky Foma and once again, lots of spots on the Foma, and none on the HP5. People are naturally suspicious of my darkroom methods, and I have my moments when I do stupid things, but I've processed and washed by many different methods over the 30 yrs and this looks like the film has some kind of problem to me. The packaging is pretty thin and its not 3 box layers like with Ilford. But if it is aged and tainted, it seems like some other people would be speaking up, so I'm still not sure what's the answer.

[jp]

I often get little black spots on my prints/scans from foma100 film. (the freestyle rebranded variety) Never get it on kodak. I was able to mostly get rid of it by using tf4 fixer instead of foma or kodak fixer. But it's not gone. I use water pre-wash, pyrocat-hd or pmk, water wash, tf4 fixer, water wash.

There are a few black spots on her pantlegs and one above her boot. Looks like there might be some white spots in the shadows of the slide, but I haven't got a full rez copy to verify. I'd have to print one on the enlarger versus scan one to eliminate the possibility of the white spots being dust in the scanner work area. I really don't shoot much with large super dark areas, it's just not my style.

I've done darkroom work since 1989, having developed thousands of rolls of film, and LF for the past couple of years.

http://jason.philbrook.us/~jp/scans/2012/img527.jpg

[mandoman7]

Hello jp498. My spots were white, like dust. The black spots, IIRC, are said to occasionally happen with acid stop baths but I see you're using water. There again, it makes me wonder about the quality control.

Continuing my little journey, today I did some more testing of lenses and adapter boards and tried the Foma in D76 this time, and surprisingly enough the spots are significantly reduced!:confused: In addition, I spoke to B&H where I got the film, not Freestyle as previously mentioned, who were happy to take the film I had back and did not have any other reports of problems with the film (which may or may not be useful).

The outcome is not a big deal to me now as I have a supply of other film coming shortly. But it looks to me as though Foma 100, or at least this batch, does not like PMK or Pyrocat developers, based on my rough testing. Jason's problem came while using a similar developer notably. The troubling fact is that the Ilford film came out clear in repeated tests with the Foma in the same batch having these weird spots.

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[renes]

I have had same many white spots on Adox CHS 25 roll film, since I changed the water and used only distilled water, they disappeared.

[SergeiR]

I recently started to use filtered water, and most of black and white spots are gone from Arista(rebranded Foma afaik). Still getting some with Rodinal. This thread makes me wondering.. Going to run batch through trusted UFG and see..