Strange vertical stripes in adox pan 25 sheetfilms
Hi,
I opened quite recently a new box of Adox Pan 25 4x5 sheetfilm.
To my big disappointent, I have lost all photos I have taken with this film.
There were some good photographs too, but nothing cannot do for them.
The reason: If negative is viewed on landscape orientation, then it will have a lot of vertical stripes.
When I found first two pictures damaged like that, I instantly blamed my Paterson Orbital developing tank - as I have scratched the bottom of the developing tank to keeping films from stickking.
But when none other films didn't show any marks like that, my suspections went more on the camera side. Found nothing...
Then at the end, I did a well documented empirical test. Exposed sheets of film using enlarger as light source (no camera errors, flare, whatsoever).
Then I developed the negatives using different manners. One went thru my standard developing, Paterson orbital tank with motorized agitation. Another went with orbital tanki, but manual racking style agitation, one went thru roll film tank which I was rolling on the table emulating rotary developer, ....
The result? Every single negative shows these stripes clearly!
When I scan the negatives and use levels to get more contrast then stripes come really strongs (as will uneveness of the development also do - embrassing :o )
Any ideas for cause? Before this test I was quite sure that I will do somethign wrong.. But now it's confirmed with different developings, without camera, seen on bare eye, then confirmed with scanner...
So what this leaves? Some kind of weird error during manufacturing phase of the film?
Re: Strange vertical stripes in adox pan 25 sheetfilms
i would say its bad film
ive tried a few adox products and have had problems with almost all of them except one box of paper , of which i used tonight
i would not personally use adox again for a while and now i prefer foma products for consistency
Re: Strange vertical stripes in adox pan 25 sheetfilms
I've seen this pattern on some 400 asa classic pan film, bummer.
Re: Strange vertical stripes in adox pan 25 sheetfilms
Hello Jukka,
Had the same problem a while back with some Efke 100 and 50 sheet films. It's now the reason I happily enjoy paying about twice as much for Ilford and Kodak films, confident that if there is a problem with the image, it's most likely my fault. It's just not worth the risk when I am hundreds of miles from home shooting that once in a lifetime image.
Rick
Re: Strange vertical stripes in adox pan 25 sheetfilms
Hello Rick,
It seems that I have to take same route. I really like some of the "low fidelity" films. Like Adox CHS 100 Art and Adox CHS 25 Art. They have nice tonality.
But the quality issues is just too much for me. Thankfully I have used Acros 100 and Hp5+ always, so I have a good film also. Perhaps Panf+ sheet film would be also nice to try.
ps. I haven't (yet) noticed any single defective negative, if there's something, it's always in whole batch. So I'm gonna check all boxes I have still whether they seems to be ok or not.
Re: Strange vertical stripes in adox pan 25 sheetfilms
Jukka,
Agreed ... using 'Lo-Fi" films can be fun. I still have some Efke 50 and 25 ULF films, but I "waste" a sheet of each type per box and place them on a light table to see if I can recognize any emulsion banding. The Efke 25 that I have is clear, but the Efke 50 that I have has some slight banding (referred to coating chatter by the experts here). It affects the entire box. I use this film for subjects lacking even density such as great expanses of sky, and for subjects that can be shot again. I use the Kodak and Ilford film for the important subjects that might be difficult to repeat.
Fuji Acros is terrific, as is HP-5.
Have fun!
Rick
Quote:
Originally Posted by
jvuokko
Hello Rick,
It seems that I have to take same route. I really like some of the "low fidelity" films. Like Adox CHS 100 Art and Adox CHS 25 Art. They have nice tonality.
But the quality issues is just too much for me. Thankfully I have used Acros 100 and Hp5+ always, so I have a good film also. Perhaps Panf+ sheet film would be also nice to try.
ps. I haven't (yet) noticed any single defective negative, if there's something, it's always in whole batch. So I'm gonna check all boxes I have still whether they seems to be ok or not.
Re: Strange vertical stripes in adox pan 25 sheetfilms
Curious, has anyone contacted the manufacturer and ask if they will warrant defective film. If enough ppl return bad samples maybe the problem will be fixed. Then we will continue to have more choices :-)
Re: Strange vertical stripes in adox pan 25 sheetfilms
I have contacted (info@adox.de), but haven't yet got any response.
Re: Strange vertical stripes in adox pan 25 sheetfilms
Quote:
Originally Posted by
jvuokko
I have contacted (info@adox.de), but haven't yet got any response.
Did you ever get that response?
Re: Strange vertical stripes in adox pan 25 sheetfilms
Yes, I got response. I was requested to sent sample films to Adox so that they can check what's wrong.
The explanation was that the manufactor they used for coating process of the film has poorly maintained machines:
"This batch of film was coated in a factory which does not longer exist.
New product will be coated in a more modern factory. I am afraid that the old factory neglected maintenance and thus vibrations on the coating head occured. This causes banding. Unfortunately only on a few meters and then it disapperas again making it almost impossible to catch this in QC."
I got some compensation which is good, but ofcourse I am bit sad for about two good ruined shots. Others ruined negatives weren't that important ones.
This whole thing has made me very cautious. I still use ADOX films because I like the tonality of CHS 100 Art and CHS 50 Art, but when takin a picture from which I expect a lot, I use well known film brands or at least I take one backup shot to top quality film.
Now I am in a slow process trying to found some slow or midspeed film that has similar tonality like CHS 100 and CHS 50 (the CHS 50 can be tought because of it's almost orthopan appear).