Thank you for the support, John. This batch of film came as a single shipment of 5 ten sheet boxes from Badger Graphic. I have exposed and developed 1 box already, and the results were perfect. So, I doubt it was zapped when I got it, as it would have affected the box I shot previously. Do you guys wrap the transparencies in some sort of black plastic bag or something, in addition to the film box?
No, I just put it in the film box. I'm glad I've got good labs that are local to me. If I couldn't take it in myself, I suspect I'd go back to running my own E-6.
Heh, heh. Well this is all that I could pull out of the carnage. I had to convert it to b&w (no colours left anyway). Maybe I can lie and say I took it with a shoebox camera.
Rory, I know how dissapointing this can be. OTOH for future reference I have found out that once properly trained, UPS is the best carrier for exposed or un exposed film. I live in Mexico and have to import all my film, I tried all the carriers. Fedex and DHL had the quaint habit of opening the film boxes before they left the US. UPS was the only one which heeded the film warning taped to the box.
better luck next time
Rory,
That looks like heat fog to me, not x-rays. Did you leave the film in a trunk for any period of time? The delivery company may have left it in the back of a truck for a couple of days as well. What color was the fogged areas?
Do you see any patterns in the fogging that would suggest an x-ray machine? Can you find a precise overlap of the pattern from one sheet to the next?
---Michael
Rory...
Where did you send your film from? Inside the US?
Hi everyone. Michael, the only surviving tranny had a reddish orange fog around the perimeter. All the rest were like completely transparent pieces of plastic. Hi PViapiano, the film was sent via DHL from Trinidad (in the Caribbean) to Santa Cruz, CA. I have done this before with FedEx without a problem.
I spoke to the DHL guy who took the package, and he swears that the box would not be reopened, once sealed in the DHL carrier. Only US customs will open a sealed package. DHL has given me instructions to file a claim.
I contacted A&I (my usual tranny-developer-people) to let them know I will be sending up a single 8x10 to process soon. If disaster strikes again, that will probably close the door on colour slide film for me: my job just doesn't allow me the time to process slide film myself.
Heat fog wouldn't affect the top films more than the bottom ones, unless the box was sitting on something cooler. That looks like *exactly* what I'd expect, however, if the box was opened.
I might add that it's not completely unheard of for a new employee at a film lab to open a box in the light; I've read a tale of a pro who came into the lab and berated the (new) girl at the front desk about how the last time they'd lost one sheet of his film, and they'd better be sure they returned every shot he'd brought in this time, so, after doing the paperwork, while she was walking the box back to the lab, she opened it to count the sheets...
If a contact print at arm's length is too small to see, you need a bigger camera. :D
I agree that it's a terrible idea to ship that much film all at once. You have to be paranoid when it comes to your film.
Yeah. Lessons learned the hard way. Speaking of labs, Calypso Imaging did not respond to my email. I just wanted to know if Gladys (customer service) remembered whether the package was unsealed when it arrived. Maybe they think I want them to reverse the processing charges.
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