Strange scratches all over the negative

[itsskin]

Hi All!
First of all, thank you for a great community you created here. It's a superb source of info, and drove into LF with Toyo 45G + Nikkor 90/8. The first problem I ran into and have no idea what happened is heavily scratched negatives. Below you will find the pic and the crop. I also shoot MF with 120 film and never got such a problem. The film is Lucky (cheap chinese). Packed in individual wrapping paper and the pack of 50. Development is done in Jobo dayllight processing drum. I touch film not more then the 120 one. And pretty sure it was loaded properly into the holders inside light-tight tent (not hard one). I did 10 shots and 9 of them are scratched like this. Any ideas why?
Thank a lot!

[vinny]

(cheap chinese), your words. Unless this film has a special look you must have, get some kodak or ilford. Time is money and you've got some wasted time on what look to be nice shots.

[itsskin]

I did use this film in MF, and never faced that problem.... But in 120 rolls film is protected much better than in 4x5 sheet. Are you saying that it can be very-very-VERY easily scratched? Even being touched slightly by light tent fabric?
Just trying to find a source of the problem...

[Brad Rippe]

I agree with what Vinny said. For all the commitment in using 4by5 film, to use "cheap" film is potentially wasting a lot of your time. I can't possibly see how you could have done this to this film, unless you dropped it on the floor and walked on it.
Try some other film brands, as Vinny mentioned, and see if you get better results. If you don't see better results, you need to learn from an experienced individual how to properly use sheet film.
Good Luck.

[Vaughn]

... Are you saying that it can be very-very-VERY easily scratched? Even being touched slightly by light tent fabric?
Just trying to find a source of the problem...

Might be damage during the manufacturing of the film.

Your might want to take a sheet straight from the package and develop it in order to see if that is the source of the problem.

[Brian C. Miller]

There have been other forum members who have used Lucky film without complaint. What other brands of sheet film have you used? Are the scratches unique to Lucky?

Perhaps what you need is a larger changing bag, or one with internal support.

[itsskin]

Today I loaded the film in total dark room without the tent. Let's see, how it will work out. In 4x5 I didn't use any other brands. But considering I didn't walk over the film, and highly unlikely it being scratched in the production... Seems like a tent problem to me. Next development will show
Thx for help! Keep you posted.

[sully75]

someone advised me to waste a sheet, pull it out of the box and examine it for scratches and defects, then run it through your process (load and unload the holder - process it normally) and see where your scratches develop.

Haven't done it yet but it sure makes sense!

[Professional]

Hey, i thank you posting this thread.
I loaded 5 sheets in the tent, 2 color slides came out amazing, and the rest are B&W negs, 1 was lost as i didn't expose it by mistake, but the other 2 one i saw one big scratch and few very timy that i can heal, but another sheet i had full of scratches, that one of scratches i did develop it at home by tray, so i don't know if it was my processing in trays or all the sheets have that scratch problem while loading/unloading, because of that i didn't shoot any sheet since my last 5 sheets until i know the best way for home development [i can't get Jobo], without many issues including scratches.

Here is the sheet i did home processing with scratches:


Crop:
http://img716.imageshack.us/img716/3488/crop3a.jpg

[Jack Dahlgren]

Hey, i thank you posting this thread.
I loaded 5 sheets in the tent, 2 color slides came out amazing, and the rest are B&W negs, 1 was lost as i didn't expose it by mistake, but the other 2 one i saw one big scratch and few very timy that i can heal, but another sheet i had full of scratches, that one of scratches i did develop it at home by tray, so i don't know if it was my processing in trays or all the sheets have that scratch problem while loading/unloading, because of that i didn't shoot any sheet since my last 5 sheets until i know the best way for home development [i can't get Jobo], without many issues including scratches.

It is odd that the scratches are white on your shots. With negative film, shouldn't the scratch be black?