Small tears in emulsion

[jonathan_lipkin]

I've been shooting portra 160 4x5 and send out to a well-known lab in NYC for processing. While scanning today, I've noticed some small clear areas on the film which I thought initially were dust spots. On closer examination, they appear to be tears in the emulsion - it looks like it has been torn, lifted off and re-folded back onto the neg. One neg actually appears to have a small piece of emulson from another neg stuck to it.

They are pretty small and I can spot them out in PS pretty easily. But the question is: should I continue using this lab? Is this reasonable?

[David de Gruyl]

It seems like handling problems. Specifically, wet handling.

If you are in NY, you might consider trying a different lab. If you are somewhere else (and therefore mailing), I would definitely switch. Another approach is to ask them about it. They won't give you any money, but they might fix the problem at the source (the tech).

We are not talking about clip marks, are we?