Is my lab BSing me?

[dyuhas]

Just got my first batch of 4x5 transparencies back from the lab. I noticed tiny teeth marks just inside the exposed area near the corners. The lab blamed the clips that hold the film when it's processed, and said there's no way to avoid the marks. They can't be confined to the unexposed edges.

True?

(FWIW, the film is Velvia 50 and I use the Fuji Quikload holder.)

[tim atherton]

Is my lab BSing me?

not really - some labs are better than others at getting the marks close to the edge but it's usually slightly in the image area - sometimes a couple of the four are in the black edge, soemtimes not

[Bruce Watson]

My lab is pretty good about keeping the clip marks in the rebate areas. Every once in a while they miss. Oh well.

Just like the little hole in the Fuji films, it makes composing right to the edges a little dangerous. And composing to the edges is a hard habit to break. I have to keep telling myself that this isn't 35mm anymore ;-)

[David A. Goldfarb]

Yeah, those marks are normal for the big industrial-sized dip and dunk processors.

If you really can't live with them, you can process the film yourself by other methods--trays, Jobo rotary processor and other drum methods, tankline and hangers, various daylight tanks, etc.

[Capocheny]

No, they're not BSing you... my lab, for the most part, is pretty good at keeping the gator clip marks outside the image area but, on occasion, they do show up in the image area. Rarely though!

That's just the fortunes of sending your images out to a lab. If you can't live with the reality of gator clip marks, I'd suggest you look into processing them yourself. It's really not all that difficult to do.

Cheers

[Walter Calahan]

Yes true.

[QT Luong]

It would make sense to have a focussing screen where the usable part does't extend to the edges (like the Boss Screen), like it makes sense in 35mm to use a less than full frame viewfinder if you shot slides.

[dyuhas]

Thanks for the help.

[William Stone]

I primarily shoot Fuji transparency film in a Fuji Quickload holder, with a Toyo 45A field camera. My lab (Carl's Darkroom, in Albuquerque, NM - USA) has two different style 4x5 E-6 film processing racks -- one style uses film clips oriented parallel to the 4-inch side of the film and the other uses clips parallel to the 5-inch side of the film.

I learned that the film holes that result from the racks with the clips on/parallel to the 5-inch side intrude less (hardly at all, in fact) into the image area than if the other racks are used.

So, when I drop my film off for processing, I always request that they use the racks with the clips on the 5-inch side.

It might be worth asking your lab about this.

Good luck! Bill

[paulr]

It would make sense to have a focussing screen where the usable part does't extend to the edges (like the Boss Screen), like it makes sense in 35mm to use a less than full frame viewfinder if you shot slides.

I took a paint marker and ruler and drew a rectangle on mine.