Use of X-ray film: technical discussion with example images

[lanactoor]

There wasn't anything particularly rigorous about the process since x-ray film affords the ability to do continuous inspection under a safelight, but here's a rough outline. Its essentially the same as a standard BW reversal with care taken to toughen the emulsion.

- Film exposed by strobes as per incident meter reading w/ bellows correction @ 100 ISO
- Tray develop in 1+50 Rodinol for 10 minutes. Intermittent agitation. The first development should be quite dense.
- Kodak stop bath with chrome alum added to 3% (3g / 100mL) for 6 minutes. Constant initial agitation for 1 minute then intermittent agitation.
- Water wash for 2 minutes
- R-9 bleach (.95% potassium dichromate, 1.2% concentrated sulfuric acid; roughly .95g and 1.2mL per 100mL water) for 3 minutes with constant agitation.
- Wash / Clear in 9% Sodium Sulfite (Hypoclear) 2 minutes
- Turn on the lights for reversal exposure
- 2nd Development 7 minutes (to completion, by inspection)
- Wash 2 minutes
- Fix 5 minutes, non-rapid acid fixer
- Wash / Clear in fresh hypoclear 3 minutes
- Final washing 5 minutes
* Neutralize R-9 bleach with excess sodium sulfite prior to storage as waste / disposal.

All the handling and processing with small solution volumes exacerbates the opportunity for emulsion damage, but in this case it was all physical, not degradation of the emulsion via processing chemicals. A pyro developer or hardening prior to first development might toughen things up even more. R-9 bleach seems to be a requirement, as my tests with a hardened negative and permanganate based bleach at standard concentrations always led to disintegration of the emulsion.

[Tin Can]

Thank you!

[cp_photo]

I finally got to try out the box of "5x7" blue sensitive film I recently bought from ZZMedical. I can confirm that it does NOT fit in my standard Fidelity 5x7 holders as it is slightly too wide, and it DOES fit perfectly in my Lisco 13x18cm holders. The corners are rounded. I plan to use it only in my 13x18 holders so I can avoid the additional handling of trimming. It is convenient to be able to load up the holders straight from the box. I've been developing it in my three slot Nova print processor which seems to work & helps keep away scratches (compared to developing in trays). I'm still working on exposure and developing issues but so far it doesn't seem much different from the green sensitive stuff I first tried.

[Leszek Vogt]

Would it be wiser to get 7x17 and cut into 3 ?....and green to that. At least that might be my strategy....till someone comes up with better plan.

Les

[cp_photo]

For the moment my present stock will keep me busy using it in the 13x18 holders for a while. I forgot to mention in my post above that it fits correctly in the printfile 5x7 sleeves I have which is good.

Would it be wiser to get 7x17 and cut into 3 ?....and green to that. At least that might be my strategy....till someone comes up with better plan.

Les

[Jim Noel]

I dp as Leszek suggests because it is easier to cut into 3rds, (+2")than 1.5mm off the long edge.

[ravenranger]

https://www.zzmedical.com/analog-x-r...overstock.html

For those who want x-ray film on the cheap - 14x36 trifold is on sale at zzmedical. The website says it's a 100 sheet box but it is only 25 sheets. Still, that works out to about 5¢ a shot for 4x5

Just as an FYI, one should probably call zzmedical to verify accuracy of their sales when ordering from the bargain bin.

[senderoaburrido]

Ravenranger, is this one of the double-sided emulsion films?

On an unrelated note, what are people's experiences like stand-developing x-ray with rodinal? I've got some EB/RA to use.

[koraks]

In my experience xray film is quite sensitive to over and under agitation. EB/RA less so than generic double sided, but still. Haven't tried stand development with it as I never saw the need for it. Just try it out; if you get mottling or other forms of unevenness, you know the likely cause of the problem.

[senderoaburrido]

I'm back at shooting UV with it because I still have the, what, five year old box left. When doing experimental stuff like this, I don't want to waste my Fomapan or my HP5 bulk purchase leftovers for reasons of cost. I figure this is also a great use for the x-ray film because I'm not wasting panchromacy on images filtered to exclude everything above 405nm. I might post some pictures later. Been working on this project for years but haven't really posted my work anywhere, for fear of an enterprising individual stealing my thunder.