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

[Jim Noel]

NIice work!

[James R. Kyle]

Thank you.
;-)

[Rubud]

Best wishes to all for the year.

Still coming to grips with my camera and film but what I would consider my first success (even if mundane ).
Agfa Ortho HT-G (exp 2005) EI 80, Crown Graphic, Ektar 127, 1/25s @ f/16, bright overcast mid afternoon. Dev'd Kalogen 1:100 8m patterson tank + Mod 54, 30s initial, 10s each minute. Epson V850 scan on glass, no adjustments.

[Tin Can]

Wonderfull!

The dog needs a camera

Best wishes to all for the year.

Still coming to grips with my camera and film but what I would consider my first success (even if mundane ).
Agfa Ortho HT-G (exp 2005) EI 80, Crown Graphic, Ektar 127, 1/25s @ f/16, bright overcast mid afternoon. Dev'd Kalogen 1:100 8m patterson tank + Mod 54, 30s initial, 10s each minute. Epson V850 scan on glass, no adjustments.

[Rubud]

Wonderfull!

The dog needs a camera

Thanks.

That's Ruby (part of my user name is based on her - Buddy, our deceased border collie, being the other part). In most circumstances she runs from cameras - especially when seen in my hand.

[XrayShooter]

I have been using Carestream (formally Kodak) Industrex film and chemistry for Industrial Radiography for over 20 years. The film and chemistry has improved over the years.

Industrex film is blue sensitive, double immulsion (T-Grain technology), and notched for film type identification. Redlight safe. Sizes most commonly used by me are 70mm roll film, 4.5"x17" sheet, and 14"x17" sheet.

For radiography, the film is loaded between lead intensifying screens in lightproof, flexible, cloth cassettes. Film can be cut to other sizes if needed.

After exposure, the film is loaded onto film hangers with clips (the clips put a pinhole on 2-4 corners of the film). The hanger can hold 3 sheets of 4.5", 4 strips of 70mm, or a single 14"x17".

Processing is done in a series of tanks of Industrex Manual Developer for 4 minutes at 68°F to 76°F. Continuous agitation for first 30 seconds, then for 5 seconds every 30 seconds. Indicator Stop Bath (changes color when spent), agitation for 30 seconds. Manual Fixer for 3 minutes, same agitation as Developer. Water wash for 10 minutes. Photo-Flo, agitation for 30 seconds. Dried in a film drier for 10-15 minutes.

We flash ID onto each film prior to loading onto the hanger. Multiple films may also be stapled together to make 17" lengths, if cut to shorter sizes.

Chemistry life... we can process at least 325- 14"x17" sheets in a period of 30 days without a loss in quality/repeatability. Chemistry would require a 25% in volume of Replenishment in that period. Water wash is replaced daily. All chemistry gets replaced after 3-4 months regardless of use.

Tips for minimizing film scratches... wipe down work surfaces prior to handling the film. Fresh cut film is more likely to scratch other film so it's best to load cut film directly into film holders or hangers. The hangers we use are asymmetrical. So, the clips are flush to one side and protrude on the other. They can interlock this way. Using the flush side back to back is safest. The next best option is interlocking. The worst is two protruding clips face to face and most likely to catch clips or scratch film. If the plan is to sight develop, reduce the quantity of hangers in the tank by half.

Red Safelights... we use incandescent bulbs in bullet housings behind Kodak GBX-2 deep red filters. Never had film fogging issues. 40W at 28" above the film handling counter. 25W at 28" above the Stop tank and 48" to the handling counter. 15W at 28" above the Photo-Flo tank and about 28" from Fixer tank.

Performing a Safelight test... unload a 17" strip of film in complete darkness. Place the strip of film under something that will mask its entire length in your working area. Turn on your safelights. Expose the film 1 inch at a time at 1 minute intervals for 16 minutes. Save the last inch as your base fog reference and develop normal time. This will give your safe working time. Our fastest film, AA400, does not fog at 16 minutes with this setup.

MX125 is our slowest film. Ultra fine grain, and very high contrast. Produces very crisp radiographs.

T200 is our mid speed film. Very fine grain, high contrast. Most used film type.

AA400 is our fastest film. Fine grain, high contrast. Our "grainest" film.

I am only some 200 pages into this thread and have done some searches through it too. I noticed not many are using industrial xray film and none using the chemistry. These are the products and the workflow that I will be using in my journey into xray photography. I hope that I provided some insight into my world.

[Jim Noel]

Interesting. I'm certainly going to look into Industrex as I've been a long time Carestream user.

[Tin Can]

I have some Industrix bought without advise

The 5X7 is rare for us, but the huge amount if waste protective packaging turned me off

I also found these NOS which will be handy for 3.5 X 17" when I decide to make a camera to fit

Hanger by TIN CAN COLLEGE, on Flickr

[Tin Can]

The medical X-Ray most use is very efficiently packaged

100 films are side by side without interleaving paper per box

I bought cases of 500 sheets very economically

[XrayShooter]

The medical X-Ray most use is very efficiently packaged

100 films are side by side without interleaving paper per box

I bought cases of 500 sheets very economically

Industrex is available with or without the interleaving. We purchase 100 sheets without.