Lab said my ECN2 film is heat damaged ( thoughts?)

[bernard_L]

Just out of curiosity, I looked up some Google reviews of the Photodom lab. Apparently, you're not the only one with these issues. Some of the things I read are pretty... stressful.

Indeed!

 

[CHballer]

Just out of curiosity, I looked up some Google reviews of the Photodom lab. Apparently, you're not the only one with these issues. Some of the things I read are pretty... stressful.
I wouldn't blame the film rewinding, but I wouldn't have my film processed (and scanned) there. The pricing for C-41 vs. ECN-2 also struck me - maybe a few red flags.

Fair point, to be clear the photodom is the one who repooled the film, the lab that processed mine was Bellows in Miami

 

[BobUK]

I was repairing some equipment in the back room of a chemists shop, where I overheard one assistant telling another that a film had not been developed incorrectly.
She immediately figured out that the new batch of chemicals that morning had been mistakenly placed into the wrong tanks.
I was amazed when she was then told to tell the customer that their camera was faulty.

I had visions of the customer throwing away a good camera and having to buy a new one.

Appalling.

 

[pentaxuser]

She immediately figured out that the new batch of chemicals that morning had been mistakenly placed into the wrong tanks.
I was amazed when she was then told to tell the customer that their camera was faulty.

I had visions of the customer throwing away a good camera and having to buy a new one.

Appalling.

Unfortunately this kind of thing happens more often than it should. I blame however fires the thunderbolts down from the sky on the culprits That entity has never had a direct hit yet in thousands of years despite the advances in ballistic technology

pentaxuser

 

[MattKing]

I was repairing some equipment in the back room of a chemists shop, where I overheard one assistant telling another that a film had not been developed incorrectly.
She immediately figured out that the new batch of chemicals that morning had been mistakenly placed into the wrong tanks.
I was amazed when she was then told to tell the customer that their camera was faulty.

I had visions of the customer throwing away a good camera and having to buy a new one.

Appalling.

For those who might need translation:
In the UK, "chemists" are what many refer to as drugstores and/or pharmacies in other parts of the world.
And my sense is that George Eastman's amazing innovation of marketing film, and then later photofinishing, through local drugstores stuck around for a long time in the UK.

 

[BobUK]

I was repairing some equipment in the back room of a chemists shop, where I overheard one assistant telling another that a film had not been developed incorrectly.
She immediately figured out that the new batch of chemicals that morning had been mistakenly placed into the wrong tanks.
I was amazed when she was then told to tell the customer that their camera was faulty.

I had visions of the customer throwing away a good camera and having to buy a new one.

Appalling.

EDIT

It should have read
a film had been developed incorrectly.

Thank you.

 

[Romanko]

The film was respooled last Sep and Ive purchased it and fridge stored since I took it out 4 days ago for shooting

How much film from that batch do you have left?

To exclude the possibility of the film fogging you might develop an unexposed piece of film to check base plus fog levels. You could use C-41 process (or even B&W if you are desperate).

 

[yonsama]

약물 문제인 것 같습니다. 모든 약물이 오랫동안 사용되었거나 오염된 것 같습니다.

 

[MattKing]

It seems to be a drug problem. All the drugs seem to have been used for a long time or are contaminated.

I believe we have a translation problem here.

 

[koraks]

I believe we have a translation problem here.

Yes, but the key isn't too difficult. If you replace 'drug' by 'chemistry', the whole thing clears up nicely. This is a linguistic issue with the translation of some Asiatic languages to English, where 'photo chemistry' translates into 'drug' or 'medicine'. I imagine they're homonyms in those languages.

So what @yonsama is saying here is that the chemistry may be overused, resulting in problems.

 

[koltin]

I respool 65mm to 120 here in the U.S. and process dozens of ECN-2 for various labs weekly. I've never seen a roll like this before. It looks like a chemistry issue though, I don't think heat damage would be that even, or x-ray would be more swivels nothing uniform like this. I searched online and saw that it could be color dye fading , it seems like it's happened to other people before. It could be the 65mm reel had color dye fading?

Ask them what brand of ECN-2 chemicals they are using , because if they are hand mixing, maybe they accidentally mixed it wrong, and wrong pH.

 

[koraks]

could be color dye fading

How would that ever happen? These dyes are very stable, and the couplers tend to be produced and/or bought in large batches, so any problems would never be limited to a single bulk roll. Also, the additional examples in #14 show the opposite of fading - they show a high level of fog.

I don't think heat damage would be that even, or x-ray would be more swivels nothing uniform like this.

Modern CT-scanner damage could potentially look like this, but it's far too extreme for that. I still think it's a chemical problem. IDK what went wrong specifically.

 

[koltin]

Koraks , that's a good question, I just quickly looked at a few articles and saw it was possible the cyan and yellow dyes can fade but leave the magenta. I think they were referencing much older stocks though. But yes, the stocks made now have much more stable dyes.
Ya, my guess is a lab tech mistake -the chemicals were contaminated/old , or was mixed in a dirty bottle , or bottle caps were mixed, or anything along those lines.

Edit: I just read the Reddit thread, that explains a lot of it.

 

[koraks]

I just quickly looked at a few articles and saw it was possible the cyan and yellow dyes can fade but leave the magenta. I think they were referencing much older stocks though.

Ah, I see. Those are articles are probably about 1960s-1970s color materials.

 

[Tel]

I’m reminded of a time that a lab cited “heat damage” when they (in my opinion) botched a motion picture develop-and-print job. In that case the result was a “sparkly” print: lots of white spots everywhere. Clearly impossible to attribute to heat damage, but that was the excuse they gave. I stopped sending anything their way, but they stood by their claim and refused to give a refund.