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120 different film stock from backing paper?

GrantR

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Aug 19, 2008
Messages
58
Location
Columbia, SC
Format
Multi Format
This morning I had an interesting little mystery while I was processing some customer's film. The film the customer brought it was labeled FP4--I noted that it was an older roll because the backing paper itself was marked instead of just the gummed "exposed" label. After I had finished fixing it, I took it out and examined the film to see that the coding read "Ilford Delta Pro 100"! I was mainly thankful that the processing times were the same for the two films, but has anyone else ever had this happen?
 
I recall that we had a few hand labelled rolls of prototype Delta in the lab where I worked, during the testing of the film. Unfortunately i don't remember what the backing paper said, but only that I had to ring Ilford support to check out how I should develop the rolls.

Maybe this is a leftover from then, maybe more than 18-20(?) years ago ?
 
This was not nearly that old--I would guess that it was between 5-10 years old. The backing paper actually was printed with the name "Ilford FP4 Plus"
 
Maybe someone re-spooled some Delta 100.

Matt
 
Maybe they took the picture on 620 or something then re-spooled onto 120 with different backing paper to let you develop it? Strange.
 
Oy! Yeah---I think I'm actually going to chalk this up to the fact that the film was so old, the customer probably got it from a friend who....for whatever reason decided to put a different backing paper on it. It was just so bizarre to me.
 
Klopstock said:
It could be much worse... a picture says a thousand words:

http://www.aphog.de/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=9541&start=45

Sh** happens, film manufacturers are not perfect though I must say that Fuji, Kodak and Ilford are close to perfection.
Click to expand...

Some times though, they do this kind of stuff on purpose. You have a small amount of one film left, but no backing paper, you have large amount of a different backing paper, so you put the wrong backing paper on the film, if the speed is roughly the same and development is close to the same, you can get away with it.

I think this is why they moved away from using different backing paper for different films, you can't run out of just one type.....
 
or maybe the machne that prints the edge of the film was set up wrong? even if they noticed, they might let it go rather than scraping the film, - perhaps selling it to staff or somesuch?
 
Whilst 'never say never' the QC procedures for the 120 film finishing machines makes this ( technically ) impossible:

The machine checks include triple verification and clearing of multi-stage barcode readers that would reject any innapropriate or incompatible packing, even then finished films are taken and dissassembled from each run start, middle, ends and at random, processed and checked by the QC controllers. When changing from one film to another a whole other set of other procedures kick in.

In nearly 23 years with ILFORD I have never seen a customer QC for a film / backing or cassetting error.

As to wogsters comment, I nearly choked on my coffee!!! We would never, ever, ever just 'use' something up nor would KODAK or FUJI. We went to generic backings to ensure the best value for money for our customers and ourselves by holding less stock.

Simon ILFORD / HARMAN technology Limited :
 
No need to choke but could the film marking be wrong? Maybe the paper backing was correct.
 
Dear Verney,

Whilst remembering 'never say never' It is inconceivable....same triple checks all the way through, process tests, before the big film rolls ( doughnuts ) are placed on the machine, bar coded all the way back to the individual parent rolls. All computer process controlled with alarms / system shut down.

Simon. ILFORD Photo / HARMAN technology Limited :
 
Thank you, Simon! I know you probably get tired of hearing how grateful we all are for your presence on these forums--but I for one, very much appreciate it.
 

No intention of causing you to choke, it's a moot point anyway now, because they do use generic backing paper now.
 
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