Adox Silvermax 100

[ginandtonic]

I'm wondering whether anyone else has experienced this issue with Silvermax.

When I first got into film photography a couple of years ago, I got a ten pack of Adox Silvermax 100.

I think the film is almost awesome, deep and detailed blacks, silky mid tones and highlights that hold. I have developed it in the silvermax developer and D-76 1+1 both yield great results. The grain is in my opinion, lovely, fine, and smooth. When enlarging prints I could barely make out the grain in the focuser. Despite its low price tag it can I think compete with the 'professional' offerings from Fuji and Kodak.

But after the ten I switched over to Acros, because there was one thing that bugged me about the film. Towards the end of each roll the quality of the negatives would start to rapidly deteriorate. The last four or five frames would have spots, or what appeared to be holes in the emulsion sprayed over the frame, by the last frame the negative was basically unusable.

I clean the negatives before I scan, so it isn't dust, and there is nothing obvious that I can see on the negative itself, it appears to me to be a problem with the emulsion. I attach a crop of a recent photo I took to illustrate the problem.

I thought it was maybe just a bad batch, but then I recently bought another roll to see how it would perform in D-76 and to give it another try, same problem.

Has anyone else experienced this? Is this something wrong with the film, or am I doing something wrong in the processing (although I havn't really experience this with other films). The only time I have seen anything similar is when I got colour film developed at Crappy Snaps, it came back with crud all over the negative, but that was so bad I could actually see the crud on my negatives with the naked eye. I suspected they don't clean their machines often.

One theory I had is that Silvermax appears to be on quite a thin base, it seems much more delicate than some other films I use. I wonder whether the problem only appears at the end of the roll because at that point it is so tightly wound that the emulsion becomes stretched and damaged.

I would be interest to hear anyone else's thoughts. If this is an issue with the film it is a shame, as in my opinion it could be a world beater if they got this sorted.

I also love Acros in Rodinal, I love the look of it, and the results I got, but the main reason I go for it over Silvermax is the consistency, I know I can rely on the film to produce consistent results, even if Fuji are annoyingly inconsistent with their production and pricing!

 

[pentaxuser]

I am a little confused when you say there is nothing obvious you can see on the negative. You give an example of "crud" so surely this appears on the negative and can be seen with the naked eye or certainly under a loupe? As this appears white on the neg reversed as a print then it should be black spots on the negative. Is this the case? It sounds as if the problem is always at the end of the film which may be a clue but only you will know if there is a reason why the last few negatives might be affected. From everything you have said a problem with the film's manufacture sounds unlikely.

pentaxuser

 

[ginandtonic]

I am a little confused when you say there is nothing obvious you can see on the negative. You give an example of "crud" so surely this appears on the negative and can be seen with the naked eye or certainly under a loupe? As this appears white on the neg reversed as a print then it should be black spots on the negative. Is this the case? It sounds as if the problem is always at the end of the film which may be a clue but only you will know if there is a reason why the last few negatives might be affected. From everything you have said a problem with the film's manufacture sounds unlikely.

pentaxuser

To be fair, just looked again under a bright light and can see something on the negative. Hmmm, I wonder if I am overdoing it on the photoflow and it is collecting at the end of the roll when I hang it up.

 

[Alan9940]

I have shot quite a bit of Silvermax 100 developed only in Silvermax developer, but I've never seen an issue like this. As already mentioned, I'd suspect something adhering to the negative in the processing chain vs defect in the film. Very odd, though, that it happens only on the last few frames. Since it's at the end of the roll, is it possible that this end of the roll is near something causing dust or something to "blow up" onto the film? I know that's a stretch, but just trying to think outside the box.

 

[pentaxuser]

I doubt very much if it is photo-flo. This stuff is designed to flow off the film. I take it that the film hangs vertically when you dry it i.e. there are no loops to form a trough near the end of the film. Just to be sure next time give the film a good shake when you take it out of the photo-flo before hanging it up. I also run the inside of my middle two fingers down the length of the film as well but frankly I think we can rule photo-flo out as a cause. If you are doing something to get dust specs on the negative try another wash and dry. It might come off.

I take it that the drum or reel in which you develop hasn't got any "foreign matter" in it/on it. Check the drum and reel before loading the film next time.

pentaxuser

 

[Truzi]

Before I got a handle on Photo-Flo, any deposits I had were more like smears and flow-lines - never individual spots. So I too doubt it's the surfactant.

The next time you develop some Silvermax you could try loading it (and hanging it) in reverse from what you normally do. If you get spots again it might help you rule out something.

 

[lantau]

I'm spooling Silvermax myself from bulk. But before that was available I bought a normal 10 pack. I only used a few of those. and had no problems. I used Rodinal as well as Silvermax developer. I reserved what is left of the factory rolls for shooting slide, having them reversal developed at a lab. Those haven't had anything like you describe, either. The scala reversal process is probably not the most gentle, so I'd expect any problems would have shown.