"Bleach" spots on POP?

A friend of mine who uses Albumen Works' POP is pulling her hair out with a sporadic problem. That is, bleached spots that appear on dry prints (they don't show on a wet print). Her chemicals are mixed with distilled water and she uses a print washer with unfiltered well water. She says that Albumen Works folks "don't know and don't write back..." about this problem.

Any ideas as to the cause? Cures?

Thanks

Daniel,

I have experienced this also, and I suspect it may be a manufacturing defect. (Mostly because I don't like to blame myself for anything).

I believe the spots on my prints were not visible at all until the paper was dry, because I'm sure I would have noticed them otherwise. They ruined some otherwise great looking prints. They look a bit like there was a bubble on the surface of the paper when it went into the fix or toner, but the sheets were agitated and I don't see any possibility that they were caused by bubbles.

At the moment, I don't have a solution, so I'd like to hear what anyone else has discovered about this issue also.


---Michael

Same problem

I had the same problem with POP. No solution found.

Disclaimer first..I have not done POP and I am basing my assumption on stuff I have read.

As I understand it, the fixing step has some "bleaching" effect on POP prints. Could it be some left over fix or incomplete washing on the prints? If it was the fix not reaching the image as would be the case of a "bubble" then the image should be darker, no? WHy dont you guys try washing for a good period, HCA, and washing again. Unless HCA has some deleterious effect on POP, then forget all I said... I have no idea..

After a loong time of reading, this was enough to get me to join ;-) And hopefully with a bit of help...

how are these prints being dried? There's a known problem with POP paper if it's air dried face down. It will develop small pinholes or bubbles in the emulsion. Since 'bubbles' was mentioned, it seems to fit. If they were dried face down, try again face up. It solved this problem for me...

I had this problem a couple of years ago and B&S evnetually sent me replacement paper. They seemed to have ultimately decided it was a defect in the paper.