fogged film

[rmolson]

Fogged film update


I have been pursuing the problem of what is fogging my 120 HP-5 on the ends and sides and into the image area. Initially I eliminated the over head fluorescents lights by not turning them on at least 12 hours before loading any reels. That helped but did not completely stop the fog, just made it less. I had already eliminated the magazines of my Bronica SQa and even got a new one, to no avail. One day I had two different rolls on my light table and noticed the fog was on the left side of the film on one roll and on the right side of the other ….whoa!
That ruled out the camera and magazines pretty well .Sometimes the taped end of the roll gives me trouble so I would start from the tail end and the fog followed that pattern. This lead to a not earth shaking conclusion that the fog is occurring somewhere in the darkroom. I have a very tiny darkroom and then I looked at my inspection light. A little, I thought, night light with a nice diffuser for checking negatives while printing. Popped the diffuser and there was a tiny little powerful fluorescent tube complete with after glow and all. Turned that off and still had fog on the next roll. Now I am getting desperate. My set up is an enlarger with a relatively new Time O Lite with an illuminated dial ( it glows in the dark) about 2 feet away from where I load reels. Surely that would not fog film? Got my Luna Pro SBC, turned on the overheads for few minutes and then went dark and I got a reading off the face of the dial!!!! Who’d have thunk?.
Now I am loading in a changing bag until I can figure out how to measure UV after glow!, or changing all the lights over to incandescent and masking the dials on timers .
Which may be a problem in itself in the near future, as they are pushing fluorescent lights for everything.
The up side of it is now that I have extra magazines I can do normal, normal plus, and a normal minus exposure and development with roll film.

 

[Mike Wilde]

time o lite - yep it can

I have had problems with this in the past. A piece of cardborad, with a fold at the top, to hang it in place while you load the reels will do the trick to eliminate the glow in the dark glow from projecting onto the dry surface that you are loading on.

The light output may be low, but you also have the film in front of it for more than a few seconds as yoiu spiral it onto the reel.

 

[fschifano]

Yeah, I know the glowing face of a timer is supposed NOT to fog film, but I don't necessarily trust that advice. I'm using pieces cut from a photo paper black plastic bag to cover the faces of my Time-O-Lite and Graylab timers when loading film.

 

[Discpad]

I don't have a darkroom, yet I develop B&W, C-41 & E-6: I load my reels in a Noritsu dark box from a minilab.

You can also use a changing bag; or better yet, a changing tent, which is what minilabs use to load their paper cassettes...

 

[nworth]

I've had this happen, too. Usually the problem has been with the takeup spool in the camera - the film doesn't get wound up tightly enough. If you consistently get loosely wound film on the takeup spool, have a repairman take a look at the camera. You can generally avoid severe problems by unloading the camera in the shade and keeping the film roll in the dark until you process it.

In your case, the glowing timer could be a problem. I'm not sure how the pattern you describe would be caused by the glow, but maybe. Usually, the fluorescent dials on timers are not a problem, but two feet is very close. I doubt that the phosphorescent afterglow of fluorescent lamps is the problem. The phosphors used in the modern lamps do not have that afterglow. Try closing your eyes for a couple of minutes to at least partially dark adapt them and then turn off the fluorescent lamp. Open your eyes and look at the lamp. If you can't see the afterglow, it probably isn't the problem.