help me identify this problem

I will not identify the film unless I am sure its not a fault of mine! don't want to be an alarmist if I'm at fault.

this is 1 sheet from a new box of 4x5 I got a few weeks ago. I shot 6 sheets total, all with the same mottling (? not sure what to call it exactly) on every shot. so I shot another 3 sheets from the same batch along with 3 sheets of another film I know is good to make sure that there is no issues with a lens or developer or whatever. the other film, foma 100, had no issues at all, but the first film had the same issues just like the first sheets. so I was hoping that I could get some ideas as to what caused this defect. yes the defect is clearly visible on the film itself. I have yet to make a contact sheet or enlarge one of the negs.

My first guess is moisture/humitiy on the emulsion. but what do I know. I never froze or even refrigerated the film. I shot the sheets 3 weeks after I received them. the film was mailed to me, I did not buy it locally. for the second batch of sheets I used all distilled water, for the developer, pyro-m, with the fixer and also the wash baths and photo-flo wash to see if it is the water. but I have been using the same developer, fixer and wash routine for years now with no issues except when there are emulsion defects in the film itself.

so any ideas? i will include a quick scan of 1 image. no post except to resize to make it smaller. i like this location as a test subject as I know what to expect the neg to look like with various weather situations.

john

Unless caused by bird feathers, I think the word you want is "mottling" mottle - mark with spots or smears of color

Nice shot. I hope someone smarter than me can figure out what is causing this problem.

It does look like condensation has affected the film during its lifetime. I've had a similar effect with roll film but that was probably my fault and in this case it quite suits the subject. I didn't freeze my film so I'm not sure where the moisture came from. It might be worthwhile contacting the source of your film for a refund or replacement, or at least avoiding that source in future.

Ilford FP4+ 120, Bronica SQ-B.

runswithsizzers said:

Unless caused by bird feathers, I think the word you want is "mottling" mottle - mark with spots or smears of color

Nice shot. I hope someone smarter than me can figure out what is causing this problem.

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yeh, thanks for that

It certainly does look like moisture got into this film and grew some mold or just left some moisture marks. Even if you didn't freeze the film, your source may have done that in hopes of increasing shelf life and/or quality.

Hoping, that individual sheets are not overly expensive, it would be interesting to see an undeveloped sheet just as it is. If these marks are already visible, your argument with the vendor may become a lot simpler ...

It could be a problem with the packaging for the film.

Does this happen to be film that is packaged with paper sheets interleaved with the film sheets? If so, moisture created a pattern just like you get with moist backing paper on 120 roll film. I think shanghai film would be the lijely candidate. How was this film stored and handled after the box was opened?

koraks said:

Does this happen to be film that is packaged with paper sheets interleaved with the film sheets? If so, moisture created a pattern just like you get with moist backing paper on 120 roll film. I think shanghai film would be the lijely candidate. How was this film stored and handled after the box was opened?

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film does have paper sheets between the sheets of film. the film was stored with the rest of my daily use film, on a shelf in a dark area of one of my rooms. i could see the paper being the likely cause, but not sure how it could happen. the films boxes do not look like they had any moisture damage, and the paper between the film does not appear to have any water damage as well. oh well.

Sacrifice a couple of sheets and do tests. Just pull one out and then look at it, as suggested above. I've had problems with the anti-halation layer on the non-emulsion side of some films being defective. I had to toss a couple of 25-sheet boxes of BPF-200 because of this shortly before they stopped making the film. There were bubbles/separations on the non-emulsion side; not sure if it was caused by the interleaving paper, moisture or just age degradation. Check the emulsion side for defects, mold, abrasions, etc. as well. Look at the interleaving paper and see if there are any artifacts there too.

If nothing is evident from visual inspection, then develop an unexposed sheet and see if the defects are somehow in the emulsion. If so, you can develop your way through the stack, hoping that only a few sheets are affected.

Best,

Doremus