Donald Qualls
Subscriber
I've just finished scanning my first roll of J&C Pro 100 (120 size).
Great film for the price -- good contrast, scans well, plenty fine grained, and has good latitude (especially for an ISO 100 B&W).
Unfortunately, I won't be using any of it in my better cameras, from which I might expect images destined for large prints, especially optical prints that can't be digitally retouched. I've read of emulsion defects, and bought the film anyway, and though I don't have any of the reported pinholes, I do have a number of defects that look very much like the bubbles I saw reported in Fomapan 100 13x18 sheets a year or so ago -- in the positive, they look like a negative image of a galaxy in the night sky, a dark elliptical spot with a surrounding area slightly less dark, dimension a couple millimeters the long way.
I bought this film primarily to shoot in my box cameras anyway -- this roll was exposed in an Ansco Shur-Shot Jr. -- so the defects aren't a huge problem; none of this film will be enlarged above about 4x6 or 5x5 size, and the marks will be barely visible in prints, probably less so than those caused by dust on the film at exposure. In my better cameras, though, such marks could ruin an exposure that would otherwise be a wall hanger.
Is there any progress in correcting this issue for future runs of the film? If I could trust this film in my Moskva-5, Reflex II, or Spotmatic, I'd probably shoot a lot of it, because it's 1/3 the price of the Kodak film I've been using.
Great film for the price -- good contrast, scans well, plenty fine grained, and has good latitude (especially for an ISO 100 B&W).
Unfortunately, I won't be using any of it in my better cameras, from which I might expect images destined for large prints, especially optical prints that can't be digitally retouched. I've read of emulsion defects, and bought the film anyway, and though I don't have any of the reported pinholes, I do have a number of defects that look very much like the bubbles I saw reported in Fomapan 100 13x18 sheets a year or so ago -- in the positive, they look like a negative image of a galaxy in the night sky, a dark elliptical spot with a surrounding area slightly less dark, dimension a couple millimeters the long way.
I bought this film primarily to shoot in my box cameras anyway -- this roll was exposed in an Ansco Shur-Shot Jr. -- so the defects aren't a huge problem; none of this film will be enlarged above about 4x6 or 5x5 size, and the marks will be barely visible in prints, probably less so than those caused by dust on the film at exposure. In my better cameras, though, such marks could ruin an exposure that would otherwise be a wall hanger.
Is there any progress in correcting this issue for future runs of the film? If I could trust this film in my Moskva-5, Reflex II, or Spotmatic, I'd probably shoot a lot of it, because it's 1/3 the price of the Kodak film I've been using.