Neg anomalies help please!

the see through paper wrapped around boxes of tea works well as a diffuser too.

sorry for your troubles andrew!

have a nice holiday

john

I've had a similar problem but with expired 120 fortepan 400 from freestyle. My grit was much finer, round, speckled everywhere. It was so fine that I needed to print an enlargement or look through a loupe.

Freestyle took the film back with no questions asked. I actually appreciate the company much more after having dealt with their customer service.
One other time, I had ordered some 4x5 sheet film. I received a call 20 minutes later, a young lady very apologetically explaining that it was not in stock but would be, etc. I thought that was nice too.

I did take a few pictures with the defective film. I found my exposure for a print, and printed half with no diffusion and the other half with a canon softar #2 (my favorite for enlarger diffusion). Beautiful prints, no trace of spots or specks.

should read a canon softmat #2, oops.

Are all you people using parchment and wax paper using condenser enlargers? If you have a diffusion enlarger, I don't see where that technique would help.

Andy has a dichroic head on his enlarger, Kirk. The parchment paper or wax paper goes in between the lens and paper somewhere. The farther from the paper the more diffused the light becomes. Think of it as a dodging tool, but that's semi transparent.
I usually lay the paper onto the printing surface, then I move it around. If I want more, I just lift it up from the print surface, a couple of inches gives a very diffused print with super soft tones. This technique will hide grain and film anomalies very efficiently.
Works for enlarging only, of course.
- Thomas

wogster said:

Where do you get Foma in Canada, Henrys doesn't have it and I would like to try a couple of rollls?

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I order it from Freestyle. I live in Thunder Bay, about 50km from the Can-US border. I have Freestyle ship it to a US shipping address (Ryden's Border Store) and drive there to pick it up. Saves all those hassles with extra shipping charges and Canada Customs and Revenue playing with the package for a few weeks or more. I declare the package at the border, and rarely have to pay any duty or taxes as long as the total is less than $100.

I do this with anything I buy in the USA (ebay included). Living in Thunder Bay, pretty much anything I need is only available through mail order. The ONE pro lab in town carries a few Kodak chemicals, and when I need those particular chemicals, I support the local guy.

Rick.

Thomas - so for more clarification - one would not use the parchment for the entire exposure time. I've used crinkled acetate for this for a really light effect and black tulle in an embroidery hoop for more effect. Not as much diffusion as parchment or wax paper.

Andrew Moxom said:

I wonder if the film under the FOMA brand has had all the checks and scrutiny before it's packaged,a nd the 'seconds' are rebadged for use as Arista or other brand names? Could be...

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I find that unlikely. Last year I bought five rolls of Fomapan 100 in 120 format. The film rebate on these rolls were marked Ultra 100.

I use a condenser. Even when I use a cold light I still use this method, just need less time with the soft focus filter (or parchment, stockings/leggings/nylons, plastic mesh, saran wrap, vaseline, etc)..

I've used negative file folder sheets as diffusion materials before..... Works slick...

ricksplace said:

I order it from Freestyle. I live in Thunder Bay, about 50km from the Can-US border. I have Freestyle ship it to a US shipping address (Ryden's Border Store) and drive there to pick it up. Saves all those hassles with extra shipping charges and Canada Customs and Revenue playing with the package for a few weeks or more. I declare the package at the border, and rarely have to pay any duty or taxes as long as the total is less than $100.

I do this with anything I buy in the USA (ebay included). Living in Thunder Bay, pretty much anything I need is only available through mail order. The ONE pro lab in town carries a few Kodak chemicals, and when I need those particular chemicals, I support the local guy.

Rick.

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Ah yes, customs, usually customs problems come down to a simple fact, Americans are often clueless about the paper work needed on international shipments. Usually all it needs is a commercial invoice. A shipment from a photographic supply company to an individual labelled photographic film, and the right size for that number of rolls of film, with the correct paperwork will probably clear customs in 5 seconds or less. The problem I always find with getting stuff from the US is that I pay $40 for the film, and $50 for the brokerage fees to clear it. Which is why I never order from the US.

Paul;

Have a referendum and become part of the USA. I know there are disadvantages but then shipping and customs problems would virtually vanish.

PE

Photo Engineer said:

Paul;

Have a referendum and become part of the USA. I know there are disadvantages but then shipping and customs problems would virtually vanish.

PE

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Ron:

We could use another province or two, just as long as you promise to be as polite as us Canadians .

Matt

wogster said:

Ah yes, customs, usually customs problems come down to a simple fact, Americans are often clueless about the paper work needed on international shipments. Usually all it needs is a commercial invoice. A shipment from a photographic supply company to an individual labelled photographic film, and the right size for that number of rolls of film, with the correct paperwork will probably clear customs in 5 seconds or less. The problem I always find with getting stuff from the US is that I pay $40 for the film, and $50 for the brokerage fees to clear it. Which is why I never order from the US.

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It's not the Americans that are clueless, it's Canada Customs and the shipping companies. There are a few threads here on brokerage fees. The short drive precludes the brokerage fees and the customs problems.

Rick

Photo Engineer said:

Paul;

Have a referendum and become part of the USA. I know there are disadvantages but then shipping and customs problems would virtually vanish.

PE

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In a couple of years when the US is declared bankrupt, we'll just buy off a few states and make them into a new province, I'm thinkin' PA, NY, MD and VA would be nice, I could visit VA Beach without having to cross a border. Probably get 'em to throw in most of new England as another small province. Mexico will probably take over a few others, and China will own the rest.

Paul;

How little you guys know about the US. Three of the "States" you name are really "Commonwealths". The United States is a true misnomer perpetuated by - the US. It is a mixture of States and Commonwealths. They differ in a rather complex manner in the manner in which they are governed.

PE

Photo Engineer said:

Paul;

How little you guys know about the US. Three of the "States" you name are really "Commonwealths". The United States is a true misnomer perpetuated by - the US. It is a mixture of States and Commonwealths. They differ in a rather complex manner in the manner in which they are governed.

PE

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This is probably off topic, if you want further comments then I'd be pleased to discuss it off list, PM me if interested. I will say though that for this purpose I don't think there is a real difference between a state and a commonwealth.

Now dragging this kinda back on topic, companies like Freestyle, can easily use logistics to fix this for Canadian and other countries, let me explain.

How logistics works is this, sending a package worth $25 to say Canada from the US means sometimes a $50 brokerage charge (DHL is famous for this). So what they do, is they send the package to the logistics company, they load your packages with others from other companies into a truck trailer or container going to the destination country. This is sent as a single shipment through customs with a manifest that details what is in the trailer/container. This means a single brokering, and a single customs fee. Once the trailer/container is across the border, it's inducted at a domestic carrier who delivers it.

Along with this, you set up a destination country web catalogue, so it's as if your domestic in that country.

wogster said:

In a couple of years when the US is declared bankrupt, we'll just buy off a few states and make them into a new province, I'm thinkin' PA, NY, MD and VA would be nice, I could visit VA Beach without having to cross a border. Probably get 'em to throw in most of new England as another small province. Mexico will probably take over a few others, and China will own the rest.

Click to expand...

You can have all the blue states you want.

Chazzy said:

You can have all the blue states you want.

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Well, I don't know, I would suspect if the US collapsed, we would see about 40,000,000 refugees first. I would expect that they would simply push the border south, so New York and Pennsylvania would be part of that, along with anything North of that. I would suspect a similar situation to the South, with people fleeing to Mexico which would push it's border North. Be funny to be able to go directly from Mexico into Canada (California to Oregon).

Be nice to be able to go to B&H, use real money, and not have to deal with customs afterwards