Just a quick and incomplete update.
I took a sheet out of the bag and cut it into test pieces. It is notched in the upper right hand corner when the emulsion is facing you, just like normal LF sheet film. It has a brick red coating/dye on it that comes off in processing.
First test was for the safelight. I put an 1a (red) 10x12" filter in my safelight and put the film under it for 4 minutes with a pair of scissors on top of the film. No photogram was created when it was developed, and it came out black, so I consider it red safelight safe. I didn't try my normal OC safelight filter for lack of time and because most of the safelights advertised on the medical xray supply websites seem to be red. I'll try the OC (orange) another time.
The film produces a positive image in normal developers.
I put a medium format negative in my enlarger and exposed it at f5.6 for some test strips. It appears something in the 2-4 minute range is about right for exposure. Normally at 5.6, that would be a 3-4 second exposure! I usually enlarge at f11 or so to produce less deviation in time on normal paper. I'll know exactly how slow things are with this film tomorrow when the negatives are dry and I can look at the all together on a window or light table. I'll produce some photos for here of that if it looks nice or educational.
For chemicals I tried both dektol and xtol for developer. The red coating/dye came off a bit in the dektol and stop producing a pinkish/magenta cast in that liquid. I hope it doesn't transfer that to the paper next time I use the developer. I also tried xtol for about 3 minutes, and the xtol seems to be a little more effective/higher contrast. Again, we'll see better tomorrow when the film is dry. I did not try any prewash. For stop, I used a dilluted indicator stop bath. For fixer I used normal mix of foma fixer that I'd use for paper. When developing in dektol, the image darkens while in the developer like you'd expect when processing paper. When in xtol, it does the darkening in the fixer like you'd expect with film.
There is a slight blue tint to the finished negative, much like you expect to see on a normal xray image, or sort of like the fomapan 400 film I think. I don't think this will be a problem if the negatives are used for alt process, as the pale blue should be pretty transparent to a UV sensitive paper.
