Red Dot Pattern on Ektar 100

There's a long list of possibilities - and it's very difficult to tell what it is from a scan like that. A picture of the actual negative might help, but without that, there are a couple of things it might be - it could be digital noise from the minilab scanner, & subsequent interactions with the grain reduction & sharpening software features, it might be microscopic dust embedded in the negative that the Digital ICE system failed to catch, it could be a result of excessive humidity causing the backing paper to stick to the film - or quite a few others.

It would be useful to get an idea of what sort of storage conditions the film was kept in & what it was scanned on.

Also, if you can look at the negative under a high power loupe, that is probably the most useful way of starting the process of finding out what the culprit might be.

 

I have to agree with Lachlan. Without any other information, I would have said dust. I do see what looks like a small fibre in the magnified image.

PE

 

That's increasingly what it looks like to me - almost as if the ICE system was turned down or off. I've seen similar dried in dust patterns on Hasselblad/ Imacon scans (no ICE) and they're a time consuming pain to clean up.

 

Yep. BTDT.

It is a real pain on easel. It just cannot be done once it is there.

PE

 

Absent more info it looks like a moisture distribution. Each "droplet" area has a brighter center appears darker, even a different colored, as it radiates towards the edges. Looks more organically strewn. Reticulation, contamination of chem, or scanning, might have a more regular distributions. I bet my dollar on that.

 

Usually it happens if the film is not given enough time to warm up from refrigerated conditions before use, or if it is poorly stored in the fridge - especially a domestic one.

 

Lachlan seems to describe a process that aligns with what I mean.

 

I think we have to wait for more information.

PE