Tiny clear spots on latest roll of film

Your first three rolls might have served as the necessary broom and duster

MattKing said:

Your first three rolls might have served as the necessary broom and duster

Click to expand...

That thought crossed my mind too

It could be the palpus deteriorating on the rear shutter.

Have you observed that the black spots are more prevalent in or near fine detail such as trees, grass? That's what I observed with the exact same issue I had with Tri-X. In my case, I ran it through an old folder, but was quite careful to make sure it was clean, the rollers were free, in good shape. Looking at the negatives, it looks like the emulsion simply flaked off.

In my case, I used Rodinal to develop, but there's zero percent chance a lab used it unless they hand develop film. Can you inquire what chemistry they use?

What's the lot number on your box of film? Mine's 1021 011, EXP 07/22

Here's what it looks like in my images. Ignore halos or blur - I range focused a Russian camera marked in meters with my imperial unit brain. The USM is cranked up. These are not air bells. Developed in Rodinal 1:50, 68F, 12m, Ilfostop, Ilford rapid fixer, fresh.

The camera is clean. It looks like the emulsion is simply missing. Kodak contact email: profilm@kodakalaris.com

Full image: https://www.flickr.com/photos/14333673@N05/49621806256/in/dateposted-public/

Well, it took a while to get the last two rolls I shot developed due to the lockdown but I just scanned them last night and it's not good news: both rolls showed signs of black spots, probably affecting about 1/3 of the images. I guess it's time to take a close look inside the camera and remove any debris that might be in there. If this is caused by debris I have to believe it was somehow caused by the light seal replacement, as this started happening on the first roll following that.

On the plus side I'm going to get a lot of practice spotting prints

Those certainly look like plain old dirt. If it gets on the emulsion before exposure, it'll produce unexposed spots that, after processing, will look like holes in the emulsion unless you have a means to see the gelatin surface at microscopic magnification. And the spots will be in different places in each frame, because they either move around or are carried along with the film as you wind on. Just after a seal replacement is a very likely time to find tiny flecks of the old seal material inside the camera.

A careful going over the inside of the camera with a miniature vacuum wand (the kind sold in computer stores for cleaning keyboards) is the recommended fix here. Canned air or similar is less preferred, because dust you blow away will settle back somewhere, quite possibly just a different spot inside the camera.