What happend ?

My father got this on a coupel of Fuji Superia X-tra 400 films
its only on the 3 first pictures on each film and only on 3 films out of 10 bought together.
On the neg. it looks like realy heavy scratch all the way through so only the base is left.
Any one that knows what happend? is it the film or the cam? ( Nikon 601

Jesper

It could also have happened during processing (or when the lab cut the film for you). In my experience scratches in general are becoming more common from 1-hr photo labs - I would try a different lab and see if the issue persists.

Yup, that's a scratch. You can run a scratch test on your camera- put some old film through it, rewind, and then pull out the film and examine both sides held oblique to the light so scratching will show up. It could have been the camera, or the processing. It's possible that it was a foreign body that was eventually carried away. As it occurs in the same place at the beginning on three rolls, I would suspect a handling or feed issue, most likely during processing or loading and unloading the camera or processing machine. Since it occurs on 3 different rolls you can pretty much rule out the cartridge. It's possible that it came this way from the manufacturer, but not highly likely. On one of the frames the scratches to the left aren't lined up with the scratch on the right. This makes me suspect a handling/feed issue the most, likely during processing. Only the Gremlins know for sure.

That scratch occurred pre-processing. So it is either in-camera, or in the lab machine loading gate. I'll second trying a different lab to see how well they do.

He took a film and got et procesed at same lab nothing there and it is only on the 3 films that he turned in at the same time all others where fine.
But he used it as excuse to buy a old F4.... so not bad...

Jesper

Poor operator training could result in the scratch, when loading the film. It might not happen again. In general the type of continuous processors used in mini-labs are more prone to random scratching and dust drying on the film than a pro lab that uses tanks and reels.