White dots in EFKE IR820 AURA

[Arctic amateur]

I shot a roll of EFKE IR820 AURA this summer. I bought the roll in 2012, it's probably from the last batch made. All the images have small white dots all over. Is this an emulsion defect or something I screwed up in processing? Kodak TMAX developer, Fomacitro indicator stop bath, Ilford rapid fix, Compard wetting agent. I mixed the chemicals in demineralized water and used filtered water (BRITA mug) for prewash and wash water.

Example (negative scanned at 1600 ppi):


Full image (click to see 1:1):

 

[pdeeh]

yep, welcome to the isn't that a shame club. if you have a good look at the film under a strong loupe you'll see its a fault in the base.
all the final batches seem to be affected in the same way - my few rolls certainly are

 

[grommi]

I once had such masses of spots because of a crappy fixer, but for Efke is reported many times that the plaster fell from the ceiling if a truck passed the machine hall and so spoiled the whole production. So there are many reasons why Fotokemika died, the quality problems are surely to name in first sight why nobody wanted their films anymore.

It's a pity for films like the IR820 of course. Just a sidenote: a highly improved version of the Efke 100 is the Adox CHS 100 II (made in Germany!), a beautiful film based upon the historical Adox/Efke emulsion, top quality as we are used from the "big 3".

 

[Toffle]

I often found spots on the 820 Aura, which was a shame, but I loved the richness (?) of the blacks so much that I was more than willing to accept those as part of the character of the prints.

Cheers,
Tom

 

[Arctic amateur]

Oh well. Nothing to be done, then. Are the spots as prominent when wet printing?

 

[paul_c5x4]

As long as the spots come out white in the final print, spotting will hide the worst of them.

 

[James1]

yep, welcome to the isn't that a shame club. if you have a good look at the film under a strong loupe you'll see its a fault in the base.
all the final batches seem to be affected in the same way - my few rolls certainly are

Quick question - does this mean there are potential faults in all the final batches of the "normal" film. i.e. Efke 25, Efke 50 etc?

I've got some Efke 25, emulsion numbers 121024 (expiry April 2014) and 121027 (expiry September 2014) which I have not got round to trying out yet - anyone tried these to see if they have the same issues...?

 

[Xmas]

I never use an acid stop with non prehardened film, water stop is safer!
I always temper better than 1.0C between dev, wash, and fix.
I used lots of efke including their last production never had any spots.
Don't send kissograms to Judas.