x-ray 8x10 film problem

[trojak666]

I have a pack of Kodak x-ray film since my father works in hospital. I have no experience in using such film, is there anyone who can tell how to expose it using pinhole,and of course how to develop it

 

[fschifano]

X-ray film is not panchromatic and has no sensitivity to red light. Development by inspection under a red safelight in a tray is possible, and using a standard paper developer like Dektol might be a good place to start. As for exposure, that's going to be a wild-ass guess, but I'm guessing it's going to be pretty slow. Try using an exposure index of about 3 or 6 and see where that takes you.

 

[trojak666]

Sorry for my stupid question but what do You mean by exposure index?

 

[Q.G.]

ISO speed

 

[trojak666]

Thanks, that wasn't difficult, hehe

 

[Whiteymorange]

If it's blue sensitive film, sunlight can work very fast on it. I rate it at 400 ASA outdoors, ASA 50 inside with tungsten. Tiberiustibitz here at apug (and Nick to me in the classroom) has developed it quite successfully in Rodinal. My own experience with Dektol and Sprint each gave me quite contrasty negatives. His were moderate. I'll ask him to chime in here if he hasn't seen the thread. The green sensitive film may act differently.

Most common Xray film has emulsion on both sides- no anti-halation layer. You get two different film planes and the results can be a bit soft as a result. It should not be an issue with pinhole work. "Extremity" film, meant for high quality images of hands and feet (lots of little bones) and mammogram film have emulsion on only one side- but these are rarer and more expensive. I don't know what kind you have. Kodak sells all of these types.

Have fun with the stuff! It's inexpensive (free in your case, yes?) and very, very sturdy film, meant to be handles by many people in various situations- it is not delicate.

 

[Joe VanCleave]

There was an extensive thread on using x-ray film as an in-camera pictorial film; the APUG search feature doesn't seem to find it, however.

From memory, there are both blue and green sensitive films, and much experimentation around developers. There was also lots of talk about how easy the film scratches, worse than some of the eastern European pictorial films, and some people were attempting to try hardeners with their development process. The other thing I remember from that thread was bleaching off the back layer of emulsion, after development, by taping it with the "good" emulsion side down, then brushing on some bleach solution that dissolves the backside emulsion, giving sharper results when contact printing.

~Joe

 

[trojak666]

J've checked it again, it's retina blue sensitive, made in...USA hehe.as soon as i try it i will inform you about the results. However the most common developer for me is ultrafin,some exeperiments ahead of me.

 

[jon.oman]

You can find additional information here:

http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?t=48099

Jon

 

[nickandre]

Keep diluting the developer. I used something like rodinal 1:100 or 1:200 at 7 minutes. There was still moderate clipping of the highlights so you might try up-rating the film even more (200 or 400 outside?). Underexpose and underdevelop. It won't be perfect but it's 8x10 film.

 

[trojak666]

Jon, thanks for the link. tiberiustibz- i guess i'll have to buy rodinal after all