Analog film photography and cameras

I wasn't paying attention and developed my T-Max as Tri-X - the canisters look too similar!

Minolta X700, T-Max @400 pushed to about 800 accidentally

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love the details

Ditto.

I'm dipping back into film photography again, scanning my own negatives, and having real problems.

I'm using Vuescan and an Epson V600, but try as I might, it all looks like shit. Noisy red blotches in the shadows, huge amounts of grain (even when using iso100 film), doesnt matter if it's 120 or 35mm, it all looks awful.

I've followed every guide I can find, tried locking film base colour, exposure, adjusting histograms. Re-installed drivers, cleaned the calibration area. Nope. Still get noisy, bad scans.

Also tried Epson Scan, and Silverlight, no better. A lot of what I shoot is backlit, so often I underexpose but looking at the negatives I can see detail and there is more than enough to scan.

WTF am I doing wrong?!

Not sure what to suggest without seeing the images but I can run a strip of 35mm through my scanner for you if you want to rule out the negatives as the issue?

That might be really helpful, thanks, where are you based?

Jesus. I got mine - unused and boxed - for £40 off ebay in 2014. That was after a recommendation on here I think. It is very good but I'd never pay anything like that for it.

Hasselblad w/Ektacolor 160

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img028 by G S, on Flickr

Aye. That hipster tax. Surprisingly I really don't mind. Captured some memories that are now priceless to me. Couldn't actually be happier with the results considering it's so easy to carry around.

I can top that. Grandparents gave me their old, perfect condition one for free. New family heirloom I reckon

I can top that. Wife's cousin gave me an unused OM4Ti and inside the bag was an Mju as well

I'm SE, Lee Green. Away with work the next couple of days but I'll be out on the bike over the weekend so could feasibly pick it up then if you're in London?

Amazing, I’m only in Eltham but away this weekend. Happy to drop it over at some point next week though, will PM you next week and figure it out, thanks man!

That 1st one is lovely.

Cheers. First rolls for about 10-11 years. Really enjoyable, remembered why I got into it I the first place.

All set for a half term trip. Anyone got any advice on not getting film x-rayed? I vaguely recall this as a possible problem in the past.

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Yep - they should be able to do an x-ray check. I took mine in hand luggage and took it out of my bag and asked for an x-ray check. They bypass the x-ray and then use their little cloth thing, wipe down the canisters for substances then scan the cloth. Then let you have the film.

I just got given a shed load of camera kit, darkroom, filters, jobo processor, light boxes and print easels.

Will list a load of stuff tomorrow.

Canon Ae1 and Canon A1, lenses, winders and accessories.

I read up on this a fair bit recently I think all the information seems to be irrelevant now and seems to be carried on from years ago when X-ray wasn't as advanced as it is now. The people who say it's an issue never show proof whereas all the tests I've seen appear to show that it's fine. I recently took 30 rolls through hand luggage to Scotland and back and they all came out perfect... I would keep it away from checked in luggage though as a mate in work had an issue with ghosting due to the stronger X-ray machines used.

Just keep all your film together and put it in one of those plastic baggies and keep it at the top of your bag. If the technician feels the need to increase the power of the machine (if they need to do a deeper scan), then it theoretically might cause an issue but I've never seen it happen.

There was one guy on YouTube who put his rolls through 8-12 carry-on scans and didn't see anything happen when developed.

Hand check is useful but a lot of those stern security people will insist on just putting it in your bag. I believe somewhere in the fine print in the mythical UK security policy, if it's over 800ISO then it shouldn't go through scans but I had CineStill 800 on my trip and it was all good.

The question that confuses me is... if film can't go through X-ray, then how does it get through Customs when importing/exporting?

To cut a long story short:
X-ray damage is cumulative and real. The machines vary hugely in the damage they’ll do. Whether or not you notice it, and whether or not it bothers you only you can answer. If you don’t want x-ray damage you need to have it hand checked.

a few shots from Warsaw taken several months ago... Mju & poundland film

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Love the bottom one - that dog's not looking too keen on you.
Surprisingly grainy for Vista... do you think it's been pushed?

I was thinking that - i'll check the scans. it may have been my hasty editing in lightroom. could have pushed the sharpness slider a bit too far..

Whats the res on the medium/large filmdev scans (can't seem to find the actual link to the examples on the site).

This times 100.
Too many rolls knackered. Don't fuck around any more and always insist on getting them hand checked.