Mr. Madness, I'll comment mainly to keep this thread going. What I see is obvious damage to the initial frames and then I struggle to see any problem. So I'm not sure if the x-ray energy could be absorbed by the outside layers of film protecting the inner layers. That seems like unlikely. Maybe the scenes in initial frames are darker (lighter negs) so the damage (additional exposure) is more noticeable.
For me, the argument about hauling film is about control. If the agent say no hand check, that's it. It's really difficult to ship something home from an airport and you might miss your flight. If I haul film, it would be just a few rolls and a Rollei 35 and then rely on digital for the bulk of shooting.
retrofocus wrote:
Tried this twice when heading to Germany - it has gone worse and worse there to get film stocks. Lots of brick and mortar stores have vanished where I was able to buy film > 10 years ago. The few photo stores left mostly don't have any film available - no B&W films and only Kodak Gold if anything at all. Remark on the side: most photo stores there have also stopped selling any photo gear. They nearly all focus on taking photos for passports or reunions, wedding/event photography.
Of course depends where you are and what film type you’re looking for exactly. But it’s quite easy to get film - incl. BW - in most of the larger German cities. Definitely in Munich, Berlin, Frankfurt and Freiburg and I’m sure also in Hamburg, Dresden, Stuttgart etc.. might require a bit of upfront research.
I did the „buy film at your destination“ thing in London recently. Bought FP4, overexposed it by 1/2 stop and got X-rayed on the flight back with no issues.
Can also confirm you can buy film with decent selection in Zurich, Hanoi, HCMC, Auckland, Wellington, Venice and Rome. Random selection but just happen to be places where I looked 😄
Oscarsmadness wrote:
Alright folks, my local lab got back to me. You're welcome to comment on whatever. I'm giving you the whole roll minus one frame. It's Gold 200, and it went through a CT scanner built by Smith Detection.
I'm not giving you my thoughts right now. I have my suspicions, but I want to hear what you have to say. And if you want to see my Adox HR-50 sample, you're welcome to it too. It was shared to another thread a while back.
11 through 15 seem to have damage. But what do the negs look like? I almost seems like a scanning issue or poor lab handling as the 'fogging' are vertical bars.
Oscarsmadness wrote:
Alright folks, my local lab got back to me. You're welcome to comment on whatever. I'm giving you the whole roll minus one frame. It's Gold 200, and it went through a CT scanner built by Smith Detection.
I'm not giving you my thoughts right now. I have my suspicions, but I want to hear what you have to say. And if you want to see my Adox HR-50 sample, you're welcome to it too. It was shared to another thread a while back.
bwcolor wrote:
The only country where I would be willing to purchase locally and develop locally is in Japan. I think this can be done without issue, other than time and expense. The expense is the cost of film. Developing costs can be reasonable with fast turnaround, except for E6.. not sure about B&W.
As someone who lives and has developed off and on in Japan over the past 6 years or so, I can tell you that as far as I can tell no one does B&W in shop anymore, they all send it to a lab and turn around is generally around 2 weeks and costs about double that of in shop development generally. Color can still be done easily for about 900 yen per roll ($6USD) and I generally can have negatives processed and get a couple prints made in under an hour. What I have noticed is less shops offering the package deal of negatives and 36 small prints for once nice price. Champ camera as an example charges 62 yen per print for something like a 4x6 which gets pricey quick. I have been going with Champ camera lately because the Kitamura near me shut down and the other one near by is more about phone sales but happens to print as well which doesn't inspire confidence..Yodobashi still develops and prints, but again B&W goes to a lab. I know of one person who is not Japanese who runs a small lab where you can print anything same day but I think it's like a lab fee where you do the printing yourself or take an expensive lesson from him. I'm about to start my own mini lab cause I have a space, prices are getting out of hand for color film, and I have always wanted the experience..
I developed a roll of film that went through the scanner at Inchon, they do say that it is "film safe" under 800, but it clearly isn't the 200 Kodacolor film I shot in Kyoto Japan is a wreck darker, extremely grainy of what would have been nice shots paralleling dig shots I took that came out great. For me the lesson is clear enough these new machines will destroy film and to be very selective where I travel with film. The US is great these days as is Japan but otherwise...... I will not bother with any others from that trip I have nice dig pics but that isn't the point.
It is possible because I had those nice brass Leica camera in my bag (MP) they cranked up the levels to look inside..zapping all else, don't know. But film safe it isnt, severe radiation damage, darker, loss of contrast, grainy - what rads do...
