K-40 and Blue Specks

[kbrady]

BolexPlusX --

Interesting...Your experience seems to rule out temperature, moisture, and "the lab" as the culprit, and points directly at the film stock...K-40...(when all else is ruled out, what's left is the answer). This is indeed sad news. I haven't tried it yet, but hope the "blue specks" can be cloned out digitally (in Photoshop/Premiere), which, given the cost of around $21 per processed reel, is a big, unreasonable pain in the butt from the product of a Fortune 500 company.

[BolexPlusx]

I'm not sure we can rule out temperature completely. What this may be saying is that in the initial few hours after the film comes out of the fridge and is changing in temperature, there may be a problem. The second cartridge (of the same exp. date) was fine, but had warmed a few hours more.

The lab could still be at fault too because these two rolls of film were processed two weeks apart. So whatever may have caused it at the lab for the first roll changed during the two weeks (maybe "Bob" went on vacation, maybe there was a thunderstorm in Kansas when the first cartridge was there?)

What would be really interesting is if somebody said "I took a cartridge out of the fridge and shot half of it, and then finished it the next weekend. The first half was blue spotted, but the second wasn't."

For myself, I'm going to either keep the next cartridges I'm going to use out of the fridge, or I'm going to take them out the night before.

If it's the stock or the lab, I haven't the remotest idea what to do.

By the way, has anybody had this problem with film that was already warm for a while?

[c_77]

Is everybody preparing their film first before projecting it? By that I mean soaking it in Filmrenew etc.? Film developers no longer do this and I have found that doing so has solved a lot of problems. This would certainly elimate a lot of static electricity, have the film run more smoothly through the gate, and prolong the life of your film.

You can buy supplies here:
http://www.urbanskifilm.com

[kbrady]

Bolex -- I should've added that NONE of my K-40 has been refrigerated, which seem to eliminate temp. Also, processing at both Kodak and DeWayne's has come back with the blue specks. I began noitcing in fall 2002, and know that K-40 shot in Spring 2001 and processed by Kodak had NO blue specks.

I think its the emulsion, and as you said, I too have no idea what to do. I battled with the Kodak Motion Picture Div. over 6 months getting replacment carts for the infamous "jittery cartidge" snafu, so I'm not interested in starting any dialogues with them.

It's too bad that quality control at once-mighty Kodak periodically goes into the pits. As the digital wave continues to rise with consumers and pros in all areas of photography, Kodak will suffer some serious market shrinkage. I wish it were not the case.

[rollemfilm]

I recently shot a roll of K25 16mm and not a speck to be seen. Don't know if this helps or not.

[BolexPlusx]

kbrady

Ok, now we're getting somewhere. You have eliminated temperature as a possible cause. (Kind of a shame too, that was the one thing we had some control over!)

I think it's fair to say it's not a problem of emulsion since the cartridges of the same expiration date are not behaving consistently, but more a mechanical problem with the cartridge.(Makes no difference to us; the problem is still contained inside those little yellow boxes.) Who knows?, this may be a little zinger that came along with the fix for the jitter problem.

The funny part is I only had one cartridge that had the slightest jitter, and it wasn't even K-40. It was a roll of Plux-X I was using to do kind of a 1930s era silent movie kind of thing, and in that case, the jitter actually added to the effect!

(could still be the lab, Dwaynes is allegedly doing all Kodak's K-40 processing in North America., and if this is true your really haven't got a choice anymore.)

Is anybody seeing this problem in the rest of the world?

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ August 06, 2003 04:51 PM: Message edited by: BolexPlusx ]</font>

[oseus]

I just got back my first roll of Ektachrome a week ago and there was a blue streak on the right side of the frame for maybe a total of ten or fifteen seconds. It was developed locally (in Vancouver)and there was absolutely no jitter when projected. Anybody else have this problem with a stock other than K40?

[BolexPlusx]

If it was a solid line, probably what you are seeing is an emulsion scratch. What we are talking about here is little blue splotches, usually equidistant from the edge of the frame.

It's interesting, I was looking at an old Kodachrome out take last night that could easily be 20 years old, and it was blue splotched.