Horrible efke film results

[greg_cornish]

I used 3 127 cameras with new film I bought from B&H. Efke 100. All three cameras turned out equally

bad quality. I had then developed at a photo lab in Beverly hills. After those Black and Whites, I shot color

in one of the same cameras. I t came out much better.

http://www.significantudders.com/webexamples

You can see the color shots are fine. I've talked to two pros and they think its either old film or bad

developing. Here's the response from the lab.

 

Hi I do not have any idea about processing b&w to get bad development and we are using Kodak Tmax

developer and never had problem and it seems you have backlit lighting.

[umut_arslan]

Your lab is bad, not the film or tmax developer.

[anthony nardelli]

I've used Efke 25 to good effect and since these films have good exposure latitude, I doubt there is a problem on your end. I would suggest that T-Max developer isn't the best choice for developing as these chemicals were designed for T-grain films in mind.

[spanky]

I used Efke in 120 size a couple years ago and really liked the 50 and 100 speeds. Then there was a dry spell for some time until Efke shipped a new batch and Freestlye started offering this film. I picked some up put a few rolls through my RZ and developed at home (Rodinal 1:50 same times and agitation as the previous rolls) and got horrible results. Not like yours Greg but mine just were much much more grainy. Obviously this batch is different from the last. Efke has always had complaints about QC although the usual things like scratched emulsions are probably due to poor handleing.

Nevertheless, I'd suggest staying with Ilford, Kodak, or Fuji.

[bill_taylor2]

Does the EKfe film have edge printing, such as index and frame numbers? Do you have good clear spaces between the frames?

 

You know the spaces between the frames and along the edges are unexposed and thus should be film base clear. To the extent it is fogged, that indicated bad or old film. Possibly under fix coudl cause this as well, but a lab isn't terribly likely to do that. At home would be another matter.

 

If the edge printing is not a "good" density, that indicates poor development process. It might not be at D max, but it is likely very close.

 

Good luck!

[stephen sullivan]

I got great results with Efke 25 in Rodinal 1:50 @ 20c for 9.5 min.

 

Two months ago, I got similar results as you've just posted when having a roll of Delta 400 developed in T-MAX DEV 1:4 @ 20c.

 

The lab said that it was their fault and that they were very sorry. To them, it looked like the film had gotten exposed to a bit of light once out of the film canister.

[bill_taylor2]

Stephen suggests something else too. The safelights at that lab could be too bright. A film that is truly light struck will be obviously "tiger striped" or have some kind of similar mottling. The same with a camera or film cannister that has bad light traps, or if 120 film is not rolled up tightly. But a bright safelight would just fog film slightly. You might get a usable image, but proably the whole length would have a very high base density.

 

I don't mean to suggest these folks are developing open tank like in the 50s. Simply that they might have a very small light leak into a tank, or that somehow their handling involves a light source that is too bright.

[greg_cornish]

Bill, in reference to the film base, I've updated the web page at

http://www.significantudders.com/webexamples/ to give you an example.

[bill_taylor2]

The edges look OK to me in the scan, but really you need to evaluate it by direct observation. Do the clear parts look truly clear, does the density in the numbers look "right"? You might want to look at another, known to be good, negative to compare.

[tony_lockerbie]

Hi Greg, looking at the shots it gives the impression of really foggy optics on the cameras involved. But I suppose the fact that you used three different cameras should rule that out. The Rollei in particular should give nice contrasty pictures. I still can't see though how film developing could give that London fog effect.

I presume that you have checked out your lenses for smear marks or internal fogging?

Poor developing should be confined to under/overdevelopment or streaking and the edges of your film look about right to me, although it's hard to tell from a web picture.

Safelight fogging should just give a low overall contrast and that doesn't seem to be indicated by the film edge.

My expreience with Efke is one of too much contrast, rather that too little.

Good luck with the 127's, great to see you still using them!

Tony

[greg_cornish]

I'll probably have to use another developeing firm to find ther true answer. The lenses are in great condition. The rollei that took the B&W shots also took the color shots. The primo should give more contratst photos than the rollei because I heard their lensews are even better.

[frank.schifano]

"If the edge printing is not a "good" density, that indicates poor development process. It might not be at D max, but it is likely very close."

 

Not necessarily true. Edge marking densities can be all over the place. Edge marking density is reliable indicator of nothing significant. All it can reliably tell you is that the developer worked or it didn't.

 

There are only a few things that can cause problems like the ones you are experiencing:

 

#1 - Severe overexposure drives all the values up into the shoulder of the film's contrast curve.

 

#2 - Shooting with a strong specular light source pointing into or glancing sideways off the lens. This kind of veiling flare is especially bad with uncoated lenses used without benefit of a lens hood.

 

#3 - Old film that is age fogged. Works pretty much the same as severe overexposure.

 

Looks to me like #2 is the most likely culprit this time.

[greg_cornish]

I could agree on number three except all but 2 shots were shot facing north with the sun at my back

[photo_smith]

Just an idea, do these 127 cameras have bellows? To me I'd say it was some kind of flare or

light leak, from your edge markings and film rebate I'd guess the Lab is not at fault.

 

I have some examples of Adox/EFKE 25 on my blog in a mini test if you want to see what the

film is capable of.

http://photo-utopia.blogspot.com/2007/04/adox-chs-25-art-this-film-has-been.html

 

Mark

[adrian_wilson6]

Hi Greg,

 

For what it's worth I put one of your foggy images into Photoshop and hit Auto Levels, the result is noticeable however I feel you still have certain issues here that should not have arisen, and possibly you need to identify the real causal factor.

 

Cheers,

 

Kind Regards,

 

Adrian.

[nickr]

I believe it's age fog. It looks similar to results I got when I developed an old roll of film I

found in a Soviet camera I bought. <br />Here's an example from the roll: <a="http://

www.nickrivera.com/gallery2/main.php?

g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=326&g2_serialNumber=2">link</a><br />The

rest of the roll looked the same. New film exposed in the same camera appeared normal

after developing.

[nickr]

Here's the link:<br />

http://www.nickrivera.com/gallery2/main.php?

g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=326&g2_serialNumber=2<br />

Copy link as one line and paste

[greg_cornish]

Thank you, I think that's it. I'll get some B&W C41 respooled

[frank_patrick]

Freestyle, at 5124 Sunset, says they are the Efke distributor for the US. They may have fresher stock and development available. Could avoid fingerpointing.

 

Frank

[greg_cornish]

I'm shooting a couple more rolls to try at a different dveloper. I bought ten rolls.