Kodak T-Max 200 Blue Negs

[johnanewton]

I have just recived, after a long wait a roll of t-max 200 negs, they

came back, very thin and blue, any idea what the lab did,I also have

a roll or agfa 50 that came back blue too.<div></div>

[jimh]

T-Max <i>200</i>? Is there such a film?

[johnanewton]

A slip of the keyboard, should have been T-max 100

[m0002a]

Assuming it's more purple than blue, it's not fixed properly or not completely washed, or both.

[viktor s.]

That looks awfully grainy for a fine-grain film; any idea why?

[johnanewton]

Well the negs are REALLY thin,they look really badly uniformly over exposed, but I was really carefull with the exposure.I tend to slightly underexpose say by 1/8th of a stop to give more contrast in black and white. Maybe scanner pics up every thing, I cant understand what happened to these shots, I was hoping someone might have seen this kind of this before.

And the negs are quite purple/bluish all across the base of the film

[johnanewton]

Here is another from the same roll.<div></div>

[joey]

Those look really grainy for T-Max 100. Are you sure there was no heat damage to the film?

[johnanewton]

As far as I can tell,no, unless it happened at the lab.

[johnanewton]

To try and show you what the negs look like heres a b/w neg scanned in colour shown in its negative form, this is on is an Ilford Pan F 50 asa.<div></div>

[jimh]

Looks strange. Nothing like the ordinary purple TMX which resides in the base. This blue tint seems to follow the emulsion in density. Could this perhaps happen if they are processed in C41??

[eugene_singer]

John, it looks like the lab. processed your B&W film in color negative chemistry (C41). It's too late to make a correction. Getting them to admit their mistake won't be easy, but it's worth the try. At the least, you'll get a few new rolls of film out of the attempt. These things happen more frequently than the labs. are willing to admit. Of course, you can eliminate this from happening if you switch to chromogenic B&W film. Not a bad idea if you absolutely need to use a lab. for B&W processing. Most labs. do such a tiny volume of B&W processing that it's hardly worth their while to keep B&W chemistry on hand.

[johnanewton]

I did not know that that it was possible,to cross process Black and white film, if this is true, I am amazed. I have used them in the past and all has been ok. Is there a way to prove that this is what they have done?

[eugene_singer]

John, you said that it took a long time for your negatives to be returned to you. Perhaps, the lab. attempted to correct their mistake by re-developing the film in B&W chemistry. This, of course didn't work. Show them the negatives, and ask them what they are willing to do about the problem. Good luck.

[johnanewton]

Thanks to all for your answers, I will give this one up to experiance, as the Lab was mail order and does not answer its phone, I have found out that it was recently taken over by another company.

For all you English readers it was York Excel, Truprint, Harrier LLC, Nashua Photo Uk, which all seem to be the same company, with no customer service line that answers, I dont fancy sending the negs and prints back, only to get some old film and a processing voucer, which is all you get in the terms and conditions.

Thanks again.

[pete_andrews]

John: The way to increase contrast in B&W is by giving more development, not by underexposure. Underexposure puts the shadows on the toe of the film curve, where contrast is actually LOWER.<br>Although 1/8th of a stop is really neither here nor there, being less than a 10% change in exposure.<p>If that blue tone is really an accurate representation of your negatives, then, yes, something has gone seriously wrong at the lab.<br>Why not do your own B&W processing? It's really the only way to be sure everything gets done right.

[angus_bromide]

<i>"John, it looks like the lab. processed your B&W film in color negative chemistry (C41)."</i>

<p>

Nope. When they do that, you get clear gelatine on backing returned to you, courtesy of the miracle of bleach-fix.

[andrey_warkentin]

I thought the C-41 process involved bleaching out the silver-halide (in order to just have the dye on the film) from the film. If a B&W neg was processed in C-41, wouldn't it come out completely clear, since there is no dye in the emulsion to be "activated" by the silver which gets subsequently removed?

 

I feel confused.