8mm Forum: Red spots

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Topic: Red spots

Michael Scheck
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 163
From: Moeriken, Switzerland
Registered: Oct 2003

posted May 04, 2005 04:05 PM

Good evening to all of you!
I bought a film from ebay recently and as I screened it, those little red spots I already detected when controlling the film by eye started to run over the picture.
Has anyone here any idea what these spots could be? They actually seem to be in the film, rather than on it.
Thank you in advance for any enlightenment!
Best regards,
Michael Scheck

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Kevin Faulkner
Film God

Posts: 4071
From: Essex UK
Registered: Jun 2003

posted May 04, 2005 04:12 PM

Hi Michael, Can you take a picture to show us? Cant imagine what they are without seeing them except that maybe the film has got damp or very cold and bought into the warm causing condensation. Really need to see a picture if possible to be able to help further.

Kev.

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GS1200 Xenon with Elmo 1.0...great combo along with a 16-CL Xenon for that super bright white light.

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Tony Milman
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1336
From: United Kingdom
Registered: Jun 2003

posted May 04, 2005 04:58 PM

Michael

Was this a black and white film and do the spots sometimes look like fire?

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Tony

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Michael De Angelis
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1261
From: USA
Registered: Jul 2003

posted May 04, 2005 08:18 PM

Hi to all,

I have had this on some black and white film prints.
It has a copper color, and a friend of mine told me
that this was due to poor processing.

I'm guessing that is what Michael and Tom have experienced too?

Michael

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Isn't it great that we can all communicate about this great
hobby that we love!

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Kevin Faulkner
Film God

Posts: 4071
From: Essex UK
Registered: Jun 2003

posted May 05, 2005 03:36 AM

Ok, I now understand what you are talking about. It is indeed a processing problem. Its normally caused by lack of final washing and is infact the silver in the film becoming oxidised. This tends to happen if the film has had insufficient final washing and therefore leaving salts from the fix on the surface of the film. It can also happen due to air born oxidents which once again cause this effect on the mettallic silver. Its very similar to the the effect you see on silverware when they are left standing for a long time. You get a Tarnish build up and then have to get the siver cleaner out to remove it. Unfortunately you cant clean your film like that and really it's irreversible.
Redish spots on colour film will be down to something having attacked the colour dye layers. Sometimes if the film is splashed after processing but with some of the processing chemicals you can end up with loss of cyan dye where the splashes have landed even bad film washing can again cuse these problems. Nothing can be done about that either. Once there is dye loss you cant get it back.
I think one of the problems was that back in the heyday of super 8 and 16mm the labs took short cuts to get more film through the processors. One way was to jack up the processing teperatures and reduce the processing time. Unfortunately this also reduces the final washing time which is very important to the films longevity. Maybe these effects are now shoeing up after all this time.

Kev.

--------------------
GS1200 Xenon with Elmo 1.0...great combo along with a 16-CL Xenon for that super bright white light.

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Michael Scheck
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 163
From: Moeriken, Switzerland
Registered: Oct 2003

posted May 05, 2005 04:15 AM

Kevin and Michael,

yes, I think you, are right - that must be it.
So I am reliefed that it is nothing that will spread and destroy the film.

But I wonder: I got this on several Blackhawk films. I always thought that Blackhawk was very accurate with processing and all [Confused]

Anyway, thank you for your help! Now I can return to a peaceful, pleasant life.

Michael Scheck

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Michael De Angelis
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1261
From: USA
Registered: Jul 2003

posted May 06, 2005 09:22 PM

Michael,

It's good to have the positive input here on the forum.
Kevin defined the technical aspects of this problem extremely well - Thanks Kev. It's good to know.

Sorry to hear that this occured on a Blackhawk print, because I had this experience at the end of the print with a 16mm Castle Films W.C. Fields cut down: "The Big Thumb."
Also with an Official Films 16mm print of
Hide and Shriek- Hal Roach's final Our Gang short made in 1938. The spots were throughout the film.

Best,
Michael

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Isn't it great that we can all communicate about this great
hobby that we love!

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