Re: [Leica] Ilford film reliability

["onetreehillclw" <onetreehillclw@compaq.net>]

Been using Ilford film(XP2,HP5,FP4, Delta), paper(Multigrade double
weight),developer(DD-X. ID-11), stop bath(doesn't stink,like Kodak's!),
contrast filters,etc... for years. Never any problems here. And that's using
good old New Orleans water in the mix! I don't care for the way Kodak
markets their products. I'll stick with the Brits.

Chris Williams

- ----- Original Message -----
From: <ShadCat11@aol.com>
To: <leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us>
Sent: Friday, July 06, 2001 1:34 PM
Subject: [Leica] Ilford film reliability


> I go through a cycles, periodically, in which I am seduced by reports of
> superior performance by one Ilford product or another, so I try some, find
> it's all true, and take up with the Brit until the weirdness begins.
After a
> hiatus of some years, I got into Ilford again, only to get bit in the ass
> once more.
>
> Lately I have been using lots of Delta 400 in 35mm and 120.  Great film,
all
> it's reported to be.  Just as I started to get happy, my Ilford Thing came
> back.  Several 120 rolls are showing clear "ridges" down the length of
them,
> appearing on some rolls and not others.  One 35 mm roll has a thin stripe
of
> what appears to be exposure down the top edge, just into the frame.  Other
> film developed in the same batch did not show this.
>
> When processing, I hang films to dry with out touching the front or back,
so
> I don't think handling is responsible..  The rolls, 120 and 35  have gone
> through several cameras with no apparent correlation, and no previous or
> subsequent films of Kodak or Fuji have shown these flaws, so I am pretty
sure
> it's not a problem in my equipment.  The 120 stripe doesn't show in a
print,
> but the 35 mm does.  All the film was purchased fresh-dated from B&H, from
> whom I buy Fuji and Kodak films, also.
>
> Every single time I have gone to Ilford I have been sooner or later stung
by
> what seem to be quality control problems.  This dates from and includes
HP3,
> FP3, FP4, HP5, XP1, XP1 processing kit, Multigrade III and Multigrade IV,
all
> of which I got bad batches.  OTOH, in 46 years of photography in using
Kodak
> for 95% of my film and darkroom supplies, I haven't got a bad anything.
BTW,
> likewise Fuji.
>
> Every time this strangeness happens, I swear off Ilford, return to and
> appreciate Kodak quality control all the more, and wonder if I have been
> unusually unlucky or if others have had the same kind of experience.
>
> Allen Zak.