Re: [Leica] Problem with M6 scratching film: Poll

["Gareth Jolly" <garethjolly@bigpond.com>]

Bruce,

Interesting point and interesting question.

One reason that I am keen to check a darkroom print of some of my scratched
negatives.  I can't see the scratches on a couple of 4x6 prints of 400CN or
XP2 from a 1 hour lab but I don't regard this as a terribly reliable test.
When I'm next printing I'll check the negatives using a Leitz enlarger with
scratched section of the negative blown up big.  I'll report back.

My first suspicion was of the scanner - either my occasionally indelicate
removal of the negatives from the scanner neg carrier or possibly an
oversensitivity or eccentricity of scanning.

At the time, I'd first noticed the scratches I'd had my Leica around 2 - 3
months and my scanner around 8 months.  I checked other films I'd taken with
the Leica - most (not all) had similar scratches.  I then went back to my
Nikon negatives from the previous 6 months or so - no scratches.  I then
checked my current Nikon negatives - taken at the same time and place as the
Leica, with the same film (Tri-X) and (in one case) a roll each from my
Leica and Nikon processed in the same tank.  Scratches on the Leica film,
not on the Nikon.  This pretty much clinched it for me.

Some comments on film scanners and scratches are at the following address:

http://www.nikontechusa.com/forums/Thread.cfm?CFApp=5&Thread_ID=1971&mc=8

You will need to become a member of the site to access this.

Actually, your post does raise this question when you say 'would those M6s
had been considered defective prior to the advent of the computer scanner
(which they seem to predate)?  ... Should they be considered defective
now...?'  This ever so faintly raises the question - are earlier Leicas also
scratching film?

So, how about a poll? How many LUGers are experiencing fine longitudinal
scratches on scanned negatives?  The scratches can be spotted in Photoshop
if you enlarge the image to Actual Pixel Size then zoom in once or twice
more.

Gareth

- -----Original Message-----
From: Bruce Feldman <brucef@waw.pdi.net>
To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us <leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us>
Date: Thursday, April 08, 1999 10:28
Subject: Re: [Leica] Problem with M6 scratching film


>This is one of the most interesting threads on this list.  But is the
>problem with the camera or the scanner?  I would assume that *every* camera
>pressure plate or winding mechanism leaves its stamp on a roll of film,
>albeit microscopically, much like a rifle barrel carves its mark on a
bullet
>or a typewriter key uniquely strikes a page.  In fact, I would guess that
>the FBI Crime Lab could identify the camera a roll of film came from if
they
>had to.
>
>But if nothing can see the scratches except a scanner, then maybe they're
>scanning in too much "noise."   There should be a "Dolby" scratch filter
for
>these things.


....

>Seriously, though, would those M6s had been considered defective prior to
>the advent of the computer scanner (which they seem to predate)?  I doubt
>it.  Should they be considered defective now...?
>
>Bruce Feldman
>Warsaw