What Caused this?

zendog

zendog

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Name
Steve
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Hi,

I've just bought a Nikon N80 and shot my first roll of film in 15 years.

There is a blue line on all the pictures - about an inch up from the bottom.

Hopefully if I've understood how to post pictures on here its very apparent in this one:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/16817419@N05/10758450204/

The film was AGFAphoto ISO 200from Poundland, developed and printed by ag-photolab.

Any thoughts on the problem? If it's the camera my return to film is going to be very shortlived:(.

Cheers
Steve
 
Dirt on the scanner, simple as that.
 
Which scanner? The line is on the hardcopy photographs I got back - I scanned the picture posted.
 
The scanner AG used. They will have scanned the negatives and printed them out that way rather than optical printing (like in a darkroom).
Their scanner will have a bit of dirt in it causing the blue line across all of the frames in the same place.
 
Thanks Rob - now I understand. I still have this mental image of someone in a dim red lit room surrounded by drying paper clipped to a washing line.

On the one hand it's nice to know the camera's fine - the scan did not do justice to the quality of the photo's I got:). The big bright viewfinder is magic.

On the other I'm left a bit annoyed AG charged me £10 for a set of duff prints. Can anyone recommend an alternative for the next set. I have read the sticky - that's where I got AG from!

Cheers
Steve
 
zendog said:
Thanks Rob - now I understand. I still have this mental image of someone in a dim red lit room surrounded by drying paper clipped to a washing line.

On the one hand it's nice to know the camera's fine - the scan did not do justice to the quality of the photo's I got:). The big bright viewfinder is magic.

On the other I'm left a bit annoyed AG charged me £10 for a set of duff prints. Can anyone recommend an alternative for the next set. I have read the sticky - that's where I got AG from!

Cheers
Steve
Click to expand...

I've only ever used Peak Imaging for my developing (I do all my own scanning so can't comment on their scanning) but their turnaround time is excellent. They charge a little more than AG but their service makes up for it.
 
Contact AG with your concern - that is an unacceptable flaw. Hopefully they'll resolve it, since that is clearly a processing error.
 
freecom2 said:
Contact AG with your concern - that is an unacceptable flaw. Hopefully they'll resolve it, since that is clearly a processing error.
Click to expand...
^^^WHS^^^

Just contact them, they're good to deal with, if a little on the slow side, I'm sure they'll sort it out for you.
 
freecom2 said:
Contact AG with your concern - that is an unacceptable flaw. Hopefully they'll resolve it, since that is clearly a processing error.
Click to expand...

Again I agree, you should ask for an offer of another set of prints without the offending blue line.
 
Agree with the above; AG are good at sorting out any little problems, as said a bit slow (and sometimes hard to contact), but you've not had adequate service and they will want to put it right.
 
Have you looked at the negs to see if they have a scratch in them. Could be as simple as a bit of dust in the camera or a bad film canister that scratch the emulsion.
 
Thanks again Rob - I've bookmarked Peak Imaging and will give them a try next time.

Chris - I wish you hadn't said that. So it could be a camera problem? I'm finding a bit hard to see how something like dust scratch could such a perfect straight line over 24 frames. Nothing visible on the negs but then again if there was I doubt my eyes are up to spotting it.

I was waiting 3 weeks for the prints so bog knows how long it would be to get a replacement set! Seriously - it was a test film and one of the things I learnt was not to use AG-Photolab. Life's way too short to start worrying over a tenner.

Steve
 
Its nothing to do with the camera when you get a perfectly straight scratch, its usually because a small bit of something has got caught in the foam bit of 35mm canister where the film exits so as you wind on it continually scratches the film. From the pictures though I would agree that its a scanning issue as AG will use Digital ICE or similar to remove dust/scratches and that would have removed/reduced the presence of the scratches if it was on the film.
 
I've found Photo Express to be good, cheap and quick with a good scan at 2000 dpi (much better than most low res scans). And you get a 50p per film discount as a TP member. Just tell them you're a member and your username on the order form, and deduct 50p per film from the total.

I started keeping records of film processing despatch/return dates. Photo Express is averaging 2.9 days, Peak 4, AG 7.3 days. Not a particularly scientific measure as weekends confound the stats, but some idea. About half my PE sets get back in 2 days: post Monday arvo, drop through the letterbox Wednesday morning!
 
Thanks Chris - Photo express bookmarked and now the front runner on your return averages.

Steve
 
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