Lucky SHD 100

[truls]

Did I get lucky?


Or Kodak?


What can I expect from a $2 film?

At first I developed it in my usual stuff, Fomadon LQN, 6 minutes 68F. Regular agitation.

Result:

Very Grainy (Nikon N2020 Sigma 28-80)

Day two, same film, new developing instructions from filmdev.org, 9 minutes, more agitation.

Result:

(Sears KSX, Sears 135/2.8 @5.6)
Somewhat better, but very grainy. This, in contrast to nice images others have got from same recipe. I could have done something wrong, or may be fixer is old? The negatives looked somewhat brownish, not normal BW negative.

I will try a third, this time plain D76. I will post result later. I could also have got a bad series of this film. Even when shooting frame "0", I only got 34 exposures...

[philbirch]

I wouldnt think it was the fixer. I use Lucky and have had no problems. I use Fomadon and treat it like D76 which it is a copy of (so I believe. The film may be colour slide film. It is possible to develop it in B&W chemistry. and unless you re-expose it and the other chemicals it can come out or indeed it may be colour neg. The edge markings should tell you exactly what film it is. Any chance of a photo of the film edge markings including the barcode?

[Stephen]

Grain can be increased with aggressive agitation, it needs a softer weaker dilution, D-76 equivalents should be OK, but more diluted. You can do a test without wasting a whole film with cut sections put into the tank. With double dilution I would suggest about 15 minutes, given that bad grain, with turning over every minute. Use a stop solution, or plain water to arrest the developer, and then add fixer, which should not cause grain, but can introduce problems if a very different temperature, all chemicals must be the same exactly, along with the start of the wash.

Check your thermometer, is it a real photographic one? If it reads low by quite a bit, you will get grain due to the higher than normal temperature. You do not need an expensive thermometer, just one that is trusted, test against a medical grade thermometer, or an electronic version.

The film may be one of the C41 compatible universal B/White films meant for colour chemicals in a retail processing shop, odd the Chinese are using old Kodak canisters. It may be a colour film, even Eastman Cine stock, packaged as cheap film.

If it is colour film it should work, but will need extended weak developer, a stop, and long rinse before the fixer, which should be left longer. Chemicals take longer to get to the layers.

[truls]

The thermometer is spot on, it is a special thermometer for use in developing of films. I develop films all the time, but have never experienced such difficulty, here a small discouraging update. I developed in D76, as filmdev recipe suggest here: Developing Lucky SHD 100 D76

Result very strange. Most images came out badly grained, as this:



This, much better:


Strange indeed.

There is no markings on the film, or the film cassette. The old barcode from the Kodak original film is worthless in this regard.



opened a new film Lucky, a different branded cassette:


I might as well give it a try.

[Stephen]

It very much looks like a colour process C-41 film posing as a B/White film, there are films for B/W designed to process as such in colour chemicals, but they are usually fine grain, so it looks like cheaper colour stock has been packaged for sale in Hong Kong, or mainland China..

Only cine projection film stock usually has no edge markings, most film for cameras has to have the markings for reference, but the film stock used to make copies for projection in Cinemas does not have the markings, as the marks on the film edge would interfere with the sound track when optical sound is used.

It maybe the film is real B/W, but a film stock intended to be used as projection film in B/W. This does not mean the stuff is un-usable, but will need experiment to find the speed, usually lower than usual, and to find a process time.

Either way the film is not quite what the package says, and this is a problem that simply will not go away, as film supplies slowly run out, they are going to take advantage of selling anything on the shelf to clear out stock.

Stephen.

[philbirch]

I suppose I have been 'Lucky' getting good ones. I suspect there may be more to this name than we think. Like Stephen says it could be a C41 b&w film, rather than a c41 colour neg film. The neg film comes out extremely dense with a definite orangey brown mask.

Oh, I used to use Kodak 16mm B&W neg stock in my Minolta 16's back in the 70's with no excessive grain. I usually developed in D76.

Of course if this is 35mm neg movie film it could be decades old.