1. What causes tiny, clear pinholes in transparency film? I figure if it was a dust speck, it would be black. (I've had plenty of those over time!) Is it a defect in the film from the manufacturer? Something in the processing?

2. I bought a few used film holders, a couple of which have incredibly shiny darkslides. The new ones I've bought have a dull finish, suggesting the shiny ones were discontinued for a reason. Is there an inherent problem with these that I should be aware/wary of?

-- Todd Caudle (todd@skylinepress.com), November 30, 2001

Answers

I have several glossy black darkslides which have never given me a problem, if the slide fits the holder and the light trap is snug, there is no reason for problems, whether shiny or flat. Pat

-- pat krentz (patwandakrentz@aol.com), December 01, 2001.

Todd, I would swap processing service for a while, to see if this remains. Other source could be a bad film batch, but I have never seen this. I don't think you should have any problem with shiny darkslides. Some rollfilm backs come with polished stainless steel slides!

-- Paul Schilliger (pschilliger@smile.ch), December 01, 2001.

What causes tiny, clear pinholes in transparency film? One word - Kodak. But I've only seen it in 35 mm film. I stopped using E100VS because of this problem. Had some otherwise great shots ruined. I've never seen it in Fuji Provia or Velvia. What specific film are you having trouble with?

-- Peter Popp (popp@al.noaa.gov), December 01, 2001.

Have you been packing the exposed/undeveloped sheets into a box too tight? On a recent trip to Syria I did precisely that. In order to save space I was putting about 80 sheets of exposed velvia into 50- sheet boxes. I must have got some minute particles of grit in there too (well it was in the desert) as a few sheets have little pinholes where the emulsion got scratched off. The give-away is that under a strong magnifier some of them have faint lines scratched randomly around the 'pinhole' - a bit like one of those diagrams of Brownian motion you see in physics books. Must be where the film was rattling around inside my rucksack. If anyone has suggestions for how to avoid this I'd love to hear them.

Provided you don't have any light-leaks around the seals, shiny shouldn't matter. Probably don't look as 'cool' though!

-- Stuart Whatling (swhatling@hotmail.com), December 01, 2001.

Thanks everyone. Would've responded sooner, if not for beoing without Internet access since Friday. (Yep, I was an @home subscriber) The grit-in-the-filmbox thing sounds plausible, and I'm now not worried about shiny darkslides.

-- Todd Caudle (todd@skylinepress.com), December 06, 2001.