Transparent smelly film after developing

[pikapika]

Hi all,

I recently had two rolls of Kodak 400 color film developed at a store. I dropped the film off at the store and had them mailed to me.

One of them had gone through X-rays multiple times before being developed but came out fine. However, the other came out blank/transparent with not even any frame numbers or letters on the edges. It smells pretty strong too.

The store claim that I had not load it properly or that the film is too old. I know that I loaded it properly and I believe that even if I did not load it properly the numbers would still show on an unexposed film. The film is not that old, even if it were expired it would not be more than two years expired. I've even fished out a more than ten years old roll of film from my brother's old camera and had it developed, still came out with photos and the numbers on the edges. Unlike my roll of film, it hasn't even been stored in the fridge!

I was wondering if anyone has any suggestions of what else could go wrong? I just want to make sure that I won't make the same mistake again and ruin another roll of film...

 

[Ysarex]

Lab owes you a refund and a new roll of film -- no doubt. Frame numbers are pre-exposed in the factory by Kodak. There's only one way to remove them from the film and that's faulty processing. The film was fixed/bleached without being developed. The age of the film and expiration date will have no effect on the presence of those frame numbers.

Joe

 

[pikapika]

Thanks you for your answer will try to get a refund from the lab, have to try to get over the loss of my photos as well

 

[table1349]

Lab owes you a refund and a new roll of film -- no doubt. Frame numbers are pre-exposed in the factory by Kodak. There's only one way to remove them from the film and that's faulty processing. The film was fixed/bleached without being developed. The age of the film and expiration date will have no effect on the presence of those frame numbers.

Joe

^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Yep, what he said.

 

[pikapika]

I've posted the same question in a Facebook film community group in my country and I get people telling me that it's because I'm using expired film, that the color is off etc even though I told them it's not an old roll of film. I even noticed that it's got strange markings on it, wonder if it's part of the developing mishap?

Also the lab uses a machine to develop films. I don't quite know how the machine works but would it be possible for the fix to leak from its chamber?

 

[dxqcanada]

I agree with the others
Either they ran out of bleach/fix or developer ... or they exhausted the chemistry.
It is unusual to have machine processing run out of chemistry ... I remember our Noritsu screaming if chemistry was low.

I noticed in this handy dandy analysis of processing errors (Molecular Expressions Microscopy Primer: Photomicrography - Color Negative Film Processing Errors) that it could just need bleaching.