Very cheap large format film - x-ray

[luisalegria]

There are quite a few people using x-ray film in regular LF cameras.

Even new X-ray film is very cheap.
You can order it from vendors of medical supplies, like these -
http://www.zzmedical.com/zencart/xray-film-c-28.html?zenid=8a5c951aa13ae190023c8304c9afb4d4

These people have 100 sheets of Kodak Green film 8x10 for $39 - thats 400 4x5 films, or $0.10 per shot. Thats as cheap as photo paper. I have seen even cheaper.

I haven't tried x-ray film yet. It looks interesting.
But there is some information on the internet.
Some is blue sensitive, some is green sensitive

Some info I gathered.

- Regular processing chemicals, processes etc. work well.
- they are sensitive on both sides so they may have less resolution (double image, where one image may be slightly defocused)
Some varieties are sensitive only on one side.
- they are very easily scratched when wet so have to be carefully handled. And because of the double surface you cant develop it in a 35mm tank by rolling them with a rubber band for instance.
- Effective ISO varies. One report is that the Green sensitive stuff seems to be about ISO 200 in daylight or ISO 25 in incandescent. There are different grades and sensitivities also, so one would have to do a lot of tests to figure out the rules for exposure.
- It tends to be rather high contrast
- Theoretially one could use a safelight to cut and load it (it is orthochromatic) but in practice it fogs easily, so assume darkroom cutting would be needed.
- It will need to be cut or trimmed for use on regular film holders as the sizes don't exactly match - 8x10 x-ray is a bit larger than 8x10 camera film.
- Its thicker than camera film so some holders may be tight.

Nice discussion here -
http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?48099-X-ray-Film-example-and-comparison

[Tesselator]

x-ray film? Isn't an x-ray light source needed?

How would this work if I may ask?

[luisalegria]

I understand that x-ray film is not only sensitive to x-rays.
It does work, there are many examples online.

[Katastrofo]

Yes, x-ray film is definitely sensitive to light. I fudged a newly-opened box of the 14x17 film (was shooting a
KUB for a patient that presented with possible kidney stones) by forgetting to replace the cap back on the box,
this was in Iwakuni 1990 or 1991. We went from a General Electric to a Pickering in the new clinic that didn't
'like' 100V 50 cycle Japanese electricity.

Curious to see your results, Luis.

[luisalegria]

No results, and I don't know if there will be any.
I was just researching the possibilities.
My personal problem with any large format film is scanning.
Won't do me much good to have nice LF negatives if they can't be scanned.
So I have to solve that first.

In any case, I just wanted to note that x-ray film is an interesting low cost option for anyone who wants to try LF.

[mmelvis]

Sample images here
http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?80011-Images-shot-on-X-ray-film

[Tesselator]

[David]

For scanning, multiple scans with each image having some overlap followed by stitching. Lengthy process. On my Epson it takes three scans to do one 4x5.

[Farside]

Luis, they've got it even cheaper - $26 /100 10x8
http://www.zzmedical.com/zencart/8x10-in-fuji-xray-film-p-384.html?zenid=8a5c951aa13ae190023c8304c9afb4d4
If it wasn't 3000 miles and a shipping cost away, I'd be very tempted.
Some of the caffenol results with this film are very good indeed - even good old D76 does well with it.

[mmelvis]

[Tesselator]

Yeah, it looks like it could be a very creative film!

[philslizzy]

[wozaczynski]

I know that's quite old post but quite visible on web so it's worth to write here some important information about x-ray film. I'm shooting quite a lot pictures on few different x-ray films. My favourite are Fuji Super RX blue which is double side emulsion coated. There are two kind of most x-ray films - blue and green sensitive. I prefer blue but it's up to personal taste. Double coating is not a problem in my opinion. You can use traditional BW chemistry to develop all the xray, but I would say it's more similar to paper than film developing. Red safe light possible to use especially with blue sensitive film.

You can find some examples of pictures on my blog and to search "xray" there:
www.wozaczynski.com/blog/?s=xray

[visualopsins]

Welcome wozaczynski! Thank you for informations.

[philslizzy]

A lot of x-ray films have two emulsions, one on either side. This can produce interestingly soft results. I think single emulsion films would be better. But they are dearer.

Alas x-ray films are going the way of camera films as digital image sensors are used more in hospitals.

You always have a special developer for x-ray films. Its like a normal film dev.

Iangreenhalgh1 uses odd films including x-ray he, I guess, is the resident expert.

[wozaczynski]

[uddhava]

[Oldhand]

Surprisingly good images.
Thank you for sharing these.
Tom

[arri]

I know this thread is very old but I want to show a sample I made this year with a X-ray film.
I used the Fuji UM-MA mammographic film because only the mammo films are single coated and good usable for photography.
The film is orthochromatic with a higher level of sensitivity to blue light, blind for red but green comes really good.
It has a higher contrast than standard taking films but not as high like graphic film.
It can be developed with standard film developers, here I used the Adox Silvermax developer.
I bought a pack of 100 sheets 18x24cm for 48€ and I cut 4 sheets of 9x12cm of it.

This sample were made with an very old and uncoated Emil Suter, Switzerland, "Stella" 5/160mm @f/22
@ISO 80, pre exposured zone II

I show the whole negative, have a look to the upper right corner, this round edges are typical for X-ray films, here only one edge because of the cutted sheet.

[DConvert]

[philslizzy]

Xray film is light sensitive as well as xray.

I used to sell x-ray film and have used it in camera and the darkroom. There are special x-ray film developers but I found it developed just fine in D163 - kodak's paper developer. Fixer is fixer, any works.

As someone mentioned, most xray film has double sided emulsion, this will give a very slight softness as both emulsions will be exposed in a camera. if you are tray developing under a safelight its a good idea to develop it with the (intentionally) exposed surface upwards to get a better idea how its coming along.

Now film speeds were always improving allowing lower powered tubes and faster exposure time - I'm not sure what kind of speeds they are today. I used to pull out the dark slide a section at a time, like doing a darkroom test print, and calculated the speed from there. Watching the development allowed me to fine tune it.

I would develop blind for 4 mins at 20C in x ray developer or a minute and half in D163watching it under the safelight

A safelight we sold was an orange filter. Kodak made them in 10x8" or circular for the beehive lamp.

A red would probably do as daylight processing boxes have a red window through which you could see the film as it's developing.

Making giant positives under an enlarger was the main reason I used xray films.

Hope this helps