Kodak Industrex MX125 x-ray film

[iangreenhalgh1]

Hi folks

A while back I picked up a box of this stuff, 100 sheets of 15x40cm, paid almost nothing for it. I chop it up into 12 sheets of 6.5x9 from each big sheet so the whole box is enough for 1,200 sheets of 6.5x9, for a cost of 1.08 pence per 6.5x9, which is as cheap as your ever going to find.

It's only sensitive to blue so can be worked with under a red safelight, which is how I'm able to chop it up, red safelight and scissors.

It's double-sided, emulsion both sides, this is a slight drawback as it results in slightly less sharpness than a conventional single-sided film. On the upside though, the grain is almost non-existent, in fact, it's got less grain than any other film I've tried, even Tech Pan and microfilms have more grain than this has.

It's also very high contrast, so I use stand development with very dilute developer to get continuous tone and ameliorate the contrast. I've tried several developers and the results don't vary much. Unlike most films it develops to completion so you have to make sure you get the exposure close to right as you can't do any pushing or pulling in development. I rate it at ISO 12, which appears to be it's actual speed.

Tonality is less good than the films I usually use such as Fomapan 100, FP4 and APX 100, which is inevitable with a blue sensitive only film, the look you get is very vintage, a throwback to the late 19th century when emulsions were only sensitive to blue and UV light.

I wouldn't use this film for serious work, but for lens testing and learning to shoot in the required style it's proved to be very useful. I'll still use it, just not for everything.

First up, here's some shots with my Angulon 6.8/65, everything shown is using my Century Graphic 23.





Those three were in gray, dull light, in good light this film becomes pretty contrasty, again with the Angulon:



These two were just before sunset with lovely light, Kodak Enlarging Ektar 4.5/100, second one is wide open:




These are all with my Xenar 3.5/105:






These are with my Pullin Pulnar 2.8/100, light was not good so the tonality leaves something to be desired:






These are with my Mamiya 2.8/80 in much better light, so tonality is improved:






These were with the Xenar 3.5/105 again, light was very good. I used a pair of ND4 filters and exposure was 60 secs, the film seems to have quite a high reprocicity, moreso that FP4 for instance:




Finally a portrait, I used my Tominon 4.5/135. The tonality is less than ideal for portraits, my dad's skin isn't as dark as it looks to be here:



I hope that gives a decent insight into how blue sensitive x-ray films work for pictorial shooting.

[philslizzy]

Nice ones Ian, the tonal quality is strange. In the old days they would have referred to this as ortho film.

May I suggest using paper developer i.e D163 or Kodak Rapid X-ray Developer. I've used both.

Dental or medical x-ray film has better tonal gradations as it is designed to look at semi transparent (to x-rays) subjects like tissue and bone. Industrial film is more designed to look at metals and composites, its high contrast allows stresses and fractures to be seen better.

People have mentioned using this film but so far few images using it have been posted, including me. I don't know how to scan a 6x12 inch film!!

[philslizzy]

Pic no 16, the street scene, shows the lovely soft quality of this film caused by the double emulsion.

It is great for portraits if you have your model apply white or non brown colour foundation. Avoid freckles, they come out black!!

[Jesito]

Very nice gray range and response to light. Even with the strange tonal range, the film seems to be very promising.
Have you tried to use coloured filters with it?.
Thanks for sharing, nice report!.

[iangreenhalgh1]

Cheers guys.

Hi Phil, I have a bod of Konica-Minolta SR medical x-ray film, but it seems to be buggered, even at ISO 3, it comes out underexposed and has loads of base fog, I haven't managed to get anything worth scanning with it, I'll try again with it but I'm losing hope. If you would like to try some and a couple of sheets of the Industrex, I can send you some.

I'm planning on getting some Dektol to try with this film. I used Microdol-X diluted 1:3, stand developing at 20C which does a good job of making continuous tone, but I suspect there are better solutions.

Hi Jes, I haven't tried any coloured filters with it yet, but I plan to, I will of course post my results if they are worthwhile.

[philslizzy]

[iangreenhalgh1]

Cheers for the info Phil. The Konica-Minolta stuff is similar to the Industrex - double-sided, blue senstive, blue tinted base.