Because I am still having some unresolved doubts about a Graflex Optar 135mm lens I bought a few months ago, I decided to use it on my Busch Pressman Model D to take a few flower photos yesterday. I used it for Lumen prints and it seemed to work fine, but somehow, I am having problems with it when it comes to film. I noticed this streak or cloud of violet on the back of the negatives that I think comes from the anti-halation layer. I say this because I have seen it on other negatives that I took with my other 4x5 camera, and I see a coating of this same color on my negative developing reel. I tried to scrub it off my real but it doesn't come off, it is definitely stained, and I wonder if it is staining my negatives when I develop them. Here are the two photos:
There is something not right in the state of Denmark. I think I have focused carefully, these were images taken with the Graflex Optar 135mm lens, and I opened it up to get shallow depth of field, using f5.6, and used a shutter speed of 1/400. I did so because even though the flowers were in the shade, we are in the middle of summer and it is very bright outside. The negatives overall were very dense, but what worries me is that violent stain that comes out in both photos. I don't know if it is my negative reel that is sabotaging me, because as I mentioned before, that stain is visible on the reels, and it transferred to a few other negatives taken with another camera, not my Busch Pressman, another 4x5 camera I have.
So, I don't think it is the lens. I will have to change my reel now. I ordered a new one from 20th Century Camera, hopefully it will arrive in a few days. When it does, I will run this test again. I am wondering, could it also be my film holders? Next time I load them, I will first take a look without the slides, and maybe, rub a paper towel across the surface. I wonder if some of them might have been contaminated.
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