Fuji 'Pepper Grain' - The Mystery Resolved

By: Nick Rains
For the past year or so widely-published Australian photographerNick Rainsand I have been puzzling over a curious phenomena that we have both regularly seen when using Fuji transparency film — black specks on some film when scanned and viewed at high magnification. Correspondence with other photographers around the world has shown that this is being widely seen, which eliminated any specific lab or chemistry type as the source of the problem. Clearly it was the film.
After some effective sleuthing, and correspondence withFuji Film, Nick has uncovered the source of the problem. To our knowledge this is the first time that this issue has been publicly discussed.
Michael
An Explanation - At Last
Over the last year or so there has been an increase in the number of affordable high res desktop film scanners on the market. More and more people now have easy access to 3200dpi or greater scans with equipment like theMicrotek Artix400t, theNikon 4000ED,theCanon Fs4000,Minol...