filmscanners: Emulsion flaws (was dust in SS4000)

[Roger Smith <rsmith@unb.ca>]

Martin and others:
        This is another Roger (not Miller), but I have been following 
the "Dust" thread with interest.
        I have often noticed tiny spots on my scans (particularly 
since I got a Minolta Scan Dual II, which shows the spots much more 
than my previous Canon FS2710).
        I stuck a Kodak Ektachrome 64T slide (that I developed this 
morning) under my microscope and cranked up the magnification to 
400x. The enclosed Nikon Coolpix 995 image taken through the 
microscope shows what I saw. This is an area of the slide which is 
almost transparent - the orange area at the bottom shows the film 
grain. The bubble-like flaws are in a different plane from the grain, 
on the outside layer of the emulsion. I can tell this by where I have 
to focus the microscope to see them.
        I developed the film myself, using double distilled water for 
the final rinse. I must admit this is one of the worst examples of 
these bubbles I have seen, but they do show up on most of my slides, 
on many different types of film. I thought it might be the result of 
a processing error, but then I saw the same bubbles on a Kodachrome 
64 slide from 1975.
        Any ideas?

Regards,
Roger Smith

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