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Processing vintage film


mikemgb

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Does anyone have any experience with processing very old, exposed film? I came across 2 rolls of 35mm in my collection this evening, one of Ansco with a crimped leader out of the canister, apparently exposed, and one Kodak Safety Film that has film in the canister, presumably exposed. I also found a vintage TLR with a half used film in it, I intend to finish the film and process it.

 

I guess I will have to increase development time considerably, does anyone have any guidelines or do I need to cut a section of the film and do a test?

 

 

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I think you need to cut a section and test it. If you can start with just the leader the frame numbers could give a good indication of how long to develop it, density, any 'spread' from over development etc. are the clues. Then perhaps try to guess where the first frame is and sacrifice it for another test. Either way I think you'll need to increase development. It's exciting, but whenever I've found an old film in a camera it's been blank.

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It will be badly fogged. It's impossible to resurect very old latent images..

 

Not necessarily and, no, it is not impossible.

 

When I taught photography, one of my students brought two 120 rolls of Ilford film that he had found in his grandparent's house.  We processed them both in Xtol at 21deg, one for 30 minutes and the other for 45 minutes, both times were guesswork.   The film base (gun cotton?) was much thicker than modern films and the emulsion gave off a strong smell of rotten eggs whilst it was wet but both rolls yielded perfectly printable negatives from a WW2 RAF wedding.

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These were from 1 of 2 old rolls I found that I shot in Afghanistan back in ~1991 and had forgotten about. They were on some sort of ASA 20 copy film. I decided to stand develop them. 1 roll had nothing, the other produced these (including the obligatory selfies that go with having no friends)...

29941267141_6aa5559f4b_c.jpgB008 by Eoin Christie, on Flickr

 

29911114002_deed31888e_c.jpgB007 by Eoin Christie, on Flickr

 

30024325925_58755b5cf9_c.jpgB006 by Eoin Christie, on Flickr

 

29393932664_4494881cd2_c.jpgB005 by Eoin Christie, on Flickr

 

29393933954_f9013a7743_c.jpgB004 by Eoin Christie, on Flickr

 

29987798126_0eba4fc2d9_c.jpgB003 by Eoin Christie, on Flickr

 

29938425831_d8e8c3498b_c.jpgB002 by Eoin Christie, on Flickr

 

29987805196_ebf3803029_c.jpgB001 by Eoin Christie, on Flickr

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Thank you all, next time I process I'll try a test of one of these. The Kodak film is Panatonic-X, 18 exposures, from what I have found it dates at the latest from the 1970s, I would guess earlier. The Ansco could be 1950s.

 

The TLR the part used roll is in is not working, I"m going to have to remove it in a changing bag and transfer it to another camera to finish it.

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If they produce images, Mike, please show us the results.

 

I will. I took the roll out of the TLR, I can't load it into another camera, the tape holding it to the backing fell off, I'll just process the four shots that have been taken. That film is vintage Kodacolor so I don't expect much from it.

 

I have watched that video before, it shows what can be done.

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In addition to the film above, what do you think are the chances of being able to use this? The colour expired in 1976, the black and white in 1966. :)

 

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Actually my experience earlier tells me that the tape holding the film to the backing paper has probably failed so I'll need to fix that. I also doubt anything could be obtained from the colour, the black and white I may try. I'm actually excited about this because is gives me some 127 reels that I can use to load film on to.

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It's worth trying, Mike. I've got 4 rolls of  1991120 Tech Pan and whatever's left of a 100' roll of 1984 135 Tri-X sitting beside me. I just need to figure out what I want to shoot with them.

 

This is worse than camera / lens GAS...

 

I shot a roll of the 127 colour this morning and processed in B&W chemistry, the film was completely opaque, if I try another roll I'll have to see if I can find someone who still does C-22 processing.

 

Of the 2 35 mm rolls, the Kodak can was empty, just a cut off end inside. I developed the Ansco in Ilfosol-3 at 12.5 minutes, it has images but is extremely dense and very badly fogged. I'm going to let it sit in fix for an hour or so and see if that lightens it up any.

 

I need to get some HC-110, I'll see if my local store can order me some tomorrow.

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OK, the film is dry, and rolled into a VERY tight tube. I cut it into sections and put it in an archival sleeve, it is currently sitting under a stack of books flattening out, in a few days I will be able to get some decent scans. In the meantime I did manage to get these by putting the sleeve in the scanner and mashing it with the lid, quality obviously suffered considerably.

 

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I will do some research on these, the photos would appear to have been taken in St. Louis, we have a house number, 4407, and there are clues to location in some photos not shown here.

 

I will post much better images in a few days.

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Nice bit of history, and really just reinforces the "it can be done" attitude.

 

The gentleman holding the camera top left, it is the 127 camera perhaps, a little like a TLR but not? I recall them from my younger days.

Gary

 

It does seem to be a TLR, maybe 127, maybe 620, I have been trying to identify it.This is the only photo of him on the film, judging by the context he was probably a parent visiting for Easter.

 

Once I can get some good scans I will put all 36 photos on a Flickr page.

 

And this experiment has made me want to hunt down some more old film. :)

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It does seem to be a TLR, maybe 127, maybe 620, I have been trying to identify it.This is the only photo of him on the film, judging by the context he was probably a parent visiting for Easter.

 

Once I can get some good scans I will put all 36 photos on a Flickr page.

 

And this experiment has made me want to hunt down some more old film. :)

Maybe I was too long in the Police, LOL. Love a good detective story.

http://camerapedia.wikia.com/wiki/Kodak_Brownie_Reflex

I reckon it's a Brownie Reflex.

Gary

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Facebook is an amazing thing, we now know who this family is, the father is Charles, he passed away in 2010, his wife Dorothy is still living in Florida. The boys live in Indiana and Ohio, there is also a daughter still around. The second woman is Charles' sister Ruth, she still lives in Missouri.

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  • 4 weeks later...

It's always a fascinating and fun event when film is "found" and there's a mystery to unravel.

 

In my experience, I always use HC-110 since it has above average anti-fog capabilities and develop normally, definitely no more than 15% of the prescribed time to keep the fog level down. Overdevelopment will serve to make the fog worse and increase grain.

 

When using expired film such as VP from the 70s, I'll expose at ISO 50 and develop as above.

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