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1941 Agfa film

Mark Antony

By Mark Antony
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Mark Antony

Mark Antony

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Those of you who read my blog will know that I recently acquired a bulk tin og Agfa Ansco film dated 1941.

Today I did a clip of 6" length and much to my surprise it has images on it!

82130299.jpg

and

82130706.jpg

They have a high base fog, but seem to scan, more on my blog for those interested.

Mark

Photo Utopia

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vic vic

vic vic

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mark .. for a moment i though that the film was already exposed in 1941 and you just developed it..

looks vintage .. even the scene looks like from old pics or movie :))

really intersting.. as far as i know u scan well so i guess this will be in the range of the optical print from it more or less

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Mark Antony

Mark Antony

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Yes guys, its 1:00 am now here and do you think I can sleep? :D

 

I developed these with a sense of almost can't be bothered, you know 5 mins dev at roughly 20C swishing the tank every so many secs.

 

I still have quite a bit of film left, about 5 rolls!

Vic these were not exposed by me and as the film was made between 1938-42-who knows?

 

Need sleep.....

more images:

82131684.jpg

Gentlemen there will be no war with Germany

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Guest Metroman

Guest Metroman

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Mark: I have been looking forward to this and it doesn't disappoint! Ghosts from the past - shades of Poliakoffs 'Shooting the Past' - what happened to them I wonder?

 

I love the instructions with the film, how often do you see 'Avoirdupois' these days!

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Mark Antony

Mark Antony

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The film is basically a short clip test, as I'd hoped to actually try the film with a vintage lens on my Leica.

But I'm stunned by the images, the film is fogged either by light or age, rays whatever but the fact that after 66+ years anything at all was on the film.

Agfa Ultra-speed was the fastest film available in 1938, I think 160 asa roughly a modern equivalent would be TMax 3200 so that might explain the grain.

I'm obviously going to develop the rest of the short length, there may be more images and I still may get to pet some though a camera and shoot some myself.

I'd love to do an exhibition or even just a magazine article, but I'm not sure where to start and I have the feeling I'm still in the middle of the experience, some reflection may be needed before I develop my latent thoughts.

Regards

Mark

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Artichoke

Artichoke

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that I found on your blog

Those of you who read my blog will know that I recently acquired a bulk tin og Agfa Ansco film dated 1941.

 

82130706.jpg

They have a high base fog, but seem to scan, more on my blog for those interested.

Mark

Photo Utopia

"Sons of the Desert"

good to see another Laurel & Hardy fan

you have stumbled upon a treasure trove of analog photographs ...don't know if these were taken digitally that they would have the same impact, even if digital were available then ...the halide's ripening over the years may have had something to do with the fascinating quality of these

thanks for sharing

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dkCambridgeshire

dkCambridgeshire

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I am a bit confused by this .... are you saying that the bulk film has all been exposed and thus there are images on it? And if so, is it an uncut length of bulk film ie not in 36 or w.h.y.? exposure lengths? i.e. still an original bulk film length? Could it thus have been in a "reporter" type camera ie a Leica 250? Or might it be a bulk roll of duplicated images?

 

If these are original exposures then maybe Geoffrey Crawley (Amateur Photographer writer probably UK's foremost film processing technical expert ) might be very interested to examine and comment on the film ... and he would almost certainly be able to offer advice on how to get a bit more quality from them if you still have some undeveloped lengths.

 

Dunk

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topoxforddoc

topoxforddoc

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Mark,

 

I had similar experience last night. Kicking around in my desk drawer has been an old roll of Agfa ISS film, which came from one of my Grandad's old cameras (probably his Yashica Electro). He passed away in 1981.

For some time I've been looking at this roll, wondering if there was anything on it. I didn't even know if it was colour or B/W. Having had enough of my computer yesterday evening (just done my end of year accounts - yawn!), I thought I would find out more about the film. Once I knew it was B/W film, I just had a go - just guessed a bit at dev times and gave it a bit more at 9.30 in Ilfosol.

Anyway this is one of the frames - I was straight down into my cellar to print a frame up. Emailed it to my family and guess what - my Uncle wrote back saying it was taken on 11th October 1970 and he took it!

In many ways it was much more exciting than your usual developing as you have no idea what part of the past it will bring back.

 

Best wishes,

 

Charlie

 

The picture is a scan of the print and tweaked a bit in LR1.1

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topoxforddoc

topoxforddoc

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Andy,

 

I emailed the scan last night as soon as the print was dry to my family. My Grandmother in the picture is still alive at 92 in Vancouver. My Uncle in Hong Kong emailed me back to say that he took the photo on 11th October 1970 at the Vatican, complete with a Chinese poem that my Grandfather had written. He was Professor of Chinese Classics in Hong Kong and wrote a poem to celebrate how delighted he was to have climbed St Peter's Basilica Dome at the age of 70!

 

I was chuffed to bits. The wonders of modern technology!

 

Best wishes,

 

Charlie

 

Charlie: that was a nice surprise! Did you find out where it was taken?

 

There are a couple of sites I enjoy on this theme:

 

Lost Film

 

Look At Me

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Mark Antony

Mark Antony

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I am a bit confused by this .... are you saying that the bulk film has all been exposed and thus there are images on it? And if so, is it an uncut length of bulk film ie not in 36 or w.h.y.? exposure lengths? i.e. still an original bulk film length? Could it thus have been in a "reporter" type camera ie a Leica 250? Or might it be a bulk roll of duplicated images?

 

If these are original exposures then maybe Geoffrey Crawley (Amateur Photographer writer probably UK's foremost film processing technical expert ) might be very interested to examine and comment on the film ... and he would almost certainly be able to offer advice on how to get a bit more quality from them if you still have some undeveloped lengths.

 

Dunk

 

The film is Agfa loads a kind of bulk film, precut into lengths with shaped leaders.

It is entirely possible that the photographer didn't have enough cassettes and put the film back in the tin.

I still have 4.5 films left- this was a clip test.

The reason I've held off is to take advice on how to develop the rest, the film is badly fogged, I have a lot of experience with processing (I owned my own Prolab) so I'm taking advice AP have been contacted

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