I recently bought an Ansco "post-card" format camera which is (+-)80 years old. In it I found a roll of #122 3-A Kodak Verichrome film with 5 out of 6 exposiers taken. I have taken the last exposier and with the aid of a professer at CSU Fresno, I would like to try to develope the film. The problem is that we need to know which chemicals to use in this case. Any advise would be greatly appreciated!

-- ROGER VAN PELT (rwvp@juno.com), October 12, 1998

Answers

Kodak Verichrome Pan film is actually still currently produced. I doubt that your final exposure had an impression on the film, but it might be possible to develop the others, though. My guess would be a dilute solution, like D-76 1:1, with a good presoak. Ask Kodak, as this is undoubtedly a question which has come up from time to time.

-- Brian C. Miller (a-bcmill@exchange.microsoft.com), October 12, 1998.

Need help developing film 70+ years old!

If the film in the camera is over 70 years old it is gone. I am not an expert on this matter, but I think the chance of developing a negative 70 years old that will have any recognizable features in it is slim. The dates on film state that they will expire in a year or two. I have used films past the expiration date by maybe as much as six months. You will get something from a film 6 months old, but 70 years, come on! I would not waste any money trying to develop it.

-- Kenneth Williams (Wil0164@ibm.net), October 13, 1998.

Ah, come on, Kenneth! Where's your sense of adventure? 50 cents worth of developer and twenty minutes of time. What the hey! I've spent more on less, and I'll bet you have, too! Live a little! (grin)

There was recently a case in the news where a kleptomaniac had been caught. He had stolen thousands of items over the years. Many of the items were cameras. One woman came and claimed a camera which she had thought that she lost 10 years earlier. She had the film developed, and the pictures came out OK.

So could film be developed which is 80 years old? Yeah, possible. Ansel Adams quality? Heck, no. I would consider it a success to get absolutely anything from it at all.

Roger: The real question here is what happens to exposed but undeveloped film as it ages. This is B&W, so it's sturdier than color film. The original exposures were made when the film was fresh, so the necessary chemical reactions are complete. I'm betting that not all of the reactions have broken down, so something will be there.

Hmmm, come to think of it, Photographer's Formulary has a kit called Divided D- 76. I just mixed some up. It's a two-part solution, so the highlights won't block up. Part A has the standard mix of chemicals (contains Metol) and Part B is nothing but a Borax solution.

You can order it directly from the Formulary, or maybe a photographic supply store in your area carries their products. Buy it in the 1- litre size. I bought it in the 2-litre size, and it was difficult for me to mix a batch that large.

First, get ahold of some Verichrome film, and by trial and error figure the best development time for it. That would take about three or four rolls to get decent pictures. I would guess to add about 50% time with Part B, and then go for it.

Besides asking Kodak, ask the folks at the Formulary. They might even come up with a custom mixture of something for you to try! :)

-- Brian C. Miller (a-bcmill@exchange.microsoft.com), October 14, 1998.

I was recently given a box of 35 year old Panatomic X 2x3 sheet film; I exposed it at about twice the original EI, and it came out a bit fogged but quite usable. Stored without refridgeration too. If Kodak has no better advice, Email me and I will look up the original 1940-sih times for Verichrome (ortho) in D-76.

Film hardly self-destructs a few months after the expiration date -- I routinely use B&W film that is one to two years past the date with no observable problems.

-- John Lehman (ffjal@aurora.alaska.edu), October 15, 1998.

re: need help

I'm the maintainer of a website called The Brownie Camera Page. I have gotten alot of email from people who have found an old camera, as old as yours, with film in it and after processing the film have found some incredible images. Sometimes a very interesting insight into the lives of the people who owned the camera. As a matter of fact I've been thinking of expanding the Gallery to include images found in old cameras by unknown photographers. If you do get anything I hope you'll think of sharing them with us!

-- Chuck Baker (cbaker@skypub.com), October 16, 1998.

I second the recommendation for Photographer's Formulary chemistry. I have a commercial black-and-white lab I run in my spare (ha!) time, and just two weeks ago a customer brought in some old 120 Tri-X and T-Max 100 he found in a shoe box in his closet. I developed it in the Formulary's BW-44 film developer, and the images were beautiful. The Tri-X turned out to be about 20 years old. No problem printing any of the images. They were his children on a trip to Disneyland. The children are now grown with their own families, and they have new images of themselves as youths. Go for it in the divided D-76. Good

-- Darron Spohn (dspohn@clicknet.com), October 22, 1998.

Roger: Darron and I had an off-line chat about "Divided D-76". When you mix this stuff up, only use distilled water. The borax solution is sensitive, and crystals will form in it when heating it up just a little bit prior to using it for development. I had been using hyper- filtered water (Pur water filter), and that wasn't good enough. Could be due to some PH balance or something in my tap water.

-- Brian C. Miller (a-bcmill@exchange.microsoft.com), October 25, 1998.

15+ year old FP4

I recently got the old enlarger out and rolled up a couple of rolls of FP4 that is over 15 years old. I also shot a new roll of FP4+ as I still have a 30m roll of the old FP4 so before I decided to use it I wanted to test it. Both rolls were shot in the same camera, on the same day (within 1/2 an hr of each other) aimed at the same objects. They were then developed in a twin reel tank in Ilfosol S (at the same time). The resulting negatives are almost identical, with the old ones slightly lees dense. Now I've got 30m of FP4 to use :) click, click, click....

Also, at the orginal msg was posted awhile ago, what happened?

-- Nigel Smith (hgmonaro@hotmail.com), December 21, 1998.

About three years ago, when I was working in a large commercial laboratory, a customer came in with a roll of Verichrome Film, in 116 or 616 size (I think). Anyway, he wanted it developed. I called Kodak, and they were able to tell me that this film in that format was last manufactured around 1953.

What I did was to guess at a development time. The film was run through a rack-and-tank (or dip-and-dunk, if you prefer) film processor; the developer was HC-110(B)@ 68:F. I don't recall the development time, but it was probably around eight minutes.

The resulting negatives had a very heavy base-plus-fog, but there were images! The customer ordered a contact sheet, and we were able to get a very respectable result using a high-contrast filter on VC paper.

When the customer saw the images, he went ape! There were pictures of long-dead family members, including his GRANDFATHER, wearing short pants!

So, yes, I would try and develop that film. What have you got to loose?

-- Terrence Brennan (tbrennan13@hotmail.com), September 22, 1999.