Processing unknown film type - what is it?

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Hello, experts,

A coworker's mother-in-law found a stash of old film that she'd been carrying from home to home over the last 30 years. There is 126, 127, and 620 rolls. Some of them were clearly Kodak Verichrome Pan, but there was some mystery film, too.

One 126 cartridge has the following on it:

"Famous Brand 126 Color Film - For Daylight or Blue Flash"

"Process G 25 - Made in Belgium - BD 365"

"CAUTION: This film can only be processed on our special equipment for exclusive triple-print (R) Process."

"Mail film and $4.25 to: Nat. Hdq., Box 7529, Phila., Pa."

Obviously, that is color film and some odd-ball process. There are also some 620 rolls from the same company. The licky label says,

"CAUTION: This film can only be processed on our special equipment for the exclusive 36 picture process.

"If you have lost your envelope, send $2 and film to: Nat'l. Hdqrs., Box 7529, Phila., Pa. 19701."

There are NO other markings on the paper backing except "620 Exposed" and the frame numbers. Nothing says it's color.

Since the rolls holds 12 square pictures, I'm thinking that the "36 print process" is the same as the color triple-print process (12 exp. x R+G+B?.

Not wanting to spend and fortune for professional processing, and understanding that I may completely mess them up, he asked if I'd like to give them a shot. Thinking that this G25 may be an obselete process, I processed on roll of the 620 in XTOL, following Kodak's instructions for Verichrome Pan with a 2 stop push. I got images. They're not great in contrast, so next roll, I'll push some more, but they were actually better than the old Verichrome I processed without pushing. The fog wasn't really bad, either.

So, can anyone tell me more about what this film is I have? Has anybody else purposely (or maybe accidently and recorded his results) cross-processed color film in B&W chemistry to get B&W images?

-- John H. Henderson (jhende03@harris.com), June 25, 2001

Answers

It's possible that G-25 is long gone. It's also possible that it was something readily available at that time, but labeled to discourage people from taking the film to the drugstore.

I remember there were lots of 'Free Film!!' ads in magazines 30 years ago offering some type of film that probably had to be processed by the supplier - at less than wonderful prices. This is likely some of that stuff.

XTOL sounds like a good approach for this stuff.

-- mike rosenlof (mike_rosenlof@yahoo.com), June 25, 2001.


May I suggest a clip test at least.

-- Wayne Crider (waynec@apt.net), June 27, 2001.

I worked for this company (triple-print) between 1968 and 1971. I believe they're out of business, now. The actual name of the company was: Film Corporation of America, and they were last located at 11621 Caroline Rd., Philadelphia. If memory serves G-25 was Gevacolor( they also distributed Mitsubishicolor; Ilfordcolor Mark IV and V; Ferraniacolor; and at least one I don't remember the name of...)"Triple-Print" was a cluster lens printing assembly which produced three prints.

-- Mark Baltor (enigma5@home.com), June 30, 2001.

I remember this film from a lab in Toronto, early 70's, Abel's, now Qualex. It was processed in Ilford color neg chemistry at 76 F. The special equipment was actually an ancient Pako "automatic darkroom" with wooden hangers.

-- jack hill (rverburg@bgmimaging.com), August 24, 2001.

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