I Shot This Roll of Film 30 years Ago; Developed It Last Night!

Derrel · May 20, 2014

Well, the title says it all; in the spring of 1984, I shot a 36-exposure roll of Kodak Technical Pan film. I carted it around with me through multiple moves over three full decades. Last night, I put the roll in a changing bag along with a steel tank and lid, a spiral reel, and a pair of scissors, cracked open the cannister, loaded the ultra-thin-base film onto the spiral, dropped the spiral into the developing tank, capped the tank, and then proceeded to develop the film after a double water pre-rinse, for 10 minutes in straight D-76.Water stop bath.Fixer.Wash.PhotoFlo. And it came out great! NO FOGGING whatsoever!!! Of course, it had some of the most severe "curl" I've seen, even after a 12-hour hang-dry with a weighted bottom clip. I just finished cutting the negs into six-frame strips, and am now weighting the Neg-File page with a stack of magazines to flatten the film a bit better. I'll get around to scanning the images... when I can find the time. (Check back in 2044 for my obituary, or the pictures from the roll.)

sm4him · May 20, 2014

1. Oh no, you don't. You *cannot* just drop something like THAT on us and then not get busy showing us what "develops!" You get back in there right now, and get to scanning. We need PICTURES! :lol:

2. That is not at all what I thought you sounded like…

tirediron · May 20, 2014

I'm impressed that you still had the means to develop - very cool!

pgriz · May 20, 2014

Dang, Derrel - if that's your turn-around time, I don't have enough lifetimes left to have you take photos of the family.

I'm not quite as bad as you - I have a roll of Ektachrome in my film camera that's only 10 years old (about the time I got a digital camera), and one of these days, I'll get it developed. Maybe.

And echoing Sharon's post - so what did you find on the negatives?

DarkShadow · May 20, 2014

LOL,. In 2044 I will probably have been eaten by maggots.

bhop · May 20, 2014

:addpics:

vintagesnaps · May 20, 2014

Yowza! And I found a roll of slide film from this past fall and just got it developed and wondered why was it still sitting around. How did you hang onto a roll of film that long??

You know, Kodak's Tech sheet shows it was discontinued only 11 years ago, you're not too far behind! lol B&W film seems to last indefinitely. I got a roll out of a family camera that had been in there for maybe 25-30 years and it turned out fine, pictures looked like they'd just been taken - except for being of my relatives when they were kids standing out in somebody's back yard with their trikes.

Designer · May 20, 2014

tirediron said:
I'm impressed that you still had the means to develop - very cool!

Derrel's not THAT old!

mmaria · May 20, 2014

I know nothing about film, but I was surprised by the pleasant tone of your voice... I thought you're scary

Derrel · May 20, 2014

Ummm...I'd love to scan this stuff, but it has a **severe** case of the "curls"...I mean, this stuff is curled up baaaaaad...it's sitting under a stack of heavy magazines in a NegFile page to flatten for at least a week. The ultra-thin ESTAR-AH base of this film...well, this is the ONLY roll of this type of film I can recall shooting.

After about 12 + 4 hours of dry time, so 16 hours, with a weighted clip on the bottom end, I removed the clip and sliced off my first six-frame strip and...got this...

iPhone snap

Uh, yeah...the film's got a bit of a memory issue. I looked up the Tech Sheet on this film. I remember the advertisements for "Tech Pan". Kodak had a shot of a woman dressed in a sort of classic French style, all in black, with a hat, and a face veil. They had a small inset photo that showed the individual fibers that made up the threads that were twisted to form the veiling!!! Tech Pan was sort of advertised as "4x5 film quality from a 35mm sized negative". My photos appear to be rather straight-forward, architectural studies of the campus of Western Oregon State College, in Monmouth, Oregon.,. now called Western Oregon University. I grew up in that area.

My prior record on being behind on developing film was 10 years, from 1976 to 1986, so this is my new personal best!!! 30 full years!

webestang64 · May 20, 2014

WOW....tech pan. I used to use that film as copy film of line drawings and print 20x24's. I think I still have a few old rolls laying around somewhere.