Need some developing help

KirkS · Jul 14, 2014

I was given a box of stuff, and in it was some old film, both exposed and 'fresh'. The exposed film looks like it was home-loaded by the original owner. The film cartridges are all black with a small bit of masking tape with the number of exposures on them (36/36/10+). There are 3 rolls of this stuff. There are also 2 rolls of exposed color slide film (E-4 Ektachrome).

Included were some bulk film tins (empty) that are Kodak Plus-X Pan Film, and Kodak Tri-X Pan Film. An educated guess tells me that the mystery film is one of these two. However, I don't know ASA of them.

I ran two rolls through last night using HC-110 dilution B, 5 min, 72°F, inversion every 30 seconds, stop bath, and 5 minute fix.

Here are the "best":

As you can see, wasn't a huge success, but I was pleased to get something out of them.

My question is, as I'm a novice in developing, are these over-developed, or underdeveloped?

Light Guru · Jul 14, 2014

KirkS said:
My question is, as I'm a novice in developing, are these over-developed, or underdeveloped?

Looks more like the problem is old expired film that has been kept in containers that have list a bit of its light tightness over the years.

vintagesnaps · Jul 15, 2014

Are these the old rolls that were already exposed? or rolls that you shot?

And how old are we talking here?? lol I've found old B&W film in a family member's camera and it turned out fine, but if this has been stored in less than ideal conditions or wasn't exposed properly when it was shot you may not get the best quality images out of it I wouldn't think.

KirkS · Jul 15, 2014

Those pics are from two rolls that were exposed. Along with these are some exposed rolls of Ektachrome E4 (not sure what to do with those), and 3 unopened boxes of Tri-X Pan (Dec 1974), Panatomic-X (Mar 1975), and Plus-X Pan (Jun 1975). I will be eventually shooting those 3 for grins and giggles.

Based on those unopened rolls, I suspect these (exposed) rolls were shot 1973-1975.

I just hung the third roll of the exposed stuff (there may be one more), and it looks good. I did a stand developing of 44 minutes with mild agitation and mild inversion only for the first min (30 sec each), followed by a tap water stop for 5 mins, fix for 5 min, and rinse for 5 min with a wetting agent added in the last 30 seconds.

If it dries off in time, I'll scan them tonight, and post some examples, but at first glance they look good.

As for storage of old film, yes it does degrade, but in my experience, it's usually usable. I shot a roll of 120 that expired in 1969, and sat in a Florida closet since 1972. Loss of contrast, but usable, especially for creative use. Here's a sample from that roll with no post processing:

KirkS · Jul 15, 2014

And just because, here's that same photo with about 4 minutes if quick tweaking in LR5

KirkS · Jul 15, 2014

Ok, so here are a couple of the images from the third roll, stand developed as mentioned above. Same film and age as the stuff in the first post, but much better processing. A little bit of bromide drag, but not too bad. Some showed evidence of light leakage or fogging like the last one.

If anyone has any idea what school that is, it would be cool to know. I think it's a cool building.

timor · Jul 15, 2014

Looks like your films have only natural, gamma radiation caused fogging. For this old films you intend to expose you need to ad to developer some kind of anti fogging agent like potassium bromide (KBr) and use more contrasty developer. Could be full strength D76.

webestang64 · Jul 15, 2014

Kodak X-Tol does a good job at helping with fog. But old film is always a gamble.

vintagesnaps · Jul 15, 2014

From the clothes and hair yeah, looks 70's! B&W seems like it can hold up for years but fogging is supposed to be fairly common as the film ages (although it's still able to be developed, just wouldn't expect the quality to be the same obviously as with fresh film).

The helmet in the last picture has a V on it, maybe white on - red?? Looks to me like a scrimmage since there are no stands in view, so maybe V is the school where the photos were taken. I can't make out the symbol on the white helmets, can you get an enlargement out of one to tell what it is?

Vince.1551 · Jul 15, 2014

I wouldn't attempt to process the slides manually ... js

gsgary · Jul 15, 2014

How long did you fix them for ?

compur · Jul 15, 2014

You might try using Diafine. It is a 2-part developer that has the same dev times for virtually all films so there's no over or under-development. It develops to finality. It is also a speed-enhancing developer, pushing film about 2/3 stop which should help in this case too.