20 Exposure Roll Of Kodak Tri-X

[Andrew O'Neill]

A friend of mine just sold me his Grandmother's Argus C3 from 1941. It's a real beauty, in mint condition. There is a roll of Tri-X in it. I reckon it's been in there for decades... but how many decades I know not. All I know is that Kodak stopped making 20 exposure rolls I believe in the early 80's (I think)... I got into photography about '91, and I do not recall them. Here is a pic:

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

I plan on developing the roll for him, even though he accidentally opened up the back! He told me he had only opened up for a sec, and quickly closed the back (funny, I always hear that one from students!). Most of the film was on the take up spool (my guess, as it took a while for me to wind back into the canister), so hopefully the exposures deeper into the roll will be okay...but considering the age of the film, might not be okay

 

[John Wiegerink]

I plan on developing the roll for him, even though he accidentally opened up the back! He told me he had only opened up for a sec, and quickly closed the back (funny, I always here that one from students!). Most of the film was on the take up spool (my guess, as it took a while for me to wind back into the canister), so hopefully the exposures deeper into the roll will be okay...but considering the age of the film, might not be okay

I love a good mystery and can't wait for you to solve it. For better or for worse.

 

[MattKing]

DX encoding was introduced in 1983 - so that would be one clue.

 

[BrianShaw]

I remember 1983 but had no recollection that 20 exposure rolls lasted that long.

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

DX encoding was introduced in 1983 - so that would be one clue.

It has DX encoding.

 

[MattKing]

Any French on the cassette? That would mean it was originally sold in Canada.
The switch over to 24 exposures may have happened at different times in different markets.

 

[Sharktooth]

I know for sure it was 20 exposure rolls through the 70s. The switch to 24 exposure rolls happened in the 80s, but it wasn't an overnight change.

I found a B&H magazine ad from May 1986. It showed Plus X and Tri X in 20 exposure rolls, but the color print film was in 24 exposure rolls.


.... and prices $1.75 for Plus X, and $1.65 for Tri X (20 exp)

 

[Sharktooth]

Here's an interesting Kodak ad from 1981

Kodak Film ad

Everything was 20 or 36 exposures, except for the one box of Kodacolor II showing 24

 

[mshchem]

I really liked the 20 exposure rolls. Just right

 

[AnselMortensen]

That is an interesting transitional-period roll, being 20 exposures, being DX coded, with the modernized logotype.

 

[mshchem]

Here's an interesting Kodak ad from 1981

Kodak Film ad

Everything was 20 or 36 exposures, except for the one box of Kodacolor II showing 24

Beautiful

 

[bdial]

I miss 20 exposure rolls almost as much as Plus-X and kodachrome.

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

Any French on the cassette? That would mean it was originally sold in Canada.
The switch over to 24 exposures may have happened at different times in different markets.

No French on it. His Grandmother is American. He brought the camera back with him. Apparently, she was into photography in her younger days...

 

[DWThomas]

A few years back I opened my C-3 to discover the tape had parted on my bulk loaded roll. I only had major damage on the first (actually, last) five or so frames. But that was with Panatomic-X, so I assume the higher speed of Tri-X would make anything bad that happened worse. None the less, it's only a few milliliters of chems lost to see what's left. Given the history, I hope something usable comes out, it would be a warm fuzzy for family members.

Not only would I prefer 20 exposures to 24, there are times when the 12 exp rolls available in some films were useful.

 

[Paul Howell]

I have 5 or 6 20 exposure SS reels, when freelancing for the newspapers in Sacramento and Northern Cal I generally shot 20 exposure rolls as the assignments were generally small. The 20 exposure reels were easy to load. After the 24 exposure rolls came out I was working for the wires which generally issued 36ex rolls. I still use the 20 exposure reels for short bulk loaded cans.

 

[JerseyDoug]

I regularly bulk load 12-exposure rolls. It's wasteful, of course, but no more so than hurrying through the last dozen or so frames on a longer roll to finish it for developing.

 

[dynachrome]

This is funny. A few weeks ago I got an overhauled Pentax Spotmatic II back from Eric Hendrickson. When I opened the back, there was a 20 exp. roll of Tri-X in the film chamber. It had the old long leader. Eric must have used it to test the winding mechanism. I shipped it back to him.

 

[juan]

I remember the 20-exposure rolls of Tri-X. In the late 60s they were $0.72 a roll at K-mart.

 

[Paul Howell]

Yeah but the GAF 500 was cheaper. Not a good film, the grain, oh the grain.

 

[chuckroast]

I plan on developing the roll for him, even though he accidentally opened up the back! He told me he had only opened up for a sec, and quickly closed the back (funny, I always hear that one from students!). Most of the film was on the take up spool (my guess, as it took a while for me to wind back into the canister), so hopefully the exposures deeper into the roll will be okay...but considering the age of the film, might not be okay

I've gotten really good results with old film doing semistand development in Pyrocat-HD. The oldest film I've done was some 2x3 Super-XX from 1961 and I got perfectly fine negatives! (The film itself was compromised mechanically but the photographic action was fine.) I find that 35mm Tri-X of any vintage looks best with Pyrocat-HD because the stain helps to hide the grain inherent in the film.

 

[eli griggs]

I regularly bulk load 12-exposure rolls. It's wasteful, of course, but no more so than hurrying through the last dozen or so frames on a longer roll to finish it for developing.

End the wastefulness from your reloading by splicing in tails and tongues of developed rolls of film.

In the bulk loader, you can open and pull out a short amount of film, the shut the light trap, and tape on a length of of clean, developed negitive.

Secure the tail to the cassette's core, and close the cassette as normal.

Wind on the amount of film you want to expose, close the light trap before exposing the roll to any light other than the Kodak film light safe green filter, open the lid and cut off a short length of film, it does not matter if it and the future tail end are crooked.

Remove the cassette, shut the closed bulk loader and in regular or safe light, trim the cassette's exposed film square, and attach the new tounge of developed film and you're done.

This will save frames of film and it would be interesting to hear from other photo.com photographers, who who will gather the materials, including, tape, tails and tongues before hand and work out the average time of how long it takes to build these loaded rolls, so others can see the short amount of time it takes to load cassettes and how easy it is.

Cheers

 

[JerseyDoug]

End the wastefulness from your reloading by splicing in tails and tongues of developed rolls of film.

In the bulk loader, you can open and pull out a short amount of film, the shut the light trap, and tape on a length of of clean, developed negitive.

Secure the tail to the cassette's core, and close the cassette as normal.

Wind on the amount of film you want to expose, close the light trap before exposing the roll to any light other than the Kodak film light safe green filter, open the lid and cut off a short length of film, it does not matter if it and the future tail end are crooked.

Remove the cassette, shut the closed bulk loader and in regular or safe light, trim the cassette's exposed film square, and attach the new tounge of developed film and you're done.

This will save frames of film and it would be interesting to hear from other photo.com photographers, who who will gather the materials, including, tape, tails and tongues before hand and work out the average time of how long it takes to build these loaded rolls, so others can see the short amount of time it takes to load cassettes and how easy it is.

Cheers

An interesting idea. I might try it with my Nikon F's. But I am using my LTM Leicas almost exclusively these days. It would be too risky to use a strip of film with four cut ends and two pieces of tape when just one little bit of crud in there can sometimes necessitate a tear down to get it out.

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

I've gotten really good results with old film doing semistand development in Pyrocat-HD. The oldest film I've done was some 2x3 Super-XX from 1961 and I got perfectly fine negatives! (The film itself was compromised mechanically but the photographic action was fine.) I find that 35mm Tri-X of any vintage looks best with Pyrocat-HD because the stain helps to hide the grain inherent in the film.

And that just happens to be my main developer! Thanks!

 

[chuckroast]

And that just happens to be my main developer! Thanks!

Here is my general open tank approach - assumes everything is at a nominal 68F but a few degrees off will not be a huge difference:

1. Turn out the lights/close blinds in the room next to your darkroom so I can walk in an out with minimal light leaking into the darkroom.
2. Prewash in running water for 3min
3. Wearing nitrile gloves, place the loaded reel over an inverted funnel and run the lift rod through it. That's to suspend the reel above the bottom of the tank to minimize the tendency toward bromide drag - the nasties get pulled to the bottom via gravity.
4. Drop the reel/inverted funnel/lift rod into a 2l tank of Pyrocat-HD mixed 1.5:1:200
5. Agitate continuously for 2 min - lift and spin in the direction of the film wind so it doesn't come off the reel
6. Cover that tank to make it light resistant. I use the black plastic trays that they deliver food in.
7. Exit the darkroom an the let film sit/stand in the developer
8. Reenter the darkroom and - at 31 min - again wearing nitriles, give the reel twisting and lifting agitation for 15 seconds
9. Cover and exit as before
10. Reenter the darkroom and pull the film at 60 min
11. Wash for 30 seconds in running water
12. Into the fixer for 5 min
13. Lights on
14. Wash for 25min
15. Rinse in PhotoFlo 200 with 25ml of 91% isopropyl alcohol added to 500ml of working solution
16. Hang and dry

Although this is more cumbersome than a closed tank, I find the larger tank and developer volume gives me very good consistency.