20 year old film, how to develop

[boyooso]

Are there special techniques employed when developoing 20-30 year old B&W film?

I know have additives for old color film. What about B&W?

Thank You In Advance,

Corey

 

[steven_e007]

This has been covered a few times in this thread.

Try here:

(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

Also have a look at page 7 of this thread and search for a post with 'Dufay' in the title.

On the whole if the film has been stored well, then it will be ok, just probably a bit foggy. If it is exposed film then the latent image will have tried to escape - so it may effectively be underexposed or may be nearly blank, although I did a 50 year old film recently which was fine.

If it contains possibly valuable stuff then you can try a clip test.

If it is unexposed film that you want to play with, then just try it and see! Maybe half the film speed to allow for the high base fog and use a low fog developer (DK50 is good, if you can get it...). I used some HP4 last year and it was ok at about 200 ISO - just a lot of base fog...

Steve

 

[Mike Kennedy]

Hi Corey,
I posted something similar 2 years ago and got great results after processing a roll of B&W shot in 1956.Totally forget the advice but I will search my records and email you if I can find them.

Mike

 

[htmlguru4242]

I've both shot and developed films from the 70s and 80s era, and the results can be anywhere from horrendous to excellent. It depends on the speed of the film, when it was exposed, how it was exposed, how it was stored, etc.

I've developed a few films from the 1980s that have had no problems at all. I've shot films even older without issue.

From my viewpoint, there's nothing fancy technique-wise to this. Your best bet is to use a normal developer (I've had good luck with D-76, HC-110 and Dektol, depending on the film), and do a clip test before processing the entire roll. You should be able to tell from that if the fog levels are acceptable, and whether or not you need to develop more or less to compensate for exposure or deterioration of the latent image.

Try it out and let us know how it goes!

 

[Stephanie Brim]

I developed some Plus-X that expired in 1982 with some good results, but I haven't quite found the time that works the best yet.

Dead Link Removed

I'm actually working on it today, hopefully, and plan to figure it out at least by today. I'm shooting it at 25 and 50, and lengthening development times slightly.

What film are you trying to develop?

 

[Mark Antony]

I'm trying to use some 1941 Agfa Ansco Ultra-speed, not sure what to develop it with I was going to start with EI50 and 5 mins 1:25 in Rodinal.
Here is my blog post with images.
http://photo-utopia.blogspot.com/
Mark

 

[boyooso]

This has been covered a few times in this thread.

Try here:

(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

Also have a look at page 7 of this thread and search for a post with 'Dufay' in the title.

On the whole if the film has been stored well, then it will be ok, just probably a bit foggy. If it is exposed film then the latent image will have tried to escape - so it may effectively be underexposed or may be nearly blank, although I did a 50 year old film recently which was fine.

If it contains possibly valuable stuff then you can try a clip test.

If it is unexposed film that you want to play with, then just try it and see! Maybe half the film speed to allow for the high base fog and use a low fog developer (DK50 is good, if you can get it...). I used some HP4 last year and it was ok at about 200 ISO - just a lot of base fog...

Steve

Thanks for the link and advice.

I'll definately try the Potassium Bromide and let you know of the results.

-Corey