I wanted to make a few comments on GAF Slide film and developing before this thread got too old.
Yes, I did use a few of these GAF 1-pint developing kits back in the late 1970's. I got involved in photography in Jan. 1976, buying a Canon Ftbn (with 1.4 lens) in April 1976. I was really interested in existing light photography-the reason for the fast lens so naturally my interest gravitated toward the fast films.
As you all probably know, the fastest color film in the world at the time was GAF 500 color slide. Fortunately for a poor college student such as I, Kmart sold GAF 500 film under their own private label 'Focal' (rated ASA 400) and it was less than half the retail cost of GAF 500 with processing. Cost about $2.68 for a 20 exposure roll with GAF processing, while list price of the GAF 500-20 exp. with processing was $ 5.95. Also, it was less than half the price of Kodak HS Ektachrome (ASA 160, E-4) pushed to 400 with Kodak ESP-1 processing.
GAF 500 was introduced in late spring 1967, it was tested in both Modern and Pop Photo in July/August 1967 issues. It remained the world's fastest color film until the October 1976 Photokina when Fuji announced the breakthrough ASA 400 color negative film, Fujicolor FII 400 (although it did not become available until early 1977). Up until then, color negative films were only in ASA 80-100 speed. So GAF had the world's fastest color film for nearly 10 years. Yes, it varied in speed sometimes, probably closer to 320-400 range.
GAF got out of the consumer photo business in July 1977 (although they apparently stayed in the industrial photo field until the early 1980's, according to a poster on apug.)
Kodak introduced their ESP-1 processing service in mid 1968, about a year after GAF 500 was introduced. I think the competition from the new GAF 500 had a lot to do with that! Kodak's fastest unpushed color film at the time was ASA 160 (H.S. Ektachrome E-4).
Kodak did not have a true (unpushed) ASA 400 slide film until fall of 1978.
I was disappointed with the quality of prints I got from slides, so I went back to color neg. until about 1978 or '79 when I started developing my own color film. With more experience in photography, I realized I liked the look of GAF films. I did manage to find a few rolls of GAF 500 that still looked good. A local, small camera store had a small supply of some GAF 1 pint color slide film kits (marked to half price (about $2.49 vs. the approx. $5 retail price). The kits came in thin cardboard boxes with red printing and artwork. All the kit components were in small foil packets. The majority were powders but there were some liquids. These had little foil shaped tips as part of the packaging and you simply tore off the tip to squeeze out the small amount of liquid. I do remember one of the color developer components being a liquid. Processing temp. was 75 degrees.
The kit used light reversal and I used either a 75 watt floodlight bulb I had, or simply two unshielded 40 watt cool white fluorescents in the light fixture over my dad's workbench. The film reels I used were clear plastic. Temps with GAF's 75 degrees was much easier to control and be consistent than the new E-6 100 degrees.
I did try buying some GAF 500 color slide film in fall 1979 from Fereestyle, (by then outdated) but the color was bad (color was very bluish with a very bluish D-max). It was a 100 foot roll and I did return it to them and they gave me a full refund.
I did find a few rolls from private sellers and even pushed a roll of 500 to ASA 1000 successfully!
Freestyle did sell their own GAF color slide film developing kits; apparently put together by a third party. They came in heat sealed clear plastic bags, with each component in a separate plastic bag or bottle with a simple label and a sheet of instructions. In 1979 Freestyle sold 1 quart kits for $7.95, these would do 8-10 20 exp. 35mm. rolls
In 1981, I shot and processed some GAF 64 and it gave pleasing results, no color shift or loss of D-max. Although I shot it on a cloudy day there was no trace of bluishness and skin tones were beautiful, tarnish and pleasant. Greens were soft and warm and there was no overall color cast. I realized that the 500 film deteriorated much faster once it passed the expiration date than the slow 64 did.
It's very interesting too look at the Modern Photography slide film tests from 1976 and '77. GAF films tended to have tarnish skin tones. In shade the GAF films strongly resisted the tendency to go bluish more than all the other films, while K64 was very bluish-magenta in shade. Both HS Ektachrome and Fujichrome (E-4) were quite bluish in shade. GAF 500 was easily the contrastiest slide film, and of course it did have the coarsest grain but it's higher contrast made it look sharper in blowups than you would think. GAF 200 did poorly in the April 1976 test but showed 'tremendous improvement' in the Sept. 1977 test, unfortunately too late for GAF.
GAF 500 also did uniquely well under fluorescent light without a filter, giving slightly orangish skin tones with no trace of greenishness at all.
I still have some GAF 500 color slides from 1976 (and later), none of them show any signs of color cast or fading. Keeping them in the dark, plus Colorado's low humidity have helped. I don't have any scans of them, otherwise I would post a few shots.
I really miss GAF.
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