Anyone recently developed GAF Versapan film?

Kodachromeguy · May 5, 2020

Hi Folks, this is really odd: A friend in town asked me if I wanted a few 4x5" filmpacks (very generous offer). Come to find out, a "few" meant an entire cooler. Most of the packs were GAF Versapan. He had frozen them for 4 decades. My friend said the last time he used any was about 15 years ago and it looked fine. He exposed at EI=125 and developed in D76, but did not remember the time.

Have any of you developed any Versapan recently? If yes, what EI and what developer and time? I saw an older thread where someone said, "I would try D-76 straight at 7 to 8 minutes, HC 110b at 5 minutes, or D-76 1+1 at about 11 minutes at 68f all." But I did not see a followup whether this worked. AgX wrote a detailed summary of the convoluted history of GAF photography products (Thanks). I vaguely remember GAF films from the 1970s but may not have ever used any.

Donald Qualls · May 5, 2020

Wow.

Can't really help you, but just wow! I wish film packs were still made...

I do remember GAF films -- when I started photography, Kodak and GAF were the films you'd find at the local drugstore (USA, early 1970s). Don't recall ever seeing GAF black and white, though -- even then, color cost about the same as B&W, and was just starting to be easier to get processed (minilabs were just starting up, I think).

grainyvision · May 6, 2020

I’ve got a ton of GAF/Ansco film, all kept cold with expiration in the 60s, also through what seemed like pure luck in a clean out estate sale. I’ve got a 100ft 135 reel of versapan that I’ve been wanting to load up eventually but haven’t bothered yet. if it’s anything like Anscopan all weather film though, then it will have preserved fairly well (thin base fog) and capable of full speed results with just some added grain in the shadows. For that film I used 45m in rodinal 1:100 stand. Not the best developer for a aged film, but worked well

reddesert · May 6, 2020

Somewhere on the internet I recently downloaded a copy of the Photo-Lab Index from 1979. That compiles a number of developer manufacturer's recommendations for various films, and a couple of the smaller developers list times for Ansco Versapan. In particular, Edwal FG7 and Acufine. You may not need/want to seek out these developers, but roughly speaking, their EI and times are like Ilford FP4 with a little shorter dev time. Obviously, I have no personal experience, but that could be a place to start. (The Acufine EI is likely optimistic, especially for old film - Acufine always claimed it was a speed boosting developer.) Here are two relevant pages, unfortunately they don't list Versapan sheet film. Click to enlarge.

cmacd123 · May 6, 2020

when I got my first 35mm camera as a teenager, I also cleaned out the store of their out of date stock of Versapan. (it was a bonus that the Ansco cassettes were reloadable while Kodak had recently went to the crimped design.

back then my soup of choice was FG-7 so I can't help on developing times.

Terrence Brennan · May 13, 2020

Wow! In early 1972 some friends and I had access to a 1000-foot roll of GAF Versapan motion picture film, which had expired in September 1967. AFAIR, it had a nominal ISO rating of 80,or as it was then known, ASA. That didn't stop us from exposing it and trying to develop it up an ISO of 800!

Got some interesting negatives...although I was able to shoot a couple of rolls of this film, with electronic flash, rated at ISO 400, of a Canadian politician when he spoke at in Montreal in April 1972.

Paul Howell · May 13, 2020

While in the Air Force we got GAF on occasion, I recall that it somewhat more grainy than Kodak Plus X, but had nice tone, it was rated at 100, so I would start at ISO 50 and work down, my choice of developer would be HC 110, less fog, a good developer for out of date films. Although frozen expect some fog, you can add restrainer. Or if you have any luck on Ebay and find a bottle of FG7, clean working, good sharpness, and like HC 110 low fog. My NOIC alway wanted to match film and a developer from the same company, for GAF we could GAF 17 or was it 14, their version of D 76, softer working.

Paul Howell · May 13, 2020

Thinking about it, you may already come up this, put an unexposed sheet in the developer for say 10mint, the stop and fix, wash, it will give you a baseline on the fog.

Kodachromeguy · Jun 15, 2020

Hi Everyone, here is an update. Results: Amazing, especially for 40-year-old film. In fact, it is fine-grained and very nice.

I sent the filmpack to Northeast Photographic, one of the advertisers here. Mr. Sperry developed it in Xtol.

The film is just stiff enough to lie in the 4x5 holder on my Epson 3200 Photo scanner without sagging. The size is a bit larger than normal 4x5, so I trimmed each frame using two old 4x5 Tri-X sheets as a template. I used the Epson scanning software, which is not too sophisticated, and scanned at 2400 dpi 16-bit grayscale, saved as uncompressed TIFF files. Then I cleaned spots and lint with Photoshop CS5 and did minor adjustment with the curve tool. These examples are 1000 pixel jpeg files with minor sharpening.

For my next experiment, I will take frames in sunny conditions. I want to see how the sky reacts to yellow, orange, or polarizing filters. The examples below are from overcast days in the Mississippi Delta.

Donald Qualls · Jun 15, 2020

Kodachromeguy · Aug 8, 2020

UPDATE August 2020: Film pack 2 came back from the lab. Again, I am pleased. Consider, this is 50-year-old film.
Here are two abandoned gas stations in Delhi (DEL-high) Louisiana.

Here is a silo complex in Waverly, Louisiana. It was 35 deg. C; it's a chore fiddling with a 4x5 in that heat. There was some irregular development near the top, so I had to crop a few mm of the frame.

Prest_400 · Aug 29, 2020

Impressive results, really like the Gas stations in here pictured.
I come from another thread of the Kodak Film pack tank and today, after so many years of lurking around here and reading large format, I get to know about the existence of them. I was however, acquainted of Grafmatic.
16 4x5" exposures, just like the bygone 220 in 6x9 (or 2¼ x 3¼).
As an aside, GAF was related to Ferrania isn't it? P30 could be a the ISO80 relative of Versapan

Kodachromeguy · Aug 29, 2020

Thank you for the kind comments. I do not know if the Ferrania company ever had any connection with GAF. The history is bafflingly complicated. Sometime in the late 1960s or 1970s, International Paper company owned both GAF & Ilford. There was some intellectual transfer between the two companies. But I have no knowledge if any present Ilford product is related to the old GAF films. Our old friend, Photo Engineer, would have known.

Donald Qualls · Aug 29, 2020

GAF also had some connection with Agfa for some time. I think I recall them being the US arm of Agfa just before and for a while after the Second World War.

foc · Aug 29, 2020

Here is a link to the Gaf, Agfa, Ansco connection.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ansco

cmacd123 · Aug 29, 2020

foc said:
Here is a link to the Gaf, Agfa, Ansco connection.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ansco

fairly comprehensive, But the Ansco name for cameras is still owned by a chinese successor to that Hong Kong company. and one sees the brand used from time to time. https://www.amazon.ca/Halina-Ansco-Vision-Camera-Vintage/dp/B079C64PRD?th=1

cmacd123 · Aug 29, 2020

Ferannia was Mostly connected with the 3M company. (and produced products also under the IMATION name.)

Agfa and Ansco were very close for years.

David Lindquist · Aug 30, 2020

In Zone System Manual (New Revised Edition, 1968) Minor White wrote this about Versapan: "Ansco's Versapan is remarkably responsive to variable development. It allows N+4 to N-2 with Edwal FG-7. With developer D-23 it allows N+3 to N-5." Pity it's gone.

David

gregory belle · Aug 24, 2021

Did he give a dev time and dilution for xtol?

Anyone recently developed GAF Versapan film?

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