Coaxing Images off of old Exposed Film

[newcan1]

I have about 12 rolls of 120 roll film, Ilford HP3 and FP3, that were exposed by my late father-in-law around 1952. I developed one roll, and it came out virtually all clear, using D-76. I did some clip tests, and ended up developing another roll for double the developing time and with a shot of antifoggant in the developer. I got two printable (barely) images but the fog competed heavily with the images and most were near black. I may be able to improve them in a reducer.

I would welcome any comments on what would be the best developer and technique to use in this context to experiment on the remaining rolls. Basically, the backing papers have partly fused to the film, and I think they have chemically fogged the film. There are images to be coaxed out, but I do not know the best things to try.

I also have some 2-1/4 x 3-1/4 glass plates that he shot around the same time and never developed. They should not have the backing paper problem. He was an Englishman, and one pack of plates is marked "Coronation" - could be very interesting.

 

[wblynch]

Your best bet may be the dreaded "electronic enlarger" and associated computer software.

I did some from 1959 that were too difficult to print but was able to get and restore great "electronic enlargements".

I don't think I'm allowed to say much more than that on this site

 

[ctsundevil]

I've had good luck processing old film with HC-110 at low temperatures. I recently developed some old Gevaert film from the 40's in HC-110 dilution B at 40 F for 46 minutes. There was still some fog, but they were printable in the darkroom. You might have an easier time with dilution A and a shorter processing time. I haven't tried that yet.