Developing 22-year-old C41?

I just found two rolls of film EXPOSED in 1992; Fujicolor NHG 400, and Kodak TMX 100; both in 120 and exposed outside on sunny days. I would like to try to process them. No reason to not do the B&W myself, but what about the color?

Storage conditions were not good; they were found in a desk in an upstairs bedroom, and my parents didn't get central air until about five years ago. I know these were shot with an Holga (before it was cool), and I do know the pictures are NOT important (just Holga testing). It would be nice to have the pictures, though.

Recently, I'd taken a roll of similar age color 35mm to Walgreen's (by accident - it was mixed with new film) and while green and crappy, a few images did come out. Hmm, wonder if I should do a formalin stabilization when I get the chance.

I'm not expecting much - but - this time I can make a best-effort. I'm not against developing the Fuji as B&W, but I will be doing my own C-41 developing very soon, and wonder if there is some way to "save" that roll. I will not do it with my first color attempt - it's waited this long and won't get much worse.

Here is what I have:
- Rollei Digibase kit - w/separate bleach & fix. Unopened but old.
- Tetenol C-41 kit - new & unopened.
- HC-110
- TMAX RS
- Rodinal (Adonal)
- Diafine
- D-76
- Pyrocat HD (haven't tried it yet)
- B&W paper developers (Dektol & Ilford)

I also have Photo-Flo 200 and Formalin (APUG is a bad influence )

Are there any suggestions, especially to develop as color? I'm not adverse to obtaining and mixing chemicals. Again, these rolls are not "important," and some experimentation could be fun. Alternately, I could take it to the pro shop and ask if they can do anything with it - but I'd rather do it myself.

I can search APUG for information on doing the old B&W (plus this is the color forum), but wouldn't mind advice on that too.

It's highly likely that part C of the digibase kit has turned purple and that means it's useless. Freestyle doesn't have replacement components any longer.

wildbill said:

It's highly likely that part C of the digibase kit has turned purple and that means it's useless. Freestyle doesn't have replacement components any longer.

Click to expand...

That's the problem with being a procrastinator It's also why I have a new Tetenal kit, just in case. When I try the Rollei, if the color seems ok I'll just do a quick piece of test film. If it's bad, I'll use the Tetenal.

I stand developed some Portra (expired early 2000s and unrefrigerated) in Rodinal recently. I was just using it to test film backs for light leaks, so I wasn't worried about the results. There were light leaks, so it's hard to say what it should look like, but overall I find the film worse than both C-41 and traditional B&W---narrow range and soft images.

I have developed some of the same stock at home in C-41 chemistry and found at normal development times the film came out somewhat blue (in the positive) so I pushed from 3.5 to ~5 minutes. It helped overall, but I don't think there is a way around seeing some strange colours.
If you are going to wait to do it C-41, I would clip a bit of the leader (yes, I realize it's 120) and see how the base looks run through on its own. If it comes out really dark, push the film.


Stand developed, light-leaky, expired Portra:

Shoot it 1 stop slower for every 10 years of age.

Process normally.

EDIT (DOH!!!!) umm I take it back... if it's already shot then process normally. I've done it with 20 year old film, comes out fine.

First sentence of first paragraph in first post states it was EXPOSED in 1992
(I will take both pieces of advice on some unexposed Kodak Gold 200 I found from 2002.)

I'm okay with strange colors, just want to try to restrain the fog if possible and get some identifiable images.

Were it mine, i would develop it in cold c41 for 20 minutes or so. Maybe even 30. But that's just me.

For Part C of your digibase kit, if it is bad, you can buy CD-4, the color developer, in powder form from Artcraft Chemical or the Formulary. Search in the forums and you can the information on making a substitute Part C. The rest of the kit should not go bad.

Have very low expectations. It's likely fogged to hell after that time so will come out with a dense brown base through which the images will be barely visible if at all.

What's your definition of "old" on the Rollei kit? If the developer parts are not purple or yellow and the fixer hasn't sulfated out (yellow snow at the bottom) it's probably fine - just test it on a fresh-but-unimportant roll first.

After accidentally dropping that one roll of 35mm off at the drug store, I don't expect much. It will still be fun to try.

I purchased the Rollei kit a year and an half ago. I'd intended to use it within 6 months, but kept putting it off for various reasons (I'm a consummate procrastinator). Actually, I bought the kit and wanted to share the experience with my best friend. It has taken her a long time to shoot some film despite my constant nagging. She finally contributed 4 rolls in the past 2 months. Taking pictures is easy for me; I can go through film quickly. We now have enough.

The Rollei has been in a dark cupboard, and I've not looked at it lately; I'll likely get to it this month. If the colors seem okay, I'll mix and temper it, then use a test strip of film. If that turns out badly, I'll mix the Tetenal kit I purchased a couple months ago. Then I'll have perfectly good developer as I ruin some perfectly good film
Before I do this, though, I will practice with water to make sure I get the times and temps consistent.

Should I assume developing as B&W will not fare any better?

As a colour film, it will have bad hues which will obviously not be an issue with B&W. You can also use extra restrainers with B&W without unexpected crazy hue effects, but obviously "how much" restrainer is a big question.