Developing Found Film

[ambaker]

I recently picked up an old Kodak folder. Inside was an exposed roll of 620 Verichrome Pan film. Any chance that it would still have viable images on it? If so, what would be the best way to approach this? I'm far from a darkroom expert, but can follow instructions. Or is this best left to a lab?

 

[ctsundevil]

I've had good luck with Verichrome Pan. It seems to hold up very well. If the film was rolled tightly and stored reasonably well, it should be OK. I've never tried Dektol with old film.

I've had good results with HC-110. The recommended development times for that film changed over the years. The final datasheet from Kodak called for 5 minutes at 68 F (dilution B). In the 1960's, the time was 8 minutes. The time for dilution A was 3 3/4 minutes. If you think the film might be badly fogged, you could develop it at a lower temperature - that tends to reduce the fog. A strong developer and a low temperature works well with most old film.

For example, if you wanted to develop it at 50 F, dilution B would require 18 minutes and dilution A would take 8 1/2 minutes.
At 40 F, dilution B would require 28 1/4 minutes and dilution A would need 13 1/4 minutes.

Good luck.