Dumb Luck ??

[Konical]

Good Afternoon,
I just posted a photo ("Dumb Luck") in the Standard Gallery which I have some uncertainty about and hope that among the many better-informed APUGers someone can help.

I recently found an old loaded cassette with the label "Superpan 250" on it. It is apparently from a bulk roll I purchased at least several decades ago and had long forgotten. Out of curiosity I decided to shoot it at E. I. 100. It was processed along with a couple of rolls of T-Max 100 at my usual 1:7 dilution for 10 minutes. I expected either heavy fogging or just faint images, but the results are actually technically OK. On the film edge, somewhat to my surprise, is a notation "EASTMAN 8 H1." The purchase must have been in the 1980's or thereabouts, but I can't recall ever buying such a film. Can anyone provide any information about the film?

Konical

 

[Disconnekt]

Possible that it's Kodak Double-X? It's one of the only Kodak b&w film's that I know of thats 250 iso

 

[David Lyga]

This is a stellar example of film where the age-fog has managed to encroach upon more than 50% of the emulsion's original tonal capacity. Everything is squished up upon the high end of the Characteristic Curve. What does this mean in pedestrian parlance?

Your attempt to capture all by giving extra exposure was certainly needed. But there is little contrast because the film, at this late juncture, has little capacity for tonal differentiation. The highlights are forced to be too close to the shadows because the threshold density BEGINS at about Zone 6!

With matters as bad as this film, there is little one can do other than use the highest contrast paper available. Oftentimes, with fog this bad, even benzotriazole (with an added dose of hydroquinone) will mitigate matters only a little. Paper of highest contrast (along with an increase in grain) thus becomes the only parody of 'success' here. Maybe it will improve matters a bit, but you are left with a substandard image. In order to make printing somewhat easier, you could dip the negative in a diluted Farmer's Reducer and watch it carefully as to the base density. I say to make it diluted so that it will be slower to remove density and give you time to remove it before it goes too far. - David Lyga