Found old roll of Verichrome

[mtnbkr]

There was an old roll of Verichrome (not Pan) in a camera bag that my wife's grandfather gave me. It's been exposed and I'd like to develop it. I have D-76, is there a time guideline for that or should I use something else?

FWIW, the ambient temp of chemicals in my darkroom is 72degF.

Chris

 

[fschifano]

From the old Kodak F7 tech pub:

D-76 straight at 68 deg F. - 7 minutes
D-76 diluted 1+1 at 68 deg F. - 9 minutes

D-76 straight at 72 deg F. - 5 minutes
D-76 diluted 1+1 at 72 deg F. - 7 minutes

 

[mtnbkr]

Do I need to make any adjustments for the age of the film? It was probably exposed 30+ years ago.

Thanks,
Chris

 

[Mike Kennedy]

Chris,
I had a roll of the same film (40+ years old). I contacted Kodak Canada for some assistance and they were most helpful. I also posted to APUG and asked an "old school" hand developer what chems./time/agitation to use.
The results were 10 printable negs. of my grandparents (long passed) and a black lab in my crib.We were born on the same day,March 5.
I will try to find my development data.

Mike

 

[Donald Qualls]

Do I need to make any adjustments for the age of the film? It was probably exposed 30+ years ago.s

If you were exposing it now, you'd want to give 1-2 stops extra exposure to allow for loss of speed, but if it was exposed (and more like 50 years ago then 30; Verichrome was replaced by Verichrome Pan in the early 1950s), at most you'd want to add some benzotriazole or potassium bromide to the developer and then give around 20% more time. I'd be inclined, instead, to develop with a low-fog developer like HC-110 (7 minutes in D-76 stock comes to around 6 to 6 1/2 minutes in Dilution B, near enough). I'd probably also dilute and use a much longer time -- with HC-110, I'd use Dilution G, agitate every 3rd minute, and develop for about 25 minutes. These times are all for 68 F, BTW; at 72 F you'd need to reduce your time about 20-25% for temperature.

That method (high dilution, low agitation, in HC-110) has given me good results with Verichrome Pan shot around 1980 and processed in 2004, and with Plus-X shot around the same time, also processed in 2004. However, I haven't processed any film exposed as long ago as your Verichrome probably was...

 

[mtnbkr]

Thanks for the info. I think I'll give the low dilution HC-110 a shot.

BTW, Donald, what part of NC are you from? I lived there till I was 8 and went back for college (Campbell Univ). Most of my family still lives there.

Chris

 

[Donald Qualls]

I'm *from* Washington state -- lived in and near Seattle from the early 80s until late 2004. Grew up in Idaho.

I now live in north central North Carolina, in the Piedmont Triad (about an hour west of Titrisol).