Handling of long expired Sensia 100.

So i happen to have a quite old Sensia 100. It's edge code is RD, so it is the very first version of the film and i assume it expired well before 2000.

I already shot another one at box speed and had it processed normally. Overall brightness was ok but it exhibited strong magenta cast and fog. I have to say that some shots came out pretty nice and i liked the effect, but this time around i would like to try something different as an experiment.

I am going to develop with Tetenal E6 chemistry and modifying it or mixing homebrew stuff is out of the question at the moment. I was thinking to shoot it at EI 50 and pull one whole stop during development. My rationale behind this is that pulling will 'underdevelop' the magenta fog and keep it in check.

Of course, i am not expecting perfect results. Just hoping to reduce the amount of base fog. Any thoughts on this? Do you think it could work?

Under developing and over exposing will do very little to fix the color balance. There's no practical way to counter the effects of aging in this regard. It would require rather involved adjustments to chemistry and processing parameters.

I’ve contemplated on doing super expired slide film (think 80’s) and then using C41 as a developer. One idea was to check what developer/concentration/temp/dev time would give minimal fog before proceeding with the subsequent steps. So far what I have read online (here and elsewhere) is that you want a very strong first developer at very low temperature. I’ve done 1:6 Rodinal at 21C for B&W reversal and had good results but there was a thread here that had someone who showed Rodinal was a poor first developer due to its inherent high pH (that somehow affects the color couplers). Apparently HC-110 is a better alternative and if I have time I will most likely do clip tests with 1:6 HC-110 at various temps and dev times. Basically, the first development will have an effect on the overall color cast of the final slide, and by reducing fog and completely develop all the silver halides, it could perhaps mitigate the isssue.

Hi.
Just the past week I received a box of 12 Sensia 100 rolls, all expired in 2001. I developed some test shot on D76 stock for 12 minutes then light, then C41 developer for 3,5 and 5 minutes (almost no difference) and finally Blix for 15 or so minutes (all that at 40C). The images have some kind of magenta - blue cast that can be somehow corrected after scan. For projection I don't know, when I a see the test shots with one of those thing to see slides against a light they look better than the scanned images, maybe is just the eyes "auto white balance" doing is thing.

Here are some pictures, the one right from the scanner and another after some adjustments,
Also a shot of the base film, I don't know if that is base fog o the slide base film is a little gray.

Rafael Saffirio said:

Hi.
Just the past week I received a box of 12 Sensia 100 rolls, all expired in 2001. I developed some test shot on D76 stock for 12 minutes then light, then C41 developer for 3,5 and 5 minutes (almost no difference) and finally Blix for 15 or so minutes (all that at 40C). The images have some kind of magenta - blue cast that can be somehow corrected after scan. For projection I don't know, when I a see the test shots with one of those thing to see slides against a light they look better than the scanned images, maybe is just the eyes "auto white balance" doing is thing.

Here are some pictures, the one right from the scanner and another after some adjustments,
Also a shot of the base film, I don't know if that is base fog o the slide base film is a little gray.

View attachment 279549 View attachment 279550 View attachment 279552

Click to expand...

Interesting results! However i am not familiar at all with the chemistry you used.

The roll i have is even older than yours as edge code is RD instead of RA. I think the formulation is the same as the pre-provia Fujichrome 100D. I shot another roll from the same batch some years ago and the magenta cast was much more pronounced than in your case (some low res scans below). Unfortunately experimenting with chemistry other than tetenal's e6 kit is not an option for me right now. I think i will just shoot it normally or overexpose+pull and see what happens.