Help me develop this old Verichrome

[Charles-Olivier]

Hello everyone,

I’m trying to find the proper development time for a roll of Verichrome Pan 120 film I just found in a camera I bought in an antique store in Maine. I only have Sprint Standard film developer.

Many thanks in advance, I’ll let you know what I find!

 

[Paul Howell]

Using Plus X as a base I compared Sprint with D76 stock, same times a Sprint 1:9 same time 8 1/2 m, then looking at my Kodak Master Data Guide that lists Verichrome at 9m, so your roll must be 20 years old, no telling but I would think about 11m at 68F.

 

[Dwight Anderson]

I recently had my first success with found film, Verichrome Pan with HC110, dilution B, 5:45 at 68 degrees. Not sure how that translates to your developer. I have had several failures at longer times, usually almost totally fogged. I found these in an Ansco Cadet that only has a single speed and aperture.

 

[Bill Burk]

Most of the time I hear that very cold developing gets the best results with old exposed film found in cameras - about 40-degrees F

I don’t have much luck with it myself but definitely fog is your enemy

 

[Donald Qualls]

The old standby when Verichrome was still sold was 17 minutes at 68 F in D-76 stock solution.

That said, fog control will be the main issue; this film was discontinued around seventy years ago. I'd find/calculate a conversion for HC-110 Dilution D or E that's equivalent to that 17 minutes in D-76 stock; HC-110 is very good for foggy old film in my experience. Going cooler can help, but with HC-110 you don't want to go below 60 F, of the hydroquinone suddenly drops activity and you wind up with clear film (phenidone by itself with no superadditive = images too faint to see).

Another option would be to develop in Rodinal or D-23, which will work (after time compensation) down to 50 F or maybe lower, and add some benzotriazole to limit fog.

 

[Dwight Anderson]

When you say it was discontinued seventy years ago, do you mean the original orthochromatic Verichrome? The OP said he had Verichrome Pan.

 

[Paul Howell]

The old standby when Verichrome was still sold was 17 minutes at 68 F in D-76 stock solution.

My Kodak Master Data guides, 1959 calls for 6 minutes 1964 calls for 11 minutes, depends on which version of Verichrome you have, I guess I will retract my first post and go with Donald's suggestion of 17.

 

[Donald Qualls]

Verichrome is not Verichrome Pan, and had been out of production for more than a decade by 1964, I hadn't caught that it was Verichrome Pan rather than the ortho version that ran from the 'teens to around 1950.

Verichrome Pan is recent enough that the last production is still fairly easy to find in the usual expired film sources, and I recall it being effectively the same as Plus-X for the last decade of production.

 

[DWThomas]

A 1965 version of the Kodak Master Darkroom Dataguide here comes up with about 7 minutes @68ºF in stock D-76, 4:30 in HC-110 dilution B for "average contrast."
That appears to be identical for the recommendations for Tri-X Pan, Plus-X Pan Professional and Panatomic-X in both roll films and 135.
(Of course, that was a long time ago!)

 

[Dwight Anderson]

I used this data sheet for Verichrome Pan and added 15% developing time for the age of the film (HC110 B). Next time I'll try 20%, since the negatives were a bit thin.

https://125px.com/docs/film/kodak/f7-Verichrome.pdf

It does give D76 1:1 times if that is similar to Sprint developer.

 

[Paul Howell]

Larger issue is that roll film tends not to age as well as 35mm, the ink on the paper backing tends to imprint the emulsion. Worth a try.