How to expose and develop Very expired sheet film

I just purchases 3 boxes of very cheap and VERY EXPIRED 4x5 sheet film.
Kodak Royal, Plus-X and Tri-X. My old data guide says the Royal is 320 speed. This film outdated in 1974 to 1980. I never tried film this old before.

Any suggestions on EI to shoot at or developer / time to use? I have Xtol as well as many raw chemicals to do a home brew developer. My internet search so far says overexpose by a half stop and develop it for the normal time in HC110. If someone thinks HC110 is significantly better for this I will order some.

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Test it. Two sheets per processing test. First two sheets shoot one stop over EI, second sheet two stops. Same for second set. For each set process +10 percent time and +20.
One ought to be about dead on and go from there.
As to developer, use what you normally would use. No sense in changing to much right from the get go.

Xtol is a good developer as it gives very low fog levels.
You want to overexpose this film and hold back development. Expect lots of base fog, Kodak b&w film doesn't age past expiration very well. I used some Plus-X that expired in 1996 and for some reason the base fog wasn't too bad, but it was extremely grainy.
Once I also used Tri-X expired in 1983 (Tri-X 400) and it worked pretty well in Pyrocat of all things. But I quickly gave up on expired film as it's a crap shoot every time if you're getting something worthwhile or not, and it's definitely not consistent, leaving you guessing every time, or testing.

In summary - overexpose and adjust exposure time for your highlights. Do a couple of tests. Your film could miraculously be fine.

Good luck.

Your time is a lot more valuable than film, which is still being manufactured. If it were me, I wouldn't waste any of it on something which may or may not produce usable results. I hope you didn't pay any more than about 10 cents on the dollar for the film.

I got a whole big box of expired paper and film for $10. In it was 300 sheets of 4x5 film in unopened boxes and several hundred sheets of 8x10 B&W paper. I agree it is not worth the time if I just I needed quality results. I would use fresh material for that. But this is just to play around and have fun. If I get good images from 40 year old film then that will be something to talk about.

Any suggestions on EI to shoot at or developer / time to use? I have Xtol as well as many raw chemicals to do a home brew developer. My internet search so far says overexpose by a half stop and develop it for the normal time in HC110. If someone thinks HC110 is significantly better for this I will order some.[/QUOTE]
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Yes. The "book" answer is give the film a bit more than box speed exposure and develop in HC110. It is my understanding HC 110 is the film soup of choice for outdated film. That being said, since you mention you can craft your own soups, my favorite developer, D23, is listed as having low-fogging
potential.

old film

Ilford PQ is the way to go as far as I'm concerned....have no settings as I use it with my 1990's trix for alt processing (1:24@68 degrees for 5:30 minutes)....but let me tell you it kicks ass!!
Best, Peter

Here's a thread I started some time ago on this subject--

(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

Rodinal is reputed to give low fog. Would that be an advantage in the case of film fogged by age, or is that fog just equivalent to exposure and hence would develop as such in any developer? Would generous overexposure lift the image above the fog level? (I realise that such a neg would be very dense, but could perhaps still produce a good print).

I ask because I also have some old sheet film, TMX and TMY, expiry dates mid 1990s.