I am a little bit behind in my processing .......

A long time ago, 29 January 1988 to be precise, I was a newspaper photographer in Australia covering a royal tour with the late Princess Diana and Prince Charles. I shot at least 5 rolls of Ilford HP5 on that day, rated 800. For reasons that escape me now, I didn't process 5 rolls from that day but think it is probably about time that I do.

My question is, does anyone have any idea of a suitable processing regime for such old film? As I have 5 rolls I can do a few clip tests but it would be good to have an opinion from someone who has a better idea than do I.

Believe it or not this is a serious request.

Cheers from Downunder.

Noelb

Maybe you can find someone in the area that can do Process by Inspection. I need to find a used 5x7 safelight housing for my 5x7 inspection filter.

B&W will probably process normally, I would either snip a piece off to test develop with, or process one roll at a time. Starting with normal processing, adjusting as you go along.

Add a little extra benzotriazole to your developer to restrain the fog. Maybe .5g per liter or so. Snip off a little from one roll and see if it works out before doing them all.

All I can offer is some recent experience I've had with old exposed films, some of it dating to the mid 1990's, with some possibly earlier. Two rolls of Delta 400, 1 of TMY, and 1 of HP5+ were in the batch a friend found stashed in the back of his refrigerator. The HP5+ was likely the oldest of the bunch. All appeared to have been exposed at box speed, or so I was informed when he handed the film over to me. In any case, I developed all the films as I normally would fresh film. There was more than normal base fog on all the films, but the images were useable and some were quite good. Benzotriazole might be a good idea, but it might cause some speed loss. Since the film is already underexposed by a stop, I would give it a pass and take my chances by processing as you would for 1 stop under exposed, fresh film.

Beside the processing question; when did you leave your employer?

Could the film still be considered their work product?

You may have some very valuable pics - so after you resolve the processing question and assuming you have some unique, historical pics, make sure they are YOURS before you try to market them!

HP5 processed 20 years after shot

NoelB,

In the late 1990's I found a roll of HP5 that I shot around 1978 and hadn't processed so it was around 20 years old by the time I processed it. I think I used Microphen and processed it as though it was shot at EI 800. I probably exposed the film it at box speed when I took the pictures but I thought it may have lost some shadow detail in the intervening 20 years so boosted it 1 stop.

The negatives came out fine and I have made some good prints from them. A bit grainy and some background fog but not too different to my other negatives shot and processed bck in the 1980's. I will see if I can dig up a photo to post.

I recommend a clip test just to be sure, even if it is only the unexposed leader to check on fog levels and whether the edge markings look OK. There is usually around 2 frames worth of unexposed film before the 1st frame.

Martin

Thanks to everyone for their suggestions. I will soon process the films and will report back on my success (or otherwise).

Cheers from Downunder

NoelB