I have one roll of Panatomic-x and want ideas for a one roll project.

[rphenning]

-It expired in 1970.
-I got it for 3 dollars.
-There are 20 exposures.
- I will develop it in stock ID-11

It was rated at 32 when it was new but I think I should try and rate it at 16 or 8 even to get something usable. The very long leader looks to be in excellent shape for such old film. Any thoughts or ideas on what I should use this on? I was thinking 20 portraits or something.

I also got a box of unopened royal pan 4x5 film that expired in 1955. Should be interesting to see what that looks like.

 

[David William White]

Fun stuff! I love playing with old film. I wouldn't be daring enough to take 20 different portraits then developing it only to find 20 unprintable negatives. Whatever you shoot, stick to 32iso, but bracket each shot +2. Then do a clip test, and if all looks good, develop the rest.

With the sheet film, I'd probably sacrifice one sheet and develop it just to see how much fog density it has before shooting anything real with it. I'm still working on a roll of 1955 aerial surveillance film (super-xx). It's survived, but it was in an airtight metal canister. Good luck!

 

[keithwms]

I have a bunch of similarly aged panatomic x. I've been rating it at 25 and developing in ID11 1+1. I don't remember my times offhand but nothing exotic. It's fine, totally fine. Enjoy it! Post some shots!

That's a really good idea to do a test sheet and also to snip a bit of film off a roll to test. But I think you'll find that it's all good. You just lose a tad of contrast due to fog, but hey, it had a lot of contrast to spare.

 

[Mike Wilde]

I too have a passion for old film. Anyone can get an image on new film. The challenge of an image on old film is fun. That said, there are set backs. I found a partailly used 4x5 plus x film box that expired in 1973 at a camera show last year for $2 and it tested as ISO 3 as it is now. So I now keep it around to use as a pan masking film.

I test them if they are 120 or 4x5 in the camera using step wedge in the flim holder, or over the film gate, and expose as though ISO 2 while aimed at a neutral grey test card. 35mm I test by bracketing exposure on a grey card and cli testing; my methods may use up most of your 20 exposure roll; most of the time I use my method when I have a whole lot of film of one batch that I want to calibrate.

I then develop the film per normal times plus 30% as a start if they are really old. I try to have the developer warmer, and then use a kodak dataguide development dial to figure the right time that is equal to a 30% push at 68F. I do this in the hope that with the warmer developer, the less time there is for fog to develop. If the test for base iso works, then shows any edge marking on the second sheet I use as well as the subject content can be used to tweak the development time.

After development, I throw the step wedge test shots under a densitometer that I am lucky was gifted to me to figure which step gives me a normal Neutral. Visually you can compare them to a regular neutral grey neg density by sticking half of each in a negative carrier and then project them on the base board if you don't have a densitometer. A step wedge either has 1/2 stop or 1/3 stop steps, so that lets you figure out by counting steps how far off of ISO2 your film really is. If the NG happens after say 7 half stop steps then you still have a
film with iso20 behaviour.

 

[minox59]

I think a fun project would be to photograph 20 things that were around your area in 1970, to match the expiration of the film.

 

[thefizz]

I also have an old roll of 35mm Panatomic-X which I have been saving for :confused:.....well I'm not sure what I've been saving it for. I must go out and just use it some day. Its not like it will become a valuable antique in years to come :rolleyes: