Ideas to develop Kodacolor II upto 48 years old?

[spl]

I've been given a roll of Kodacolor II from a Kodak Brownie camera. It's either 80 or 100 iso C-41, but I feel at this stage I will develop it as black and white.

Kodacolor II film could be as old as 1973, the year it was introduced in that size. Later there followed Kodacolur 400 in 1977 and VR 100 in 1982. While it is likely that the introduction of these superseding films didn't make Kodacolor II unavailable, it may be sensible to guess the film as being from the 1970s.

I have read on another forum advice to use a 'Low contrast' developer, though I'm not sure which developer is being referenced. I am thinking to develop it in Rodinal either as 1:50 for around 11 minutes or as a longer stand development at 1:100 for upto an hour.

I would guess that the film, being 40 to 48 years old would benefit from a contrast boost during development thus Rodinal, however I also have Perceptol, ID-11 and Microphen available.

Any recommendations as to which developer to use to salvage some black and white images from this film?

 

[MattKing]

Can you share some pictures of the cassette, showing the writings on it?

 

[Paul Howell]

If it's old it's likely a C22, for what it worth I think Blue Moon in Orgon can process C22

https://bluemooncamera.com/store/product/c22rec/c22-recovery-process

 

[MattKing]

If it's old it's likely a C22, for what it worth I think Blue Moon in Orgon can process C22

https://bluemooncamera.com/store/product/c22rec/c22-recovery-process

Kodacolor II was actually the very first C-41 emulsion, so at least C-22 won't be part of your challenges .
And by the way, in case it isn't clear, the "II" means two, not eleven!

 

[Paul Howell]

You are correct, odd to me that KCII has been on the market for such a long time.

 

[spl]

Can you share some pictures of the cassette, showing the writings on it?

I can ... with care because it is a medium format spool. There is nothing on here, it is a C41 film, though at the age of the film I'm happy to develop it B&W.

 

[Helge]

Unless you have a strong suspicion that something very important is on there, don’t bother.

You will not get pretty photos from this.

Kodacolor is notorious for not holding on to the image very well.

I developed one of these carefully in Rodinal and the fog was so high and the latent image so degraded that I could just make out a farm and some cows.

ISO 100 B&W film and down, with lucky storage is definitely worth trying though.

 

[MattKing]

It is funny, but for some reason I misread things and thought it was 135 film. But thanks for showing us the backing paper.
That certainly looks like 1970s vintage 120 or 620 Kodacolor II.
If it were me, I would develop it in C-41. It would be just as likely (not particularly) to have something on it as if you developed it in black and white chemicals, and more likely to actually show some hints of colour.
It won't harm the C-41.
A Brownie may very well have over-exposed the film on at least some of the shots - I would just use the standard developing time.
And please report back with your results.

 

[spl]

Excitement! I developed it in Rodinal 1+50 for 11 minutes (I have never done C-41 and don't have the chemicals.)

There are distinct and respectable images! 3 and a half frames of people standing in groups and one of a door of a house, which actually looks good!

There are a lot of missing frames where it appears the camera was opened. Confusing how given the construction of the Brownie Twin 20, but it isn't exposure because the film numbers are blacked over on the edge and it isn't development because it has vertical edges.

This is a wonderful outcome, the owner may even be a child in the pictures. i will post some when they dry and scan!

 

[Agulliver]

Too late now but Kodacolor II will *always* be C41. Glad OP got some results, as one usually will with any reasonable B&W regimen. Though I will add that I've had a few 40+ year old rolls of Kodacolor II developed in a C41 mini lab recently with acceptable results.

 

[Donald Qualls]

There are a lot of missing frames where it appears the camera was opened. Confusing how given the construction of the Brownie Twin 20,

This is quite common with "found film" -- often the way the film gets "found" is by opening the camera back (because a lot of people buying thrift store cameras don't know cameras well or don't think to check the red window). Not a matter of "accidental" opening, just "didn't know it was loaded!"