Mystery roll Kodacolor X

zesbaugh · Aug 21, 2009

Popped open the back of old Argus C2 to find a roll of 40 year old film staring me in the face. Curious what could be on it, but not set up for color. Don't know if C-22 chemistry is still available for that matter.
May be a wild goose chase (camera not operating properly so could have been a test roll...).
Anybody out there up for a little project/experiment/total waste of time? I would be happy to mail off to any interested party. Only ask that you post what you find. I would of course pay all postage, and throw in a couple bucks for the chemisty if needed.

Thanks!

KenFretz · Aug 21, 2009

You might want to try a lab in the UK called Process C-22. They are at http://www.processc22.co.uk/

Ken Fretz

Photo Engineer · Aug 21, 2009

There are several US labs that do C-22, but forget the "couple of bucks for chemistry". It will be quite expensive to hand mix a batch from scratch. These specialty labs will charge you enough to feel you are missing a valued part of your anatomy.

PE

nickstreme · Aug 21, 2009

Zing!

zesbaugh · Aug 21, 2009

It appears my curiosity will have to remain unquenched for now. I had no idea this would be anything more than a simple home processing job (as simple as developing super old, horribly stored film can be anyway).
The film has been sitting for 40 years, might as well continue the tradition while I wait for the lottery to come through. I need all the anatomy I have for now!
Thank you for pointing me in the right direction, and I apologize for asking too much out of ignorance.

Photo Engineer · Aug 21, 2009

Color is not B&W!

PE

zesbaugh · Aug 21, 2009

Photo Engineer said:
Color is not B&W!

PE

Again, my apologies.

Photo Engineer · Aug 21, 2009

No need for that! This is for fun and education, not remorse.

PE

mts · Aug 22, 2009

Why not cut off a strip and process it as B&W and then make adjustments to try to salvage the remainder? Likely the fog level is so high that it's all but impossible to get images, at least that's what I found when I played with a roll of E4 that was given to me by a friend who found it in his desk drawer when he retired. There were images, but base fog was way high even after adding a healthy dose of BZT to the soup--reducing fog that much pretty much eliminates images as well.

I wonder if in another 40 years people will be worrying about how to get the images out of an SD memory card that was found in a desk drawer somewhere?

mattmoy_2000 · Aug 22, 2009

With that E-4, try mixing up some fix with some citric acid. This will bleach the colour couplers out of the emulsion. Recipe is on Kodak Tech Pub ae-31 (details how to treat colour film accidentally developed as B/W).

Photo Engineer · Aug 22, 2009

E4 and other reversal color films have a built in high fog to achieve the reversal speed and dmax properly. They behave quite differently than negative color.

You may try bleaching the color couplers, and it might work, IDK for sure, but the yellow filter layer will probably not bleach out. That may still cause a lingering problem.

PE

AgX · Aug 22, 2009

Here is the link to that Tech Pub on (amongst other) bleaching coloured couplers:
http://www.kodak.com/global/en/consumer/products/pdf/ae31.pdf

EDIT:

As PE states below it is NOT on bleaching coloured couplers but on bleaching the Carey Lea Silver filter layer. The coloured couplers are not advised to be bleached but overcome by a red-sensitive paper whilst b&w print-making.

Photo Engineer · Aug 22, 2009

Thanks for that reference, it updated my memory. That method will NOT work for color negative films. What that method is doing is bleaching the yellow silver layer from the E6 film that was misprocessed.

There is no treatment AFAIK that will remove the orange color from misprocessed color negative films.

PE

Venchka · Aug 22, 2009

Diafine to the rescue.

Mystery roll Kodacolor X

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