Old Kodak graphic Arts Film...

Cleaning out the corners of an old photo studio I've run across some puzzling films. As the exprations are from the 70's the boxes are probably more useful than the film, but I'm curious if anyone knows wht this film was used for:

Kodak Blue Sensitive Masking Film 2136

I've got 50 8x10 sheets of it, probably going to try it out for pinhole work to see if I can get anything out of it.

Thanks,
-Jon

you may as well have to develop by inspection, I have some Kodak UltraTec, and two different bulk rolls of blue-only film, but i've only tried the UltraTec so far, ended up doing develop by inspection , and getting around 3 minutes in HC-110. I may have to try rodinal sometimes and stand develop it. I've found most 'graphics art' film when developed and shot in normal photographic conditions to come out extremely contrasty ( tho you can swing it a little so it doesnt show up like say kodalith is intended).

Good luck with the sheets, post any results here if you can.

Btw the film was probally used as some form of duplicating film.

blue sensitive masking

Years and years ago we used this kind of film in the two stage and postive masking systems of Graphic arts color separation. The film was developed in DK-50 Exposure times were with 100 watt lamp at tap 2 or 3 about 25 to 40 watts and were based on the density of the negative being used for cross masking. Negatives were in the 1.00 to 1.40 DR and development depended on contrast needed for the process.In two stage it was a 1.0 gamma, match to the negative range and in postive a percentage 30to50 % depending on the color As a camera film it probably has no antihalation backing so that might be a problem. Should be interesting

Old film stocks

Thanks all, that gives me some ideas. Perhaps I'll start testing with enlarging some negatives. A bit more controlled than pinhole and certainly closer to it's intended purpose.

I've never used DK-50 but digitaltruth has a recipe and I have all the chemistry available to mix some up. Developing by inspection is certainly the order of the day with film that expired in '79.

An other part of the discovery was 2800 feet of 6.6" Kodak arial film. This is even older (exp 1970) and panchromatic so I'll have to guess and go with development on that one. Also got some comaritively new though still quite post date 8x10 ektapan and 8x10 ortho III films, so I know what I'll be doing for the next couple of weeks.

Any tips on processing or testing post dated films would be welcome.

-Jon

jproulx said:

Thanks all, that gives me some ideas. Perhaps I'll start testing with enlarging some negatives. A bit more controlled than pinhole and certainly closer to it's intended purpose.

I've never used DK-50 but digitaltruth has a recipe and I have all the chemistry available to mix some up. Developing by inspection is certainly the order of the day with film that expired in '79.

An other part of the discovery was 2800 feet of 6.6" Kodak arial film. This is even older (exp 1970) and panchromatic so I'll have to guess and go with development on that one. Also got some comaritively new though still quite post date 8x10 ektapan and 8x10 ortho III films, so I know what I'll be doing for the next couple of weeks.

Any tips on processing or testing post dated films would be welcome.

-Jon

Click to expand...

The arial film, just try to figure a common time of development. Then shoot several frames of ISO from say 12 to 400 (or 6 to 200 ) in reasonable increments such as 12, 25, 50, 100, 200, 400. then when you get it developed. you can get an idea of what the best exposure for that length of time for developing. i think if you did a test strip, for just development time alone, you'd want a time that gave the best density in the negative to find the ideal development duration, then figured the best ISO by developing it for that time with exposure checks, once you got it, you'll have the ideal time and iso for that film/developer combination. I think someone could explain it better than me thou. You got 2800 feet of it, so not like it'll be too much of a waste. Probally mix up some antifog substance if needed.