Out of date ortho film

[Terrick E. Meakin]

I have just been given some out of date 5*4 ortho sheet film (Tmax 320ISO), on trying a couple of sheets I find its a bit slower and has, when developed in PQ universal, a very slight background fog, it's still printable but is a bit of a pest, has anyone else had a similar problem and found an answer? Would using a restrainer such as Benzotriazole help, I have used it successfully when printing and have some stock solution available. Any sugestions will be apreciated. By the way the film is dated mid 1990s.

 

[glbeas]

Use the benzo and derate the film ISO some more. Since you can develop the film by inspection you can correct for some of this in the tray.

 

[Schlapp]

Well, just processed an Ilford lantern Plate [contrasty] in Multigrade and it seems just fine Just as well as i might have been on to Simon G if it wasn't

 

[Michel Hardy-Vallée]

TMAX 320? Ortho?

Word.

Never heard of that. I know TMAX 100-400-3200 and they are all panchromatic, and I know Tri-X 320 which is also panchromatic. Can you fill us in a little bit on the product?

 

[Terrick E. Meakin]

Sorry folks i dropped a clanger, it aint Tmax ortho it's Tri-x, catalogue number 145 0055.

 

[fschifano]

I've got some of that stuff and it's pretty old, almost as old the stuff you have. It's been refrigerated, of course, so it is still in pretty good shape. I wouldn't worry too much if it's been stored well. The only way you're going to know is to shoot a test sheet or two to see what if there is excessive base fog and to check for shadow detail at the rated speed. Slightly elevated base fog kills film speed by masking the shadow detail. Deal with by adding a little extra exposure. Potassium bromide or benzotriazole will knock down base fog, and will also lower effective film speed. That stuff works ok for slightly age fogged paper, but it's pretty useless for only slightly age fogged film. You can always print through a slightly fogged negative, but a print without clean whites will often look like crap.

 

[Michel Hardy-Vallée]

Tri-X ortho, you lucky you!

If there's a product I'd like to see from Kodak, it's that film. All the ortho films actually available on the market are slow films, probably derived from micro/copy/document products.

 

[Phillip P. Dimor]

I've a box of 4x5 Kodalith Ortho Type 3 that had expired in the early 90s, along with a huge roll of Kodak Aerographic Duplicating film (also ortho) and Aerographic aerial film (ortho as well) that both expired in the mid 80s I believe. It's still fine, and i'll probably never use all of it. Slow ortho film holds up very well. Can't comment on faster ortho film as i've never used it.