Processing old C-41 film

I have a friend who has a bunch of film he shot over 10 years ago that he never got developed. He asked me if I wanted to try to develop it. I have developed C-41 and E-6 at home without an problems using the Tetenal kits.

Anybody have any experience with older film that was exposed but never developed? Any advice would be appreciated!

Bob

I've developed c-41 that turned out to be from the 70s or so. Horrible colourshift that might not be able to be corrected in darkroom but you can somewhat get a result in d***** trickery with varying the colour balance. Didn't change anything about the directions, just followed as normal. The film turned out looking a bit freaky when it came out of the tank - bright semi-opaque blue on one side and bright semi-opaque yellow on the other! But it did dry down to a more normal looking piece of film afterwards. Just warning you so you don't freak out if you get this. I think PhotoEngineer commented that the strange colours are due to the dye layers not being fully developed out or something like that.

Thanks for the feedback. I'll just give it a try at normal and see what I get!

Bob

Wouldn't push-processing the film also increase the density of the fog negating any of the benefits of a push?

Parts of the collection may be worse than others. He handed me a bag today with the film in it. Most are 35mm canisters of color, but two are 127 roll film. He thinks those two are more than 30 years old. I haven't looked carefully, but I'm almost sure those are B&W films. IT should be interesting if I get anything.

Bob

If they're rolled nicely, not squishy or offcentre, the 127 should be fine. I've developed 1970s B&W 127 too. Just chucked it in Diafine (since it will develop to completion. No worry in my mind that I might have underdeveloped it then) and it came out pretty good considering it looked like the photographer wasn't that great at taking pictures.