Processing old verichrome....

[flyski99]

I have an old roll of 620 Verichrome on a wooden spool. Kodak( as of 2002) says d-76 1:1, 68~ 9 mins
factoring in age of film.... what do you think ? x2 development time... Different developer?
Thanks for your opinion

 

[MattKing]

Welcome to APUG (or at least to the posting ranks ).

I always find it interesting when someone who has been around APUG for 6+ years makes their first post.

HC-110 is very good for old film because it creates relatively low levels of fog.

 

[jcoldslabs]

I developed two rolls of Verichrome Pan from the 1960s that were still in some old cameras I purchased. My procedure was as follows:

HC-110 dilution D (12 ml syrup + 480 ml water)
64F degrees
9 minutes in small stainless tank, 2 inversions per minute.

The results were pretty good, all things considered. I'd post them but I don't have scans yet.

 

[flyski99]

Thank you.
I guess this is my first post, I generally search and find answers to my questions. Rarely do I see a question without a good answer( that I could answer) that hasn't been answered.
I'll do a clip test on the roll and see what I get , This roll looks really old, 3aBrownie old....

 

[zsas]

What's that place it you think? Don't know my Brownie 3a timeframe. Welcome to the posting world!

 

[flyski99]

verichrome safety film, 1931 to '56 according to wikipepia... hopefully its verichrome pan 1956-'95

 

[John Shriver]

On a wood spool, it would definitely be Verichrome, not Verichrome Pan. Dark red backing paper, right?

The official time was 17 minutes in D-76. Yeah, no kidding. But with old fogged film, that's going to get you a black negative. But, a good chunk longer than the Verichrome Pan times in HC-110 would be in order, say 7 to 8 minutes at dilution B at 68 degrees F.

If you have a red safelight, you can watch. Stop the development before it's all black, that's for sure.

Verichrome appears to be much more subject to age fogging than Verichrome Pan.

Also, fix it a long time. Say 10 minutes. These films fix much slower than modern thin emulsion films.

 

[flyski99]

Yes dark red black paper.... red safe light and from a distance too ,cool i'll try it
Dlut b makes sence... Thanks!

 

[flyski99]

After 2 snip test, from the core, all I have is a slightly foggy base. I did a 15 min pre soak (to soften emulsion distilled h 2 0) hc110 B ,64 degrees 8 mins. The first one I inspected at 3, 5 , 8, 10 mins -nothing. The next one I did the same without inspecting. Maybe the pre-soak is not needed? move to dlut. H 15 mins 64 degrees? anyone have an educated guess?

 

[flyski99]

and I see Jcoldslab's suggestion.... I'll snip process that one dlut D 64, 9 mins, still less than 6 inches in. report to follow.

 

[analog what is that?]

I did a Verichrome red backing paper, with 50 yrs+ images on it with excellent results a few months, in Caffenol CM. (Caffenol CH with 1 gram KBr per litre).

Caffenol is especially forgiving in circumstances like this, most B&W films uses the same baseline time 12 minutes @ 20C, C-41 color a little more, roughly 16 minutes @ 20 C.

So if anyone comes across very old film and has no data (old Gevaert for instance did one like that with excellent results), Caffenol is a good place to start. But one definitely needs to find potassium bromide (KBr) to get rid of chemical fog, nothing else cuts through that.

 

[flyski99]

Interesting.... I have the KBr, (I do wet plate). I don't know of caffenol CM. Is there a formula or MfG? Thanks!

 

[analog what is that?]

http://ascorbate-developers.blogspot.com/2011/03/recipes.html

 

[flyski99]

Thanks!

 

[flyski99]

I did 5 snip test on the roll, settled on hc110 B 66* 12 mins and images where not to bad, fogged but scan-able. Caffnol smells good but would take 2x normal development.
Pre soaking maybe a good option, but I did not. Thanks for you input !

 

[nworth]

The wooden spool suggests World War II era film, which would be the old, orthochromatic Verichrome. I have an old PLI with pages from about 1947 to maybe 1952, and it suggests D-76 for 11 minutes (with agitation every 2 minutes) or D-23 for 13 minutes (with agitation every minute) for that film.