Recommendations for developing unknown found film

Hi all,

I recently purchased an Iloca Stereo Rapid (from a VM Camper festival of all places) that was pre-loaded with a roll of film that I'd like to try developing, so I'm after some hints to maximize my chances of getting something viewable off the film.

The canister is black metal with silver endcaps, and is labelled as Ilford FP4. It's been reloaded though, as I opened the back on the camera before I knew it was loaded, and I could see that the film was taped onto the leader. I appreciate that the last part of the film was ruined btw, I'm hoping that the images (if there are any) from the start of the roll will have been protected. There is a small sticker on the canister with "50s" written on it.

I've only got Tetenal Paranol S dev available, which I understand is similar to Rodinal. I don't want to purchase any additional chemicals, this is just for fun and curiosity rather than any great need to produce archival quality images.

So, all hints, tips, suggestions welcome.

Thanks in advance,
Rich.

It could well still be fp4 as up to the mid sixties Ilford and Kodak sold what they called refills, which were 36 rolls of film that were meant to be used in the cassettes that the original film was sold in, the cassettes were made to be re used, IIRC you would press in the sides of the cassette and the top would come off, you would then develop the film, and reload the refill into the cassette, I used them a lot, as a student pennies counted and the film was half the price of the filled cassette, I would tape the reload to the end of the film still attached to the center I would tend to add around 10 to 20% to the suggested time and see what develops
Richard

richp

welcome to apug !

sorry I can't help you with the developer you have on hand, I've never used Tetenal Paranol S,
but have only used caffenol, ansco130 or dektol for film since 1999 or 2000 ...
and since about 2007 nearly all the film i have exposed has been expired, some of unknown origin,
others stored at room temperature ...

if you have dektol, ansco 130, or coffee lying around,
and you don't mind using them, instead of pararodinal, then i can help you

if you have any dektol or ansco 130 on hand ...
your results will be ok.

what i would do is take the dektol or 130 and dilute it 1:5.
load your film on a reel and process for 5mins.
agitate 1 full min then 10-sec every min after that.
don't believe the "you are going to get golf ball sized grain"
the folks that suggest that have never used ansco 130 or dektol for film
you won't get huge grain, but beautiful, printable, scanable full scale negatives, like you would in
any other developer

f you have any coffee on hand, make a strong batch of it, let it cool down
and stand develop your unknown film in there for a few hours ... you will be surprised
at how nice the film will come out.

hopefully someone will help you with Tetenal Paranol S, but if they can't, and you want to have fun ..

good luck!
john

Rich,
Welcome to APUG.
You could try your Paranol at 1+100 stand for about 1 hour+.
I've used it on HP4 from 1970 and although the base fog was horrible and it came out almost black, there were still some images in there.
I've also used recently FP4 from early 80s and they came out ok.

Many thanks for the advice chaps.

In the end I decided to try some stand development. I used Paranol S at 1+100 as Ricardo suggested, agitated for the first minute and stood for 1h 20m, since the water temp was less than 20 degrees (about 19). I used a stop, and then Ilford rapid fixer. Fixed for 4 mins, since after 2 minutes the leader still didn't look clear - it wasn't much better after 4. I presume this was the base fog that Ricardo mentions?

Anyway, there are some images, I'll take a better look once it's dried. There appears to be about 5-6 pairs of stereo images on the start of the film, then mostly nothing aside from the odd ghostly face. There was a crease in the film where the first set of images finished, so I'm assuming that the camera was put into storage at that point, and the remaining images were from people playing around with it at a much later date.

I couldn't make out any edge markings to see what film stock it was, but the opaqueness of the film have have just been hiding them. I'll take a look on the enlarger tomorrow and see if anything shows up.

Caffenol, Caffenol, Caffenol!
I use it for almost anything these days, so far, I used it to develop traditional B&W films as well as C-41 film of all sorts, Agfa CNS, Kodacolor-X, Verichrome Pan, Kodachrome, Orwocolor, Orwochrom, and in desperate attempts to salvage anything, one roll of Fuji Sensia and one roll of Ektachrome. That was a bust, the other ones turned out good, difficult to scan sometimes though.
The Kodachrome had some sort of remjet layer, it was like ash or soot and had to be washed off with lots and lots of water. The E-6 were unscanable, at least with my crappy flatbed, all non bw films are quite dense. With traditional BW film you should encounter only the problem of massive fog and low contrast. But sometimes the camera and film found inside had been stored cool, you never know.
I recommend to put some KBr or iodised salt or something that acts as an anti fogging agent in, especially for very old films and those, which had been stored in bad conditions.
Good luck!

It occurred to me after I had developed the film, that as it had come from a stereo camera it was most likely to be a colour reversal film. That would tie up with your comments about E-6, since I tried to scan the film this evening, and it's too dense for the scanner. I did examine the film again for any edge markings, and I'm pretty sure there aren't any.

As an aside, I'd mixed up a new batch of stop & fix before I developed the film. Since I'm unsure exactly what type the film was, is there any risk that the chemicals could carry over "stuff" from the unknown film that would affect subsequent films processed in the same chemicals? My gut feeling is to discard the chems and mix a new batch to be on the safe side.

anfenglin said:

Caffenol, Caffenol, Caffenol!
I use it for almost anything these days, so far, I used it to develop traditional B&W films as well as C-41 film of all sorts, Agfa CNS, Kodacolor-X, Verichrome Pan, Kodachrome, Orwocolor, Orwochrom, and in desperate attempts to salvage anything, one roll of Fuji Sensia and one roll of Ektachrome. That was a bust, the other ones turned out good, difficult to scan sometimes though.
The Kodachrome had some sort of remjet layer, it was like ash or soot and had to be washed off with lots and lots of water. The E-6 were unscanable, at least with my crappy flatbed, all non bw films are quite dense. With traditional BW film you should encounter only the problem of massive fog and low contrast. But sometimes the camera and film found inside had been stored cool, you never know.
I recommend to put some KBr or iodised salt or something that acts as an anti fogging agent in, especially for very old films and those, which had been stored in bad conditions.
Good luck!

Click to expand...

i agree, caffenol is like the wonder-drug for film, isn't it ?

jnanian said:

i agree, caffenol is like the wonder-drug for film, isn't it ?

Click to expand...

It seems to be, huh?

RichP: I wouldn't discard the chemicals, if you washed and stopped and fixed correctly there are no problems carrying over residue from the previously developed film. It would happen with other films, too.
Not to worry.

Ricardo Miranda said:

Rich,
Welcome to APUG.
You could try your Paranol at 1+100 stand for about 1 hour+.
I've used it on HP4 from 1970 and although the base fog was horrible and it came out almost black, there were still some images in there.
I've also used recently FP4 from early 80s and they came out ok.

Click to expand...

Thank you for the welcome and your recommendations. I will read up on Paranol.

Cut a piece of the tail n develop it to see what you are dealing with? Illford had reusable canisters at one time which we saved n reloaded with bulk film. I never had to buy canisters I just asked the local guy to save them. It had a twist off end.

Color film would be orangish colored, B&W would be purple or gray.

So you really have no idea what film that could be.

OK, so I'd love to try Caffenol on a exposed roll of B&W 620 found in a pseudo-TLR I purchased.
Never used it before. Seems like there are a lot of different formulas. Which do you recommend and how do you recommend developing in it? (Time/temp/agitation)?
Thanks in advance.

I'd use the standard Caffenol-C-H with KBr. You keep the fog down and have good tonality with most films. All depending of course on how the film was stored.
First mix the soda, then add the vit c, stir until dissolved, the add coffee and KBr. Let sit for five minutes, then develop by using the standard method, 30-40 seconds in the beginning, then three inversion every minute, develop for 15 minutes.

If it's labeled FP-4, your best bet is to assume it is FP-4. Even if it has been reloaded, most likely it was with a similar film - less confusing that way. In any case, you will probably get decently developed negatives by using the times for FP-4 (or maybe 10 percent more) with any standard developer. This thread has recommended a lot of exotic developers, but I would stay away from them unless you have a lot of experience with one or another. Try something like D-76, D-23, or Rodinal.

anfenglin said:

I'd use the standard Caffenol-C-H with KBr. You keep the fog down and have good tonality with most films. All depending of course on how the film was stored.
First mix the soda, then add the vit c, stir until dissolved, the add coffee and KBr. Let sit for five minutes, then develop by using the standard method, 30-40 seconds in the beginning, then three inversion every minute, develop for 15 minutes.

Click to expand...

Thank you for the informative and complete reply!