Surprisingly good results with 20-year-old Soviet slide film

srs5694 · Apr 25, 2009

A few months ago I picked up some long-expired Svema CND64 color print film and some even older Svema CO32D color slide film, thinking they might be fun to play with. Long story short, it took me a while to try the CO32D film, but after a test roll to determine EI (12 and 25 both looked fairly good, with 25 looking a bit better, so I settled on 20), I shot a regular roll.

The resulting transparencies have poor blacks, even though I used a lot of benzotriazole in the first developer to minimize fogging, and their color is off. Nonetheless, the images are very clear, and when I set the "restore fading" and "auto levels" color correction options in VueScan, the colors actually corrected to something fairly tolerable. If anybody cares to have a look, I've posted samples on Flickr, including both color-corrected and uncorrected scans of a few frames. Oh, the film is dated "02/1989," but I'm not sure if that's a manufacture date or an expiration date. I may actually be able to use my remaining rolls for something other than a conversation piece, although it certainly ain't Kodachrome or Velvia!

Maybe I'll try printing a couple of these on RA-4 paper using reversal processing of the paper. That might be interesting....

Ektagraphic · Apr 25, 2009

Neat! It looks like the expired Polaroid 669 film I shot today.

Domin · Apr 26, 2009

How exactly did you process them? Do you know what process they were originally intended for?

Did you test the efficiency of benzotriazole?
I have some badly fogged Orwo (mostly NC19 and some assoted other) and I'm looking for a way to salvage them. They seem to have silver (I need some more testing before I'm sure) antihalation layer which would render them useless as b&w negs.

nickandre · Apr 26, 2009

Domin said:
I have some badly fogged Orwo (mostly NC19 and some assoted other) and I'm looking for a way to salvage them. They seem to have silver (I need some more testing before I'm sure) antihalation layer which would render them useless as b&w negs.

Try processing them as B+W reversal.

srs5694 · Apr 26, 2009

Somebody posted the processing formulas on another forum, for both the Soviet negative and slide films. These are closely related to the Orwo process. If you'd like me to pass on the details, just say so. Note, however, that these processes use a hard-to-find color developing agent (CD-1). I was forced to substitute CD-4, since I couldn't obtain any CD-1. Still, the CD-4 obviously works, although I don't know how much of the color shifting and other problems I see are due to the film's age and how much is due to the CD-1/CD-4 substitution.

Domin · Apr 26, 2009

There is a lab here which still offers both negative and slide orwo processes. I've tried the negative and I also processed some myself using c41 chemistry and reduced temperature. I think first roll I've tried survived even standard c41 in spiral tank. The emulsion softened and swelled but survived. I would have to look trough my notes to be sure.

I haven't done a straight test for color change made by using wrong CD but my impression is that there is some. Anyway dated orwo color negs are not very color accurate even in orginal process. And they probably weren't when fresh but this is different story.

I know reversal b&w is probably the easiest way to salvage that film but currently slides are of limited use to me. I don't even have a fully working projector. I have some ideas but they need quite a lot of work and I do not have time to try them now. Besides what I want are indecent colors that film might give.

srs5694 · Apr 26, 2009

For unusual colors, very outdated film and cross-processing are both options. You could also try reversal processing of slides printed on RA-4 paper. If you don't know about this, the process is to expose a slide onto RA-4 paper, then develop it in B&W developer, stop bath, rinse, expose the print to light, and proceed with normal RA-4 processing. The result is a "normal" image, in the sense that it's a positive image; but the contrast is usually high and the colors can be a bit off. I'm curious to see what my Svema slides will give with this treatment.

Domin · Apr 26, 2009

Cross processed slide and b&w neg is what I usually shoot . I did try reversal RA but that isn't my priority as I rarely do slides. And now I have big backlog of b&w negs and moving into / making new darkroom. But I'll probably try all that sometime. Meanwhile I'm down to getting films processed in the lab with small proofs from digital minilab. And planning either how to process films or take over the world laughing diabolically.

Did benzotriazole helped or is it just hypothesis?

srs5694 · Apr 26, 2009

Benzotriazole definitely helped with the CDN64 negative film. Given that experience, I used benzotriazole in from the start with the CO32D slide film. I might try cutting the amount, but given the age of the film, I strongly suspect that at least some of it is a virtual necessity.

Domin · Apr 26, 2009

What amount did you use? I recently bought some and did not use it yet

Poisson Du Jour · Apr 26, 2009

Looks a lot like long-expired Kodachrome!
Seriously, surprisingly good for Soviet-era film. The film-noir appearance does have appeal, especially after correction (which looks, to my eyes, a bit excessive).
I can't remember the name of a film made in the Czech republic in the 80s; some students worked with it in those days here in Australia. Often bunged into ugly Zenit SLRs and shot willy-nilly with stock zooms. Not a bad experiment to prove the Soviets did have a few gems hidden away waiting to be discovered long after the winds of change whipped through.

srs5694 · Apr 26, 2009

Domin said:
What amount did you use? I recently bought some and did not use it yet

If you're referring to the benzotriazole, I used 5ml of a 1% solution. This is a substantial amount, as benzotriazole goes. I don't know the optimal amount for this film, though.

srs5694 · Apr 26, 2009

Poisson Du Jour said:
Looks a lot like long-expired Kodachrome!
Seriously, surprisingly good for Soviet-era film. The film-noir appearance does have appeal, especially after correction (which looks, to my eyes, a bit excessive).

The correction may indeed be excessive; I just used the automatic correction features of the VueScan scanner software I used. If I ever use any of my remaining film to shoot something I consider important, I'll take the time to tweak the scanner settings to best effect -- unless of course I find a way to make darkroom prints that I like from the film.

I can't remember the name of a film made in the Czech republic in the 80s; some students worked with it in those days here in Australia.

To the best of my knowledge, the only type of film ever made in the Czech Republic was and is Foma (although it does occasionally get rebranded, as in Freestyle's Arista.EDU Ultra line). There might have been something else in the 1980s, though; my knowledge of 1980s Czech manufacturing is pretty slim!

Photo Engineer · Apr 26, 2009

Reminds me of Anscochrome.

Since this is not the authentic process, we really don't know what it looks like, but I can say that I used to have the Soviet processing solution formulas and they resembled ORWO formulas closely. The film was very subject to abrasion and reticulation.

Good work.

PE

Surprisingly good results with 20-year-old Soviet slide film

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