Unexposed old film

fotch · Aug 24, 2006

I tried searching for this info with success.

I have some film that dates back approximately 20 years. Stored in dry room tempature conditions. Should of would of put in freezer if I had known I wasn't going to get to it sooner.

Is it any good? Do I need to develop in any special way? Usually use D76.

Some of the film as follows:

Adox R14 (120) Sept 87
Adox KB 14 (35mm) April 88
Adox KB 17 (35mm) Jan 88
Kodak Tri-X May 76
Kodak Tmax 100 Mar 89
Kodak TechPan Feb 84
Agfa Triple S Pan (4x5) Feb 44*

I have more similar to above, some 120, 4x5, some color.

*The Agfa is a seal box and I don't know the storage conditions before I acquired it, I have had it for 20 years.

Any advice is appreciated.

Paul Howell · Aug 24, 2006

I have had better luck with slow speed film, fast film is more inclined to fog. The 4X5 from 1944 and the color will the most problematic, check to see what the processing is for the color, C 22 or C 41. I would expose all of the film at about 1/2 the box speed. D 76 is as good as a choice as any.

TheFlyingCamera · Aug 24, 2006

I can't comment with any great accuracy on the other films, but it is my understanding that the TMax 100 has fairly good keeping ability, and is the most likely of them other than maybe the Tri-X to be ok. I would think the Agfa Triple S Pan is most likely unuseable given the age. You would need to add benzotriazole to your developer as a fog retardant, but how much, and how much you'd have to compensate for it both in development and in exposure would require experimentation. You'd probably go through the entire box trying to figure that out.

Thomas Bertilsson · Aug 25, 2006

I went down the road of buying old film to play around with. As has been said, the slower the film, the better they usually keep (less fog).
I had some 1960's Panatomic-X which was completely useless, but there was some 1970's Plus-X which was perfectly fine, and some 1980's Tri-X that works great. I'd say the Tri-X and Agfa SSS are probably not going to work very well. In the Agfa film, you have historically interesting film, since it's from World War II. I would keep it as a historic artifact. I used FA-1027 developer for all my outdated film, which develops film very cleanly. The Flying Camera offers great advice with benzotriazole.
- Thom

Sparky · Aug 25, 2006

Of your Kodak emulsions, my money's on the Tech pan and the TMX. The tech pan will probably be perfect.

raucousimages · Aug 25, 2006

I shoot old film when I can get it. I usualy shoot at half the sugested ASA (Tri-X at 200 Etc.) and develop in D-76 for 7 min @68f. Afew weeks ago I shot some 5X7 ansco dated 1957. It was realy foged on the outer 3/4 in and the geain seemed to clump. But it mede some cool abstract portraits.

Have fun with it.
John

srs5694 · Aug 25, 2006

The oldest (most out of date) film I've ever shot is some Tasma MZ-3L, which has an expiration date of (IIRC) 1991. This is a very slow (ISO 6) film intended for making positives from existing B&W negatives. I got it just a few weeks ago and it's in very bad shape, with very high base fog and splotchy marks all over it. I suspect it was very poorly stored. If anybody wants some bad slow film, feel free to contact me; I've got about a dozen rolls of it.

Unexposed old film

fotch

Paul Howell

TheFlyingCamera

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Thomas Bertilsson

Sparky

raucousimages

srs5694

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