Verichrome Pan, in loving memory

StoneNYC · Mar 22, 2013

MartinP said:
Oooo, post #25 brought back some memories. My first photographs were made using Verichrome-Pan in 1970, aged 8 or 9, with the family Box-Brownie 620. I still have a lot of the negatives too. I was allowed one roll per month - two shots a week!

And who was the one enforcing this rule?

premortho · Mar 23, 2013

StoneNYC said:
And who was the one enforcing this rule?

In my case it was my mother. I was allowed one roll of Ansco Plenachrome per month. That's two exposures per week. In my Ansco Panda camera. I guess that kind of dates me huh? Souped in Rodinal, 1-25. I had to live with this stricture as she bought me the film, and my grandfather supplied the Rodinal. I asked him how long he'd been using Rodinal. Oh, since 1895, or so.

premortho · Mar 23, 2013

I much later switched to Verichrome Pan when I couldn't get All-Weather Pan anymore. All of these were fabulous films. I would be happy to be able to buy any one of them today. Very creamy results. The big difference between Verichrome pan and Plus-X was that Verichrome Pan was designed to keep really well on store shelves, and in the camera. Plus X was a professional film with much poorer keeping characteristics. Nobody I knew ever had even heard of keeping film in a refridgerator in those days, so shelf life was important.

Zathras · Mar 23, 2013

I still have some VP-120 that expired in November of 2000. I shot some recently and was surprised and pleased with the images I obtained from it. It was only very slightly fogged and it had never been refrigerated or frozen. I souped it in D76 1+1 since it is what I am currently using. I also like it in HC-110 Dilution H. I'll miss this stuff when I finally run out of it. It's irreplaceable IMHO.

Mike

StoneNYC · Mar 23, 2013

premortho said:
In my case it was my mother. I was allowed one roll of Ansco Plenachrome per month. That's two exposures per week. In my Ansco Panda camera. I guess that kind of dates me huh? Souped in Rodinal, 1-25. I had to live with this stricture as she bought me the film, and my grandfather supplied the Rodinal. I asked him how long he'd been using Rodinal. Oh, since 1895, or so.

So you can maybe answer the question about current Rodinal/Adonal/R09 and the Adox "old Rodinal formula" ?? It's been bugging me forever, what's the difference? They must have people buying it or they wouldn't make it, but I've never seen anyone post about it.

1895 really? Craziness, I'm sure that's the old Rodinal formula back then but what's the difference?

~Stone

Mamiya: 7 II, RZ67 Pro II / Canon: 1V, AE-1, 5DmkII / Kodak: No 1 Pocket Autographic, No 1A Pocket Autographic | Sent w/ iPhone using Tapatalk

Ian Grant · Mar 24, 2013

(there was a url link here which no longer exists).

Remember Verichrome the forerunner to Verichrome Pan has a long history going back Wratten & Wainwright 1908 which is before Mees joined Eastman Kodak and KOdak bought the company. Wratten & Wainwright's research team formed Kodaks Rochester (US) and Harlow (UK) research departments.

Ian

StoneNYC · Mar 24, 2013

Ian Grant said:
(there was a url link here which no longer exists).

Remember Verichrome the forerunner to Verichrome Pan has a long history going back Wratten & Wainwright 1908 which is before Mees joined Eastman Kodak and KOdak bought the company. Wratten & Wainwright's research team formed Kodaks Rochester (US) and Harlow (UK) research departments.

Ian

Wow, dating yourself with knowledge almost as old as Ron I guess, so you're probably like 150 years old! Haha

But I got to about post #12 and stopped, too much chemistry. I just want to know for now, simple stuff, like... Is the currently sold R09 exactly the same as Adox Adonal? And are both of those the same as Rodinal? (The latest version before the company collapsed.

And I want to know more about what effect Adox's OLD Rodinal has on film vs the current Adonal and are they noticeable differences? Why would I choose one over the other? Does one keep even better than the other? And why did the change happen?

That's the stuff I'm curious about not the chemistry YET as its still over my head.

~Stone

Mamiya: 7 II, RZ67 Pro II / Canon: 1V, AE-1, 5DmkII / Kodak: No 1 Pocket Autographic, No 1A Pocket Autographic | Sent w/ iPhone using Tapatalk

sepiareverb · Mar 24, 2013

I got a few rolls of Verichrome Pan 126 on eBay a few months back. Been shooting it in an Instamatic 500 and running it in HC-110b, but a little chilly, at 63°F. The boxes look like this stuff had a LOT of freeze-thaw cycles since it's '89 expiration date, but it runs beautifully, with just a hint of fog.

StoneNYC · Mar 24, 2013

sepiareverb said:
I got a few rolls of Verichrome Pan 126 on eBay a few months back. Been shooting it in an Instamatic 500 and running it in HC-110b, but a little chilly, at 63°F. The boxes look like this stuff had a LOT of freeze-thaw cycles since it's '89 expiration date, but it runs beautifully, with just a hint of fog.

Wow nice

~Stone

Mamiya: 7 II, RZ67 Pro II / Canon: 1V, AE-1, 5DmkII / Kodak: No 1 Pocket Autographic, No 1A Pocket Autographic | Sent w/ iPhone using Tapatalk

MartinP · Mar 24, 2013

StoneNYC said:
And who was the one enforcing this rule?

Aged nine I didn't even have pocket money, let alone a weekend-job, so my parents were the film suppliers and arranged development and printing via the local chemist-shop too!

My first d.i.y. results were a few years later with 35mm Agfachrome slide film

John Wiegerink · Mar 24, 2013

I had a dream a few nights back, that my wife sent me to get a roast from the freezer and while digging upside down I came across about 100 rolls each of 116, 620 and 616 Verichrome Pan film. When I woke in the morning I suddenly realized we no longer had a chest freezer. Darn! Out of all the discontinued films from Kodak Verichrome Pan is the one I most miss. Of course others might say Kodachrome, but not me. JohnW

Ian Grant · Mar 24, 2013

MartinP said:
Aged nine I didn't even have pocket money, let alone a weekend-job, so my parents were the film suppliers and arranged development and printing via the local chemist-shop too!

My first d.i.y. results were a few years later with 35mm Agfachrome slide film

You were lucky, I had my first camera aged 2 and wasn't given any film, took some great shots though, all imaginary

Ian

MartinP · Mar 24, 2013

I wonder if one could find Verichrome-Pan in Yorkshire . . . ???

John Wiegerink · Mar 24, 2013

Ian Grant said:
You were lucky, I had my first camera aged 2 and wasn't given any film, took some great shots though, all imaginary

Ian

Too bad we didn't live closer together as I might have been able to give you some of my imaginary film from my freezer. Oops, I probably didn't have any film at the time you needed it. I didn't start playing with cameras until I bought one C.O.D. off the back of a comic book. Plastic little Imperial 127 camera if I remember right and boy was my mom surprised when it came. She had to fork out the money for something she knew nothing about. I was even more surprised when my father came home from work and never order anything else C.O.D. again!!! I still have my first portrait from that camera. It was made in 1959 when I was 9yrs old and it was of my two best friends standing on the front steps of our rural one room school house out in the sticks of Michigan. Now one of my buddies has grown quite a bit taller, 'cause in the picture the top of his head is cut off. It took me a long time to come to grips with the framing part of picture taking. Was pretty darn easy to trip that shutter tho. JohnW

StoneNYC · Mar 24, 2013

Cute stories, I was older 12, and I used my allowance money to buy and process film, at the time it was the local Walgreens, I would either ride my bike or mom would take me, I was lucky I had a fancy AE-1 (two actually as my aunt had given me hers after finding out about my photographic interests). So one at my moms and one at my dads (divorced) though, it wasn't so much a limit of how many shots per week, as how long it would be till I could get a new roll. But it was more luxurious at this time since it was the 80's and you got 24-36 images, not just 8

I really only used color negative film as it was the cheapest and available at Walgreens and could be done in 1 hour when I was 16 I shot one roll of APX100 that my school yearbook lady gave me, she gave me 2 rolls but I only shot one, I've still got the other one and I plan to shoot it soon at EI 50...

Anyway, I didn't have it as "rough" as you guys, 24 frames, one hour processing, split prism SLR, in camera TTL center weighted average meter, f/1.8 and whoa, B to 1/1000 shutter, I was a fancy lad!

~Stone

Mamiya: 7 II, RZ67 Pro II / Canon: 1V, AE-1, 5DmkII / Kodak: No 1 Pocket Autographic, No 1A Pocket Autographic | Sent w/ iPhone using Tapatalk

Yashinoff · Mar 26, 2013

I shot a couple rolls of 1960s VP through an Imperial Satellite toy camera a few years ago. Although the film was severely fogged, the fog was even and smooth you'd never know it from looking at the prints. I like VP a lot, but I have to say in most respects T-Max which replaced it is a better film (and yes, I know that is a really unpopular opinion).

johara · Apr 3, 2013

Nice VP pictures everyone. That stuff has staying power, I'll say that much. My Dad shot a lot of it in the 50's but after he passed away Mom was into Kodacolor in the old 120 Duaflex. I still have a lot of those VP negatives.

I wonder if anyone has tried a modern film in a soft-working developer like D-23? I use that all the time with TMAX (both flavors) and the tonality can be quite nice. It's my go-to developer for bright sunlight.

It's not the same as VP, of course.

nworth · Apr 5, 2013

I recently found an unexposed roll of VP lurking in a bag of TMX. I exposed it and developed it in FX-37. I also exposed an developed (separately) some TMX on the same trip. Amazingly, the VP was still good, and I was reminded once again of just how fine that film was.

Although VP was designed for box cameras, its real distinction was the quality of the results when used with professional equipment and proper exposure. There is something about the look of VP pictures that is unique and screams quality. (Alas, if the pictures were as good as the film.) The film had nearly as fine grain and sharpness as PXP, but the toe held up better for shadow detail and highlight detail was usually well preserved. It looked better than PXP. As a matter of fact, it looks darn good compared to the TMX I recently shot.

Roger Cole · Apr 5, 2013

desertratt said:
Verichrome Pan was a Chevrolet and Plus-X was a Porsche.

Nah, VP was more like a 4WD SUV. It was a lovely film.

Gerald C Koch · Apr 7, 2013

OzJohn said:
Do I recall correctly that it was never made in 35mm? Ilford also had a film called Selochrome that was similar. OzJohn

Kodak considered Verichrome to be an amateur film and so it was available in only certain formats used by simple cameras. It was never available in 35mm.

Agfa had a similar 120 film Isopan F. It was sold by Sears, was very reasonable and I shot a lot of it when in college.

Verichrome Pan, in loving memory

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