Verichrome Pan Users - Help Needed

Few if any here might remember me asking questions on this film type nearly 8 years ago. Well I have another film and need help again from those who really know this film to help identify its age.

It says 620 Verichrome Pan film and the film's writing is all "Sans Serif" and there is no cursive script at all. There are instructions at its start for a SIMPLE CAMERA ( written in bold block capitals). The simple camera instructions say: take outdoor snapshots in sunlight or cloudy bright daylight. Indoors use flash or flood lamps.

Then in bold block capitals it says adjustable camera and gives the sunny f16 rule for bright sun, hazy sun and cloudy bright. Finally it says meter settings( again bold block capitals) and gives ASA 80-160; BS Log 30-33; DIN 20-23 and ends by stating "With precise equipment and use, the higher settings give the best quality"

It doesn't actually say 125 or quote a single speed anywhere, nor as I say is there any serif or cursive script.

Can anyone say from the above information what it's production date in a range of years might have been?

Much appreciated

pentaxuser

Is it likely to have originated in the UK?

I ask, because products like this may very well differ depending on where they were manufactured.

I have only used 620 Verichrome Pan film in a Kodak Brownie Hawkeye camera so I did not ever use any meter or Sunny 16 with it. If I remember correctly, Verichrome Pan film had a slow speed emulsion and a higher speed emulsion so that the box cameras would have a higher probability of successful exposures. I have questions coming soon on how best to develop it in replenished XTOL or Rollo Pyro.

At a rough guess I would say that verichrome pan has not generally been sold in UK or for that matter since the 1960's. I started photography in 1962 and the Kodak films available then were Pan X, PlusX, Tri X and from Ex Army suppliers Kodak XX, a film with a speed that varied between 200 and 400 depending how old it was.

UPDATE

I hereby stand partly corrected. I have just done a web search using the words Kodak Verichrome Pan and found that it was not discontinued until 1996, but then only for 127 size. 120/620 could have been well before that. The page I found had other hints on processing times as well. It is worth a look.

Even if you had a 127 film it is at least 20 years out of date.

Thanks all. From another user 8 years ago I was told that dating can be done partially by the writing on the backing paper i.e. before a certain date the word Kodak is either serif or sans serif. In my case it is sans serif which i think he said made it later rather than earlier. The water may be further muddied or even clarified by lack of a definite speed. It simply says ISA 80-160.

Did the exposure instructions remain the same throughout its life or did that change?

I was hoping that there was someone here who will be able to narrow down the date from the information I have provided. Someone who was an extensive user of Verichrome Pan from say the late 1950s when Verichrome became Verichrome Pan through any changes Kodak made to the backing paper or ideally someone who worked at Kodak during VP's life

pentaxuser

That sounds like a fairly typical VP data sheet from late in its history. The film was common in the US at least until the late 1980s. They stopped making it at about the same time they stopped making 620 film. I used to use a fair amount of it, and it was an excellent film - very fine grain, high sharpness, and extraordinary latitude. It also had a very nice look when printing. I used to rate it at 125, but your roll is so old that it has probably lost much of its speed. I would try 64 or 80. I usually used D-76 as the developer; I have an 1971 data book that suggests D-76 1+1 for 9 minutes.

I love Verichrome Pan.. I have 60 rolls of 120 in my freezer that I bought fresh when it was discontinued around 2002. I *think* 620 was discontinued in the late 80's or early 90's but I am not sure.

I looked up Verichrome Pan in The Compact Photo Lab Index by Morgan & Morgan, 2nd Compact edition 1979, page 81. It lists Verichrome Pan as 125 ASA (now ISO) for all sizes of Verichrome Pan. 126, 120, 620, 127, 828, 616, and 116 rolls. Also in rolls for Cirkut cameras. So your roll of 620 was a 125 ASA film.

Development times are listed for Kodak developers:

Time in minutes for 20° C (68° F)

D76 7
D76 1:1 9
HC110B 5

Other developers listed are Microdol-X, Polydol, and Versatol.

Good luck!

Verichrome pan is the one film I miss, a 6X9 shot with dark yellow filter negative developed in D 76 was in my thinking ideal for landscapes. A lot of pro's discounted Verichrome as an amateur film, in the 50s and 40s Kodak offered it in 4X5.

Verichrome Pan dates from sometime in the mid 1950s, I think. I know I was using it in 1957 - 1958, but I'm not sure when it was introduced. It came along with a new Plus-X and Tri-X and with the introduction of thin emulsion films by both Kodak and other manufacturers.

Before Verichrome Pan we had Verichrome, an orthochromatic film designed for amateur cameras. Verichrome was around in various forms for a very long time, at least since the 1920s. In the late 1940s it was rated at ASA 50 speed (roughly ANSI 125). It was not a terribly impressive film except for one thing - its extraordinary latitude. It was a multilayer film, and it was very tolerant of overexposure. As far as I can tell, Verichrome was never available as sheet film, although it it was made in all roll film sizes and in film packs, which contained thin film (like roll film) cut to sheet film sizes.

Verichrome Pan was a huge step forward over the Verichrome it was designed to replace. First, it was panchromatic, so it rendered scenes more realistically. But it retained much of the latitude of Verichrome, so it could be used in non-adjustable cameras in most lighting situations. It didn't have quite the latitude of the old Verichrome, but it was close enough. It also had very fine grain and high sharpness, compared to the moderate grain and sharpness of its predecessor. This caused a dilemma for some photographers and for Kodak, since Verichrome Pan then competed directly with Plus-X. Plus-X had been the go to medium speed panchromatic film up until that time. It had less latitude than Verichrome (or Verichrome Pan), but it was very versatile for use in adjustable (and most of the time in non-adjustable) cameras. Now Verichrome Pan was available in rolls and packs, and many people preferred it to Plus-X. It had the same speed, about the same grain and sharpness, and better latitude. Oops. It wasn't long before Verichrome Pan film packs disappeared, although Plus-X packs continued until Kodak stopped making film packs.

I also miss VP. The long latitude gave its prints a certain look. Perhaps the best sheet film comparison was Royal Pan, although Royal Pan didn't have the latitude of Verichrome Pan. It was also quite forgiving about exposure, although quality did suffer if you didn't pay attention.

PDH said:

Verichrome pan is the one film I miss, a 6X9 shot with dark yellow filter negative developed in D 76 was in my thinking ideal for landscapes. ...

Click to expand...

+1 I used a 120 German 6x9 folder in 1972-76 mostly with Verichrome Pan, a yellow filter and D-76 then HC-110B for landscapes. Just lovely!