Very Old BW Film

[jacksond]

I have quite a bit of Ilford and Agfa BW film 35 and 120 (some 30 years old!:rolleyes It has been stored reasonably well. Is it likely to be usable or is it landfill? Advice welcome, no guarantees expected.

 

[chrism]

Only one way to find out...

Black and white seems to hold up better than color so it might be worthwhile.

 

[danegermouse]

definitely usable. i have used b/w film that is more than 30 years old and it is still good. expect some extra grain and maybe a little loss in speed but your own tests will determine the true extent of the damage...therein lies the adventure.

dane.

 

[Kevin Caulfield]

The Agfa film is no good, so please send it to me for correct disposal. PM me for my address.

 

[Wade D]

I'm using up some old Verichrome Pan that expired in 1964. It was spooled for a Cirkut camera (8"x4'). I have been cutting it down to 8x10 & 4x5. There is a lot of base fog which I compensate for by adding KBr to my developer and shooting at about ISO 45. So far the results have been great. Base fog is easy to print through.
Not as good as new film but why waste it?

 

[Yamaotoko]

I'm currently playing with three old 100' folls I found in the clean-up of moving house, one of HP4, which was a bit fogged, and two of Ilford Micro-Neg Pan, ASA6. One older than the other, but both well over 40 years, both expose and print very nicely. They've lost about 2 stops of speed, but otherwise, work very well. I just looked around on the massive development chart to find some rough times and went from there.

 

[jacksond]

Re Very Old Film

Thanks for the info on the old film. I would expect a loss of contrast and I definitely won't be wasting any of it. Any suggestions for developing it? NO Kevin of Caulfield, you can't have it. It stays in East Burwood!

Jackson

 

[Chriscc123]

How about some good old konica infrared? It has been in deep freeze sense the 60's.

 

[werra]

Any suggestions for developing it?

Rodinal for Agfa. 1+25. At 20C. Ein Film, Ein Entwickler

 

[w9cae]

I have been shooting Ilford I cut down from spools my brother bought in the late 1970's. Been working like a real champ, a tad bit grainy but souping up in 1/100 rodinal mix has fixed that.

 

[MartinCrabtree]

How about some good old konica infrared? It has been in deep freeze sense the 60's.

Man I'd love to shoot some of that. Post up your results.

 

[Thomas Bertilsson]

Jackson,

I shot Agfa black and white film that was only 12 years expired, and imprints from both the text on the paper backin, as well as the paper backing itself were found on the film after it was processed, which rendered the film completely useless unless you spent about five hours on each frame cleaning them up digitally. I really hope it's different for you and your batch, but I'm strongly advising you to not use this film for any important work until it has been tested, batch to batch, or you stand a very good chance at losing the hard work you put into it.
Test it with stupid shots first, shots that you can go back and re-shoot any time.

Developing: Kodak HC-110 worked better for old film than any other developer I tried. Xtol and Ilfotec DD-X was pretty good too. Your film has likely lost some film speed due to increased base fog. So you might want to give a bit extra exposure.

- Thomas

Thanks for the info on the old film. I would expect a loss of contrast and I definitely won't be wasting any of it. Any suggestions for developing it? NO Kevin of Caulfield, you can't have it. It stays in East Burwood!

Jackson

 

[jacksond]

Old Agfa 120

Thanks for that advice. I'll use mostly the 35mm, but i'll experiment with the 120 at some point.
Cheers