So last fall, a friend offered me a 100 foot roll of Panatomic X he found among the "stuff" he was cleaning out for a friend who retired to several states away. The expiration date is December 1988 (and to my surprise, apparently manufacture ceased in 1987 -- I thought its demise was more recent). As far as any of us know, it has been lounging around at room temperature, but I recall the film is known for longevity, so it's now mine. Note the retail price sticker -- an astronomical $25.70.
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My hope was to use it with my Argus C3 for the annual Argus Day festivities. That's nigh upon us, so yesterday I spooled up about 12 exposures worth and went shooting (with the C3, after all). Used incident readings at ISO 32 and bracketed a bit, didn't do anything too scientific. Developed 9:00 in HC110 1+63, my normal developer of choice. Behold, every image is visible and half decent! There's a few scratches and a couple of blotches that may be my film handling. I don't own a bulk loader so I taped the film to the spool, hung the spool on a finish nail in the darkroom door trim, unrolled to a marker and snipped by feel in the dark. (That's how I did it back in the Bronze age.) I wouldn't shoot a friend's wedding with the stuff, but all in all, it looks way good to go for Argus Day (which is Argust 14th this year).
Sample negative scan:
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Pretty cotton picking amazing.
