Which way would you develop 2001 expired Kodak T400CN 220 film?

loccdor

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Hi there,

I recently got a big bargain on this 220 film ($6 per roll).

I almost never use C-41 B&W. Have heard that it can be developed in chemicals meant for typical silver films. What would you recommend? I think I will try shooting it around 160. It has apparently been frozen about 10 of the 25 years.

What sort of difference would I see in the C-41 vs B&W development of this? Any gotchas I should know about?

Thank you
 

Paul Howell

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If you are home processing C41 then I would develop as +1 push, if sending out, a few custom labs will push, for additional fee, not sure who could push 220, a minilab will not push, some may or may not have the right cassesset for 220. Otherwise shoot at 200 and send out a roll to see what you get.
 

nosmok

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I developed this stock (in 35mm) in Caffenol years ago-- expose at 200, then Caffenol C or CH at 20c for 15 minutes, and it worked OK (all this from memory, have to dig out the negatives to check, and can't remember if it was C or CH). It should be noted that Kodak apparently specifically recommended against processing T400CN as negative.
 

Kodachromeguy

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I recently used T400CN in 35mm size at 125. Normal C41 development (I do not know the brand of chemicals). It looked remarkably good, but maybe would benefit from a bit more exposure. I suggest you expose at 100.

https://worldofdecay.blogspot.com/2024/05/around-olympia-with-kodak-t400cn.html
 
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MattKing

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One good thing about developing it in C-41 chemicals - you won't have to worry about colour shifts or crossover .
If you are scanning, it will also give you negatives that will work with ICE or similar IR based "cleaning" treatments.
 

MattKing

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JerseyDoug said:
The OP asked about developing the T400CN in B&W chemicals. Chris Moss did some excellent work with Ilford's XP2 Super, another C-41 B&W film, developed with B&W chemicals. One of his articles is still on the Ilford web site.
Click to expand...

Actually, he/she asked about both options.
This would seem to be a great candidate for one of the least expensive C-41 kits - thus my reference to colour shift or crossover.
 

abruzzi

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I processed mine in E6. Shoot it at 100, develop E6 and you get a positive. Its not B&W, its more G&W--green and white--but it still fun.
 

lamerko

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This T400CN film has a color mask - probably for compatibility with technical equipment and color paper. Processing with black and white chemistry may not produce as good results as Ilford XP2.
 
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loccdor

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lamerko said:
This T400CN film has a color mask - probably for compatibility with technical equipment and color paper. Processing with black and white chemistry may not produce as good results as Ilford XP2.
Click to expand...

What I've gathered from conversations photographers have had on the internet about it, is that there may be two versions of this film - one with a very subtle almost clear mask and one with a brownish mask. Two photographers were completely disagreeing about the mask of this film, and both were holding it in their hands. Not sure what to make of it.
 
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loccdor

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abruzzi said:
I processed mine in E6. Shoot it at 100, develop E6 and you get a positive. Its not B&W, its more G&W--green and white--but it still fun.
Click to expand...

Very interesting, I was wondering what would happen in E-6. Is it very low contrast that way?
 

MattKing

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I believe that there are two different C-41 B&W Kodak films from around this time - one with the mask, and the other without.
The one you have is masked: https://125px.com/docs/film/kodak/f2350-T400CN.pdf
 

AnselMortensen

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There are time & temperature combinations on the digitaltruth Massive Development Chart for that film with various developers.
 

Romanko

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I would start with the standard C41 process. Bracket your exposures -2, -1, 0 stops (or even -3). Inspect the results and decide if you want to bother with B&W. What format are you shooting?
 

foc

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Romanko said:
I would start with the standard C41 process. Bracket your exposures -2, -1, 0 stops (or even -3). Inspect the results and decide if you want to bother with B&W. What format are you shooting?
Click to expand...

+1.

The OP says the format is 220.
 

Don_ih

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The mask will (1) make for very dense negatives if developed in b&w chemicals and (2) make enlarging on b&w paper quite irritating, no matter how you develop it. The best plan is go for c41, since that will get you the clearest negatives.
 
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loccdor

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Thanks for the advice! I will plan to start with C-41 then.
 
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loccdor

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Romanko said:
Sorry for the confusion. I meant frame format. Not that it matters much but 4.5x6 on type 220 is a lot of frames to waste for a test roll.
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It is 6x4.5 but chances are high I can get decent images at 160 speed since people sometimes even shot this film from 50-1600 and it appears to be among the most forgiving. It's been rare to find a black and white film from this century that is completely unusable even with compensation. There are 14 rolls total so if the first requires a little adjustment it won't be a big deal as a price to get it right.
 
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