Processing old old film...

[Jon P]

Hi scott,

Well its definetly black and white, 125iso. It depends on the chmicals you use if it comes out positive or negative - generally you need an extra processing step to invert the negative. As you found out any film with 'Pan' in its name generally means it reacts to all colours (as opposed to orthochromatic films which aren't sensitive to red). Chrome was pretty much unverially used in all kinds of film at back in the day - although the original revesal film was kodachrome, which actually isn't an E-6 process film anyway, but I guess 'chromes kinda stuck as a nickname for positive film.

There always seems to be some confusion over colour C-41, Positive E-6 and cross processing etc. I've not done any cross processing yet but as I understand it E-6 processing has a reversal step in the processing so if you put a C-41 film through an E-6 process you get a positive with muted colours and less contrast (C-41 films are designed with higher latitude so this is expanded even more in the E-6 process) where as if you process E-6 in C-41 you get negatives with increased saturation and contrast (E-6 films are designed with narrower exposure latitudes which are further reduced by the C-41 process) and if you process E-6 or C-41 in B&W chemicals you get B&W negatives because there's no colour developing stage or reversal step.

Depending on how long its been in the camera - probably some where between 20 and 50 years theres going to be enevitably some fogging on it, so a lot of contrast would have been lost. As long as the backing paper is wrapped tight and isn't damaged it sould be reasonably light tight, and if its been in the camera thats probably a good thing.

As it happens a similar thing happened to me recently, a camera I bought had a very old looking film in it, in my case agfa IsopanF. I took it to my local photo shop and the guy basically said its probably not worth paying for B&W 120 developing on such an old film. I'm planning to develope mine myself, I could probably process yours at the same time, but that wont be until I'm back up in glasgow and can steal the art schools chemicals sometime in september, of course you won't get any prints, but I might be able to scan them.
In my case the film wasn't used so I took some pictures on it, because of its age its going to need more developing time, I'm not sure if this is true with already exposed images but I can try and find out, It would make sense that the chemicals would loose some potency over time.

I've used snappy snaps before a few years ago to do B&W 120 film, they were ok, with the difference between the cost of prints you may as well go for 8" prints as if you go that route your going to be spending over £10.

hmm thats quite a long post ah well. Hope some of it helps.

Jon Pritchard

[StevenJ]

Hi scott,

Well its definetly black and white, 125iso. It depends on the chmicals you use if it comes out positive or negative

mmmmmmmmm. that's the first time I have heard that...............

Surely, Black and White negative film, will only ever be negative just like Colour negative will only ever be negative. You can cross-process it (i.e. process it as if it was positive film) but it's still negative................

[scottwramsay]

Jon! Welcome to the boards. I had no idea that was you until I got to the very last line. I wouldn't normally trust someone who says they would be using the art SCHOOL's stuff but I don't think that doubt applies to you. I was maybe going to speak to the people at Loxley's and see what they said - I'll keep you updated, thanks!

[samscafeamericain]

Did anything show up on the old film?

[scottwramsay]

I'm still waiting for Jon to get back up to Glasgow in September and do it for me, but I'll post them here if anything shows up!

[samscafeamericain]

I'm still waiting for Jon to get back up to Glasgow in September and do it for me, but I'll post them here if anything shows up!

cough, cough, errrr if any of them prove unsuitable for posting on a family website could you PM me them

[Lone Groover]

Just noticed a 'chrome' setting on my digi camera - What will that do for me ? Tried it, didn't see any diff.

[mr moto]

Just noticed a 'chrome' setting on my digi camera - What will that do for me ? Tried it, didn't see any diff.

is your camera a FUJI ? my fuji finepix e-900 has a chrome setting on it , it just slightly intensifies the colour setting .

[Lone Groover]

Just noticed a 'chrome' setting on my digi camera - What will that do for me ? Tried it, didn't see any diff.

is your camera a FUJI ? my fuji finepix e-900 has a chrome setting on it , it just slightly intensifies the colour setting .

OK. I will snap away in Chrome for a month & see what I get.

Wasn't 'Chrome' a slide film ?

[mrsam]

I'm still waiting for Jon to get back up to Glasgow in September and do it for me, but I'll post them here if anything shows up!

Bump! its now september what news?

Mr Sam

[scottwramsay]

I saw Jon around the university campus yesterday. Photography society meetings start again next week so I was planning to ask him about it then. To be honest I'd kinda forgotten about it a bit...

[scottwramsay]

Well I finally got it done. I'll have a go at modifying the exposure and removing the scratches from it when I get home - anyone recognise the steeple?





The rest of the frames were either fogged or stuck to the backing paper. The scratches are from lots of bits of black... stuff stuck to the film. Anyone got any ideas about what exactly that might be, and whether I might be able to get it removed?

[engineer]

nice work scott, authentic vintage

[scottwramsay]

nice work scott, authentic vintage

I didn't take the photos, they were on a roll I found in a camera I bought at a charity shop on Byres Road. I'm trying to figure out where they were taken though - any ideas anyone?

A few more of the frames were fogged and the rest were stuck to the backing paper so unfortunately these were all that were salvageable. Still, if you look at the film itself to get an idea of its age, I guess you can appreciate how lucky I was to get anything. Big thanks to Jon who processed them for me

[engineer]

i'd realised that, meant good work following this through to get the vintage pics