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Photo Forum / Film Photography / Large Format / July 2003

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Using Really Old FIlm

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Dave Mann - 29 Jul 2003 00:53 GMT
I have several hundred sheets of boxed and sealed Super Panchro Press Type B
Film -- Expiration date June 1957.  Aside from short power failures and
transfers to larger storage lockers, this film is reported to have been
refrigerated at a local US Army depot.  I bought it surplus for $5.00

Anyone have any ideas on development, exposure compensation, and other
hints?  I figure that I could always made neutral density filters out of it
and training sheets for teaching people how to load and unload cut film
holders.  But, being the Scotsman that I am, I was thinking about making
some pictures with it and my View Camera.

Cheers,

Dave
DuganFoto - 29 Jul 2003 02:19 GMT
Hi, Dave,
This is what I would do:
I'd develop one sheet from each end of a box, and one sheet from the middle of
the box individually, without exposing it.
This will determine how fogged the film is.
Looking at my Kodak Reference Guide from close to that era, the only readily
available developer listed is Dektol (1:1) for 3 min @ 68 deg F with tray
development, or tank development for 4 min.
The reference guide states that this is for "press" purposes. There are other
dev types listed for commercial and portraiture, but they're unlikely to be
available at your photo supplier, and you're more likely to HAVE Dektol, so for
convenience and cost effectiveness, considering this is a test, that's where
I'd start.
If the 3 sheets are all EQUALLY,  EVENLY and lightly fogged, it MIGHT be
usable.
If it's uneven, throw the film away, or keep the boxes as a shelf decoration.
If  the three sheets are radically different from each other, you will have a
"moving target" to calibrate to, and you will have a difficult time achieving
consistent results, and again, you would have nice shelf decoration boxes.
If you have access to a densitometer, you could measure the density, and
compare it to the density of the clear rebate edge of a negative of the same
type... (somebody on this list must have a neg shot on that stuff, and a
densitometer, and would be able to help you out).
By comparing the two densities, you would know how bad the fogging is, and you
can test the film using standard calibration techniques to determine a personal
film speed using your equipment and a standardized developer and development
time.
According to Ansel Adams in "The Negative", "...fog in the negative, if evenly
distributed throughout the film, may merely raise the over-all opacity, and
shorten the density (opacity) scale. A fog density of 0.20 will appreciably
affect only the lower zones of opacity....Within reasonable limits, fog can be
counteracted by choosing printing paper appropriate to the EFFECTIVE opacity
scale of the fogged negative."

The film is rated at 125 ASA Daylight, 100 ASA Tungsten.

Also, benzotriazole is alleged to work wonderfully as an anti-fogging agent.
(I've never had particularly good luck with it.)
In addition, use of a proportional reducer post-development may be helpful.

I worked my way through junior college and  college using old film, usually
having to resort to darkroom magic, but I had fun doing it!
Hope this helps, and GOOD LUCK!

Doug Allen
Dave Mann - 29 Jul 2003 12:33 GMT
Thanks very much to Doug and Robert.  I will incorporate your advice and
keep you all posted here in the group.  I'll be exposing the film --
assuming it is useable -- in a Calumet view, making pictures of the changing
small towns here in rural Tennessee.

I do recall (vaguely) this type of film from my Army days (I was an
Investigative Photographer among other things).  But mostly we used the
Tri-X film packs in a Speed Graphic with fill in flash with #25's.  My sheet
film work was mostly with an 8x10 that I used to take officer's official
photos.

I have Dektol and benzotriazole on hand.

Cheers!  and thanks again for the help

Dave

> Hi, Dave,
> This is what I would do:
[quoted text clipped - 41 lines]
>
> Doug Allen
Michael Scarpitti - 29 Jul 2003 14:30 GMT
> I have several hundred sheets of boxed and sealed Super Panchro Press Type B
> Film -- Expiration date June 1957.  Aside from short power failures and
[quoted text clipped - 10 lines]
>
> Dave

This film is unlikely to be any good. Pity, that.
Norman Worth - 30 Jul 2003 04:54 GMT
Kodak Super Panchro Press Film 6146, Type B was still around in the 60s.  I
looked it up in the Kodak publication F5 from 1969 and found the following:

      HC-110 (dil. A) 4 min tray, 5 min tank
      HC-110 (dil. B) 6 min tray, 8 min tank
      DK-50 4-1/2 min tray, 6 min tank
      DK-50 (1:1) 8 min tray, 10 min tank
      D-76 (undiluted) 10 min tray, 13 min tank

all at 20C.  Film speed is listed at ASA 250.

If the film has been in cold storage, it may have survived.
Try some. Bracket exposures though, sometimes film loses speed as it ages.
Lot of luck.

> I have several hundred sheets of boxed and sealed Super Panchro Press Type B
> Film -- Expiration date June 1957.  Aside from short power failures and
[quoted text clipped - 10 lines]
>
> Dave
Dave Mann - 30 Jul 2003 12:39 GMT
Thanks for the info.  I am going to try the reformation of developing
unexposed sheets from the box and see what the fog level is looking like.
Then I will do some tests.  I am planning to post the test results and some
pictures (if any come out) ...

Thanks for the help!

Dave

> Kodak Super Panchro Press Film 6146, Type B was still around in the 60s.  I
> looked it up in the Kodak publication F5 from 1969 and found the following:
[quoted text clipped - 27 lines]
> >
> > Dave
 
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