This will be fun!

Mar 26, 2023,14:45 PM
 

You didn't mention how the negatives have been stored all these years and I'm curious about that.


My prediction is that the black and white films will be better than you are expecting, but the color films will be a challenge. For color I'd just send a roll to be developed and let them know how it was stored and for how long. If you happen to be in the US this company has experience with old film:

https://thedarkroom.com/old-rolls-film-developing/

If you decide to home develop the film I'd suggest starting with a roll of Plus-X, and developing a test strip cut from the first roll, just a few images. (One image will be lost from the roll due to cutting it in half but it'll be worth it.) This will give you information that you can use for the rest of the roll and subsequent rolls. You (or whoever develops the film) will need to extend the development time to account for how much the latent image has faded. The shadows will likely be gone, but the mid-tones and highlights can be brought back to life with extra time in the developer. If I was in this situation I would develop the first test strip as if I had exposed the film at iso250 instead of iso125 and adjust from there with another test strip if needed.

I know a photographer who bought a vintage camera that had a partially exposed roll of film in it that was decades old. She went ahead and finished exposing the roll with her own images, and that made for an interesting comparison because half of the roll had latent images that were older than her, and the rest of the images were fresh. The result? The "old" half of the roll had faded but usable images, and the "new" half of the roll had no images at all. The vintage film held on to the old images but apparently could not record new ones. Amazing. smile


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Film Hell (Latent Memories Lost) - Suggestions Appreciated

 
 By: Steve E : March 25th, 2023-20:57
In the photo we see a collection of unprocessed film that turned up in the course of my ongoing decluttering effort. There are 18 rolls of 120/220, mostly verichrome pan with some TXP. Also 22 rolls of 35 mm B&W, mostly plus x. And last half a dozen r...  

at this point there is no rush to develop and ... 😉

 
 By: cshimokita : March 25th, 2023-22:05
it makes sense to send off a roll of each type to test the waters. Labs here no longer push/pull development. I have read numerous comments about how to approach specific development challenges, so research is your best bet. I have sent off a message to J... 

Thanks for your feedback.

 
 By: Steve E : March 26th, 2023-00:38
I'm definitely wondering if modifications to the standard development process could improve the outcome. So far I haven't found much on it. Lucky for me tanks, reels, thermometer, beakers etc were included with my "discovery". Definitely agree on the test... 

Thanks for your suggestion.

 
 By: Steve E : March 26th, 2023-19:53
II will make sure the color stuff goes to a lab that can take into consideration the age of the film.

This will be fun!

 
 By: J_Warden : March 26th, 2023-14:45
You didn't mention how the negatives have been stored all these years and I'm curious about that. My prediction is that the black and white films will be better than you are expecting, but the color films will be a challenge. For color I'd just send a rol... 

Yes, totally agree with your title. Fun!

 
 By: Steve E : March 26th, 2023-19:49
Thank you for the suggestions. As to storage conditions over a few decades for this film, who knows. All I can say is dry, dark, seasonable to some degree. My priority is the B&W, and home processing makes sense for tailoring the processing time, temp... 

Yep, your approach makes sense to me.

 
 By: J_Warden : March 26th, 2023-20:48
I'm guessing plus 1 or plus 2 will do the trick and at least you'll have something on the film. Please share!

Thanks for jumping in Jeff ...

 
 By: cshimokita : March 27th, 2023-11:19
also looking forward to the results. Casey .

My pleasure! I wonder about the digital equivalent.

 
 By: J_Warden : March 27th, 2023-13:32
Maybe in 2060 one of my sons will find my old Nikon D70 and go to heroic efforts to find what’s in the memory card. ;-)

Thank you both for sharing your thoughts.

 
 By: Steve E : March 28th, 2023-02:18
I will definitely provide an update(s) as I work through this.

Update

 
 By: Steve E : April 23rd, 2023-00:47
This is to share an update on my film recovery project. I ended up doing a test processing with 2 rolls, and the negs came back yesterday. If this indicates what I can look forward to with the remaing rolls I will feel pretty happy about it. These are str...  

The scans are looking good ...

 
 By: cshimokita : April 23rd, 2023-12:05
flat scans are the easiest to work with. Congratulations, and thanks for the follow-up ... Casey .

Very nice!

 
 By: J_Warden : April 23rd, 2023-20:55
That film aged quite well imho. Glad to see this.

Thanks to you both for earlier suggestions.

 
 By: Steve E : April 24th, 2023-05:22
The initial results are encouraging. I will do one more test sample asap. Because I don't know what images this film holds, each roll will be a revelation or re-discovery of something I made or did in another time of my life. The excitement may not be con...