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how long should I develop really old film?

Posted: Wed May 03, 2006 10:44 pm
by meagan
I have some Kodak Plus-X and Tri-X film that has been in my dad's refrigerator for 24 years. I'm going to develop it in HC-110, but I dont know how long I should develop it for. Any suggestions?

HC110

Posted: Thu May 04, 2006 8:37 pm
by Kino
Hi, I processed EXPOSED 34 year old film in HC110, dilution B for 8 minutes @ 68 degrees F with 20 ml of a 10% sodium bromide solution to reduce fog and it came out as well as could be expected!

If you are starting with unexposed, but old, out of date stock, I would drop back to 6 to 7 minutes @ 68 degrees F and see how bad the base+fog level is upon "normal" development.

You are probably going to loose some ISO/ASA sensitivity due to age, but if you give it an extra 1/2 stop exposure when shooting, it will probably offset the speed loss.

The easy way to do this is to rate the film at 1/2 again the speed it was normally rated when new. If it was 400 ASA, rate it at 200 or if it was 100 ASA, rate it at 50 ASA and so on...

Good luck!
Kino

Developng Old Film

Posted: Mon May 08, 2006 11:59 am
by pentaxpete
Outdated films are my speciality as I get GIVEN them or buy them CHEAP ! I find the 400 ASA emulsions lose speed much quicker than the 50 ASA, so rate the 400 at 200 definitely and develop LONGER as the contrast lowers on ageing; give at least 25% MORE development; you can print through the fog level. I read somewhere Kodak DK50 developer diluted 1+1 for 12minutes is good for old films. I use Crawley FX37 formula now or ID11.