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#1
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Sixty-year-old undeveloped film
I recently liberated a box of old photos and negatives from my grandfather's
personal effects. Along with the developed items, I found three rolls of apparently exposed but undeveloped 35mm film. One is Kodak "Panatomic," and the other two are Kodak "Panchromatic SS" and "Panchromatic SX." I assume the latter are color film. Assuming they're contemporary with the other 35mm negatives, they were exposed around 1940. Is there any chance that they'll produce usable negatives, or are they junk? Thanks -Mark |
#2
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Sixty-year-old undeveloped film
"Mark" wrote in message ... I recently liberated a box of old photos and negatives from my grandfather's personal effects. Along with the developed items, I found three rolls of apparently exposed but undeveloped 35mm film. One is Kodak "Panatomic," and the other two are Kodak "Panchromatic SS" and "Panchromatic SX." I assume the latter are color film. Assuming they're contemporary with the other 35mm negatives, they were exposed around 1940. Is there any chance that they'll produce usable negatives, or are they junk? Thanks -Mark Its definetly worth a try at developing them, I know of a guy who was given an old camera, found a film inside and had it developed, the photographs where taken by his grandfather during a holiday in germany a few years before the outbreak of WWII, he had some clear photos of Adolf Hitler at a rally, so you never know, might be soem really interesting photos on those films. Brian....................... --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.583 / Virus Database: 369 - Release Date: 10/02/2004 |
#3
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Sixty-year-old undeveloped film
Mark wrote:
I recently liberated a box of old photos and negatives from my grandfather's personal effects. Along with the developed items, I found three rolls of apparently exposed but undeveloped 35mm film. One is Kodak "Panatomic," and the other two are Kodak "Panchromatic SS" and "Panchromatic SX." I assume the latter are color film. Assuming they're contemporary with the other 35mm negatives, they were exposed around 1940. Is there any chance that they'll produce usable negatives, or are they junk? Thanks -Mark Panchromatic means black and white film with approximately equal response to all ranges of color. I've developed some 40 year old 120 film this year with good results and printable negatives, just requiring a higher paper contrast. Developing black and white is pretty cheap, so you'd be out a little time and money at home (or a little more money if you send it out custom) against the possibility of having some irreplaceable family pictures (and a good story to tell.) Why not? Rob Dean |
#4
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Sixty-year-old undeveloped film
"Mark" wrote in message ... I recently liberated a box of old photos and negatives from my grandfather's personal effects. Along with the developed items, I found three rolls of apparently exposed but undeveloped 35mm film. One is Kodak "Panatomic," and the other two are Kodak "Panchromatic SS" and "Panchromatic SX." I assume the latter are color film. Assuming they're contemporary with the other 35mm negatives, they were exposed around 1940. Is there any chance that they'll produce usable negatives, or are they junk? Thanks -Mark Panatomic is the predecessor to Panatomic-X. Panchromatic SS is black and white film SS means super-sensitive. Not sure of the SX, are you sure it says that? Both of the others are 1930's films older than sixty years, more like 65 or more years old. Its possible for the latent image to survive that long. Roll film seems especially long lasting perhaps because the tight rolling prevents oxidation. There is an outfit called Film Rescue that specializes in processing of old films, not cheap but they have a good record of success. http://www.filmrescue.com/ Otherwise I suggest using a fairly active developer at much lower than normal temperatures. I have film data going back to the mid 1940's but not much before that. I'll look but I don't think I have specific instuctions on these films. Panatomic replaced a fine grain motion picture stock called Background-X c.1938, I think Panatomic replaced Background-X shortly after. By the early 1940's Panatomic-X had replaced both. I would guess these films date from c.1937, maybe even earlier. It is certainly worth trying to develop them. -- --- Richard Knoppow Los Angeles, CA, USA |
#5
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Sixty-year-old undeveloped film
On Monday 16 February 2004 06:00 pm, Mark wrote:
I recently liberated a box of old photos and negatives from my grandfather's personal effects. Along with the developed items, I found three rolls of apparently exposed but undeveloped 35mm film. One is Kodak "Panatomic," and the other two are Kodak "Panchromatic SS" and "Panchromatic SX." I assume the latter are color film. Assuming they're contemporary with the other 35mm negatives, they were exposed around 1940. Is there any chance that they'll produce usable negatives, or are they junk? Why don't you process them and find out? What have you got to loose? -- Stefan Patric |
#6
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Sixty-year-old undeveloped film
"Richard Knoppow" wrote:
Panatomic is the predecessor to Panatomic-X. Panchromatic SS is black and white film SS means super-sensitive. Not sure of the SX, are you sure it says that? Both of the others are 1930's films older than sixty years, more like 65 or more years old. Here's a scan of the film cans: http://www.speakeasy.org/~mgendron/g.../film_cans.jpg |
#7
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Sixty-year-old undeveloped film
"Stefan Patric" wrote:
Why don't you process them and find out? What have you got to loose? Well, the unopened antique film cans look nice on my shelf. :-) |
#8
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Sixty-year-old undeveloped film
Kodak did not start crimping on end caps until the mid-60's (or later) so
you should be able to "pop" the lids on these canisters in the darkroom, process the film in trays (I'd almost guarantee too much curl to load the film on any kind of reels!) and then replace the spools and end caps and put the film canisters on display on the shelf. -- darkroommike ---------- "Mark" wrote in message ... "Stefan Patric" wrote: Why don't you process them and find out? What have you got to loose? Well, the unopened antique film cans look nice on my shelf. :-) |
#9
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Sixty-year-old undeveloped film
Well, dang! The film cartridges were empty. Oh well. . .they're nice
antiques. |
#10
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Sixty-year-old undeveloped film
"Mark" wrote in message ... "Richard Knoppow" wrote: Panatomic is the predecessor to Panatomic-X. Panchromatic SS is black and white film SS means super-sensitive. Not sure of the SX, are you sure it says that? Both of the others are 1930's films older than sixty years, more like 65 or more years old. Here's a scan of the film cans: http://www.speakeasy.org/~mgendron/g.../film_cans.jpg These look like they were packaged for special purpose use since they say Eastman rather than Kodak on them. I wonder if they were even packaged by Kodak, they may be bulk loaded cassettes with lables showing the kind of film in them. SX with some thought is probably Super-X. This was a motion picture stock. The brand "Super-X" was used for 16mm reversal film but was a 35mm negative stock before that, c. mid 1930's. Eventually it was replaced by Plus-X and the name Super-X used for the reversal film. SS is Super Sensitive Pan, also a motion picture stock of the mid to late 1930's. Panatomic was also used for a motion picture stock replacing the former Background and Background-X stocks, both very slow, very fine grain (for the time) motion picture negative films for outdoor use. Background implyed the film was intended for filming background "plates" i.e., the films used in rear projection shots. What I think is that these are bulk loaded from "short ends" of these films. That might have been done pre-ww-2 but tons of film were available military surplus right after the war and were sold both in bulk and spooled. Its too bad the film is gone because the type of perforations would tell the story. 35mm motion picture negative stock uses Bell & Howell perforations, which have semicircular sides. 35mm positive films and still camera films have Kodak Standard perfs which are oblong with rounded corners. Some very early film for 35mm still cameras had the negative perforations but films from at least the mid 1930's, perhaps even earlier, had KS perfs. -- --- Richard Knoppow Los Angeles, CA, USA |
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