Very old film and how to develop.

I'm not sure where exactly to post this, but this seems as good a forum as any. I was cleaning my dads basement this weekend and I found my old camera bag. There in were three of my first cameras and one contained a real treasure, a 20 roll of exposed high speed Ektachrome. It is probably almost 40 years old. Does anyone have a clue as to how best to develop this roll just in case something is still there and developable? I no longer have any of my chemicals and have sold all my darkroom equipment except for my enlarger. I would hate to just turn it over to Walgreens or Costco.

look in the back of photomags

there are usally people advertising in there that do it privatly in thier own homes. you know it would be well looked after then. not just run throught a machine like all the rest of the holidya snap shots!

MagicallyDelicious wrote in post #3013454
look in the back of photomags

there are usally people advertising in there that do it privatly in thier own homes. you know it would be well looked after then. not just run throught a machine like all the rest of the holidya snap shots!

Good tip, I'll give it a shot. I agree, i would hate to turn it over to a machine. I believe this might need some TLC.

Should use E6 chemistry - lots of places do that. Need to know the ASA, though, as that will dictate developing time. Assuming it's from a vendor (and not from a bulk loader) you should have that info on the cannister. Also, after this amount of time I wouldn't expect anything too spectacular. I'm sure the emulsion has suffered somewhat.

Film that old is possibly E-4 process, not E-6. I don't think that E-6 was introduced until the middle 70's. I also don't think that E-4 film can be processed in E-6 chemicals.

As someone else has already posted, you can determine the process (E-4 or E-6) by looking at the film canister, unless the film was bulk-loaded.

But, contrary to other posts in this thread, the processing times do not depend on the ISO (ASA) speed index for either E-4 or E-6.

Good Luck, and let us know what happens?

you can call these guys
http://www.iveyphoto.c​om/

They handle my film as well as most pro photographers in the Puget Sound area.

Prepare yourself for a lot of color shifting.

i've just had some 120 Kodak Safety film BW neg from 50 years ago developed - i was amazed that something visible was on this film... It was also left abandoned in an old 6x9 camera. My local lab developed the neg only, but I do not know what solution they use. They did have experience with this type of job though. I had to mess around in photoshop a bit to get it fixed up and visible. Sadly only 3 of the 8 images on this 120 roll worked, but that is most likely due to the camera back being opened accidentally. The person that I had them developed for was absolutely over the moon to see these images (and I hope you are also if you get yours to work out). I also found it quite spooky to see these really old images. It is a shame that the person that owned the camera passed away 2 years ago, so he could not talk about where the images there actually taken.

I hope you get them to work, and i would really like to see the results.

If it is 400ISO or higher you may find that a lot of the images are grey or have lost detail as background radiation and cosmic rays will have affected it. I got a film done last month that had been taken in 2004, it was an 400ISO and a lot of the images were strangely colours, although the greater proportion were fine.

Check for processing type, if E6 I would send them off to fuji to get done.

Thanx for the tips all, they are greatly appreciated. I’m going to do a bit of investigating before acting as I figure the pics have been sitting there for years so a few days won’t matter. Also my expectations are not high, but it’s worth a few bucks to find out what was on that roll. This is film I put in the camera when I was maybe 9/10 years old so even if one image comes out enough to recognize anything it will be $$ well spent. I have absolutely no idea what is on that roll but I’m guessing it’s going to be pretty lame to anyone but me.

gjl711 wrote in post #3015966
Thanx for the tips all, they are greatly appreciated. I’m going to do a bit of investigating before acting as I figure the pics have been sitting there for years so a few days won’t matter. Also my expectations are not high, but it’s worth a few bucks to find out what was on that roll. This is film I put in the camera when I was maybe 9/10 years old so even if one image comes out enough to recognize anything it will be $$ well spent. I have absolutely no idea what is on that roll but I’m guessing it’s going to be pretty lame to anyone but me.

Cool. Keep us posted on what happens and if they are viewable please post a couple.

RodneyCyr wrote in post #3014484
Film that old is possibly E-4 process, not E-6. I don't think that E-6 was introduced until the middle 70's. I also don't think that E-4 film can be processed in E-6 chemicals.

As someone else has already posted, you can determine the process (E-4 or E-6) by looking at the film canister, unless the film was bulk-loaded.

But, contrary to other posts in this thread, the processing times do not depend on the ISO (ASA) speed index for either E-4 or E-6.

Good Luck, and let us know what happens?

I looked on the canister when I got home from work. It is the E-2 process so it's a bit older. Hopefully i can find someone still able to develop it.

Did you contact Ivey Photo ?

gparvan wrote in post #3019315
Did you contact Ivey Photo ?

They don't handle a process that old. The film needs to be processed using the E-2 system. I found another place that specializes in old film. It's called "Film Rescue". I'm giving them a call tomorrow and see what up. I will definitely post a pic if they come out.

Not sure if anyone is interested (and sorry to jump your original thread gjl711) but these are the shots that came out of the camera I inherited. These are thought to have been taken 50 years old, circa 1956. The photographer sadly passed away 2 years ago, but the widow recognizes the first one as being taken from the bedroom window of where she still lives, and looking into the neighbours garden. She was delighted when she seem them. The other picture is of a Volvo PV and what looks like a load of birds hovering over some rubbish pile (note a bike can be seen in the Rubbish pile)

I only got the negatives developed as the guys in the shop thought they were too dark to make prints. So, working with the negatives, I did a quick 'repro' job by placing them over my laptop screen, and using my laptop as some make-shift 'lightbox' and then taking photos of the negatives on my 350D. The quality is not as good as a proper scanner, but it gives some idea. I have to boost the levels a LOT on these images.

ps. if anyone is interested on what device these were taken on, it was a Zeiss Nettar Ikon 515/2, from I guess the mid 1930's (correct me if wrong), and the owner of the camera never got them developed as they stopped developing 120 film in the small town where he lived. so about 51 years after they were taken....

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