Ansco Royal 6x9 616

[Tom hicks]

Ran across this in a second hand shop last year. Didn't realize it was 616, but that's OK i'll just covert to120. No markings or stickers inside indicating what it was. Picked it up for 65$

 

[Tom hicks]

My question is ,I ran across an exposed roll of verichrome have no idea how old it is based on the the color of the paper . Have never seen any before , what dev would you use to dev. it . I was thinking hc110 or rodinal. I have very little experience dev old film.

Thanks in advance Tom

 

[oftheherd]

Did you try a search of RFF, or Google?

RFF member Keith, as well as some others, have faced the same question. I am sure if you PM Keith he can direct you to the thread where he explains how he developed some film from the (as I recall) the 1930s.

 

[Denverdad]

Nice find. Interesting that the camera had no identifying markings to tell you what it was. Even Ansco isn't normally that shy with its branding!

If the film is in fact original Verichrome as opposed to Verichrome Pan, then it was made sometime between 1932 when 616 was introduced, and 1956 when the original Verichrome was discontinued by Kodak. I am not sure if you can date it beyond that just by the markings on the roll, and in fact I think every roll of Verichrome (not pan) that I have seen has had that same light brownish color paper. Hopefully when you develop it you will get some good indication of the age from the images which turn out. 🙂

Anyway, HC-110 is my go-to developer for old film like this. Do a search for "verichrome development time" or some such and you will find a lot of threads with ideas for developers and times. Oh, and what tanks and reels (or other methods) you can use, since this larger-than-120 format can present some difficulty.