Developing C22 as B&W

[Muggins]

I've just been given a camera with an exposed roll of C22 Kodacolor X in it. Given that it must be at least forty years old I realise that the odds of getting something out of it range from low to stuff-all, so I'm unlikely to pay £40+ to get it done in C22 chemistry. On the other hand, I'm a sucker for found film in old cameras - see here: https://flic.kr/p/iy5Gjf

A poke round the intertubes suggests that various things have been used (HC-110 for one), but before I dive in and try anything has anyone here tried developing C22? So I can get it from the horse's mouth, as it were.

Thanks,

Adrian

 

[John Bragg]

I once developed a found 120 roll of Kodak C22 in Rodinal. The results were acceptable allthough it was a pain to print through the orange mask on the film. I cant remember the exact time given, or the dilution but I allowed for the decrease in effective film speed, and I think 10 mins @ 20c comes to mind, probably @ 1:25 dilution. Good luck !

 

[Muggins]

Thanks, John - I have access to Rodinal and HC-110, so I'll consider which (if no-one has made up the HC-110, it'll be Rodinal - that sort of decision!). Good to know others have done it, though.

Adrian

 

[Muggins]

Well, well! It worked - thank you very much, John! My scanner copes manfully with it, especially considering that the film looks as though it was developed in Espresso.

Just scanned four frames so far, giving it a few days under an encyclopedia (remember those?) to flatten a bit more, but here's a representative one:



This was Rodinal 1+25 for 10 mins at 20C.

Adrian

 

[John Bragg]

Well done Adrian . Glad the tip was useful ! Would like to see this one as black and white. Amazing what detail survives after so long on these found films.

 

[Muggins]

I ought to put them on my Flickr, but I need to put a few decent colour pics up first, or anyone looking at it will think I just take rubbish B&W!

I'm always amazed by how long the latent image can hang around. I think this was my favourite found film shot:

Stonehenge by gray1720, on Flickr

Ilford Selochrome, I think, don't recall any indication of speed.

Adrian

 

[Murray Kelly]

Well done Adrian . Glad the tip was useful ! Would like to see this one as black and white. Amazing what detail survives after so long on these found films.

I took the liberty of manipulating it in Irfanview for you.
OK Muggins? "-)

 

[Denverdad]

So far I have only one development of found Kodacolor-X film under my belt - a 616 roll from an Ansco Flash Clipper which I developed in HC-110(A) at a temperature of 40F. Aside from the very dark orange mask as others have reported, the scanned results actually came out decent. Here is a sample:

The part of it which seems strange is the time. From my clip test of the film I obtained an optimum development time of only 3.5 minutes for this dilution and temperature, so that is what I actually used. At first I hesitated to report this since it seemed ridiculously short, and a quick search uncovered some people developing in HC-110 for as long as 20 minutes (and that was at room temperature!). But I did find this thread on Photo Net, in which Emir Shabashvili reports times in the range of 2-5 minutes for a similar dilution and low development temperature. So for now, I am sticking to it! 🙂

 

[Muggins]

I took the liberty of manipulating it in Irfanview for you.
OK Muggins? "-)

Fine by me, Murray - given everything against it it looks very good!

Adrian

 

[Mike-D]

I had a roll of Kodacolor X sitting around for a few decades. I finally decided, what the heck, and developed it in once-used D-76 1:1 for 15 minutes. Though, like others have noted, the negatives were heavily fogged they actually scanned pretty well. Not great images, but I recognized my grandparents and their house in there so they were kind of fun.

Mike

 

[bluesun267]

Dirty little secret from the days when you'd run out/forget to buy B/W film, but cheap color film was sold everywhere: Basically any film will develop a usable b/w negative in b/w chemicals; even slide film works pretty well in Rodinal.