How to develop an exposed film of unknown type and age ?

[Thomas78]

Hello,

I bought four Leica film casettes from ebay.
In one of the is still a film which looks as if it's already exposed.

Since I don't know its age and type/asa rating (one of the aluminium film boxes says 17 DIN which should be 40 ASA(?) ),
how should I develope it?

Regards,
Thomas

 

[sniki]

Challenging: from my perspective I would soup - upon per soak in water for a couple of minutes - in Rodinal 1:100 for one hour according standing technique.

 

[Jockos]

Aint Diafine same time for all?

 

[charjohncarter]

Two good suggestions.

 

[250swb]

Cut the leader off and dev that, you only need to see it enough to know what the film type is.

Steve

 

[jordan.dickinson]

adonal/rodinal?

 

[Roger Hicks]

Any two-bath developer, erring on the side of over-development.

Cheers,

R.

 

[johannielscom]

Cut the leader off and dev that, you only need to see it enough to know what the film type is.

Steve

Best suggestion.

I would try rodinal stand development since it can effectively develop almost anything and was once designed for stand development.

Develop the leader in a solution that is 1:100 for one hour. Initially 20 slow inversions, then let it be for 59 mins.

You should have at least one marking along the edge telling you what film it is you're dealing with and if you don't get that, try rodinal again for the whole roll. simply mix up the 1:100 solution, making sure you do not drop below 3ml or developer in the mix since that much is at least needed to get good development.

There's several good threads on rodinal 1:100 here and Ferider (fellow member Roland) has the story down on why you need at least 3ml or Rodinal.

Post some shots once you have them? :angel:

 

[Thomas78]

Thank you for the replies!

Challenging: from my perspective I would soup - upon per soak in water for a couple of minutes - in Rodinal 1:100 for one hour according standing technique.

Best suggestion.

I would try rodinal stand development since it can effectively develop almost anything and was once designed for stand development.

Develop the leader in a solution that is 1:100 for one hour. Initially 20 slow inversions, then let it be for 59 mins.

It comes in very handy that I just ordered my first batch of
Adonal ("Produced according to the Rodinal* original formula: ADOX ADONAL Filmdeveloper") four days ago. 😀
(The main reason for that was to try Adox CHS 50 film.)

You should have at least one marking along the edge telling you what film it is you're dealing with and if you don't get that, try rodinal again for the whole roll. simply mix up the 1:100 solution, making sure you do not drop below 3ml or developer in the mix since that much is at least needed to get good development.

There's several good threads on rodinal 1:100 here and Ferider (fellow member Roland) has the story down on why you need at least 3ml or Rodinal.
Post some shots once you have them? :angel:

Sure! 🙂

What would be the best technique and tools to develop the leader of the film?



Regards,
Thomas

 

[Thomas78]

...
Post some shots once you have them? :angel:

I did a stand development with 3,5 ml Adonal in a 300 ml tank.
20 inversions in 100 s, then stand for 1 h.

The film I got was only about have exposured, but this half is very dense.

Its marking says: "LUMIERE MICRO NON FLAM"
(So I think its a special film for document archiving.)

It contains the official documents for a belgian - german marriage in the year 1965.

Except some spots, where the silver seems to be missing, the images where well preserved (and it is easy to read the letters in the documents) considering probably 47 year between exposure and development.

 

[JohnTF]

Cut the leader off and dev that, you only need to see it enough to know what the film type is.

Steve

Had the same situation, but had bulk loaded unmarked film, Put some paper developer (neutol?) in a tray, turned out the lights, pulled out some unexposed part of the film + the leader, gave it a couple of minutes, fixed it and read the edge printing. You need to make sure you have a couple of inches of film beyond the exposed leader.

Most film will develop fully in a couple of minutes in Dektol, or other paper developer, we used to do sheet film in it all the time and it's fast enough so you are not in the dark too long, standard tray development.

Regards, John

 

[iantoz]

caffenol

caffenol

Try caffenol, if you Google that name all will be explained.
It's using cheap instant coffee and it's more of an art than a science. I have used it on old color films of all types and speeds, I have enjoyed using it on color film, which of course develops as monochrome, I find the texture very attractive.

Dai.