Kodacolor C41 620 - worth developing?

[Muggins]

I recently bought a camera which had a roll of the above film in it. I've shot it, just to see what the camera was like to use (it really needs a stripdown and a damn good clean up!). Now the question is, is it worth getting it developed? It's 620 so at least twenty years old and I doubt very much it's been stored in ideal conditions - somewhere slightly damp seems probable.

Anyone any ideas? Your thoughts would be much appreciated! Oh, and I want my spools back...

Adrian

 

[Ronald_H]

There are several companies that can handle long expired film.

It's not ancient and C41 too, so even with drugstore processing you will get probably printable negs, but most likely very grainy ones that are quite thin.

The real question is, was the roll completely unused, are were several frames exposed already? In that case I'd spend some $$$ to have it done as good as possible.

 

[oftheherd]

How did it sound when you used it? Did the speeds sound anywhere close to right? Even should you decide not to have it processed in C41, I would certainly consider cross processing it as b/w.

 

[Muggins]

Thanks for the thoughts, guys. It was on the first exposure, so it was an unused film. I decided to shoot it for a giggle as I assumed that it was b&w and I could get a friend to do it - so I got a bit of a shock when "Kodacolor 200" scrolled past the window!

Apart from the last shot, which made a rather dubious sounding double click, the shutter sounded fine and the speeds look OK to me though, now I can look right through, the lens is fairly soupy - I may get some interesting 1970s glamour-type effects...

I usually use Peak, who don't return 620 spools. I might try our local Snappy Snaps, who I am on first name terms with (and two of whose staff shoot RFs). If I can't get a guarantee of spools back, I'll go cross-process.

Adrian

 

[charjohncarter]

Just today I had some 620 Kodacolor II developed. It was unused until I opened the box and used it. The film was expired in 1976, The lab went three stops over and still it was very faint and no color differentiation at all. I did digitalized one and this is what I got. (I wouldn't bother):

 

[Ronald_H]

Looks funky though. Very psychedelic.

 

[charjohncarter]

Very funky, I did another:

 

[iamzip]

If you invested your time to shoot a whole roll (even if you didn't take a lot of care) I certainly think it's worth a couple bucks to process it. You never know, it might come back with an image that, while not what you intended, you like anyway, and then you would think to yourself, "I can't believe I almost threw that roll out."

Of course, it's much more likely that you won't get anything out of it, but you never know.

I haven't used wither of these services, but frugalphotographer.com recommends blufire labs or film rescue international for really old film. I've got a roll of 126 I just found that I must've shot in elementary school (it's from fotomat!) that I keep meaning to send off to them.

 

[Muggins]

Well, the last three posts all rolled in while it was at Snappy Snaps for develop only... we shall see!

Adrian

 

[Muggins]

The results aren't as startling as cjcs, but the camera was definitely smoking something... As soon as I'm near the scanner, I'll scan a couple!

Adrian

 

[retro]

Very funky, I did another:

That's kind of neat, actually.

 

[Muggins]

Well, here's what they looked like...

Adrian