Processing 40-year old Agfachrome

[Bingley]

I was cleaning out some cupboards at home and discovered about 15 rolls of unexposed Agfachrome, including 100RS and Agfachrome 64. The film has been subjected to high summer temperatures, so it may have expired in more than one respect. But I'm interested in shooting a roll or two to see if it's still any good.

Back when I purchased this film, you mailed it to Agfa for processing. The company is long gone. Anyone have any ideas about whether it can be processed and, if so, where in the U.S.?

The box for the 100RS says "process AP 44/E6". No similar instructions for the Agfachrome 64.

Thanks for any suggestions and info.

 

[bobby_novatron]

I would assume that it's just straightforward E-6. But I might shoot a quick test roll to determine base fog or other issues. That's pretty old film! You might not get many usable images. I had some Kodak Vericolor from the 80's and it was OK, but I didn't shoot anything critical with it.

 

[Huss]

Read this

http://blog.timesunion.com/chuckmiller/cross-processing-agfachrome/7089/

 

[Bingley]

Read this

http://blog.timesunion.com/chuckmiller/cross-processing-agfachrome/7089/

Sigh. Well, that's cheery news. But I kind of suspected it might be the case. Thanks for the link!

 

[plummerl]

Rocky Mountain Film Lab (http://www.rockymountainfilm.com/e4.htm seems to indicate that they can develop to color negative, if you don't mind the $42.50 per roll!

 

[Bingley]

Does anyone have any thoughts about what might happen if I developed these rolls as black and white, i.e., in a black and white developer? No color, of course, but would there be any image at all?

 

[Trius]

If they were mine I would process in E6. If the colour sucks you can still convert to b&w.

You could contact Prauss Productions in Rochester, he probably knows more about E6 processing of old film than anyone outside of the original engineers. And I doubt he would charge as much as Rocky Mountain even on a special run.

 

[Merlijn53]

A few months ago I got hold of some 20 year old Ektachrome 64, supposed to be kept in the fridge. I exposed one film and had it developed. It came out almost transparent.
If they were mine, I would get rid of them.
Beside that, as far as Inremember, Agfa had their own process, not E6.
Frank

 

[charjohncarter]

Like above I would do one and see what happens. Someone gave me many rolls of Kodak Max 400 (35mm, and not refrigerated) that expired in 2002. I have been working through them and with reducing a stop or two they have been not fine but with digital processing I get something. But for me I wish I had never taken them.

Kodak Max 400 Expired 2002 by John Carter, on Flickr

Probably my best of the lot.

 

[Mark Wood]

As far as I know, Agfachrome 64 needs the same process (AP-41) as the earlier Agfa slide films such as CT-18. Developing it in E6 chemistry will just give a blank film.

 

[Mark Wood]

Someone has posted their experiences with developing Agfachrome 64 with both C41 and E6 processes here:

http://blog.timesunion.com/chuckmiller/cross-processing-agfachrome/7089/

A blank film in both cases.

 

[Trius]

As far as I know, Agfachrome 64 needs the same process (AP-41) as the earlier Agfa slide films such as CT-18. Developing it in E6 chemistry will just give a blank film.

When I developed Agfachrome 64 in E6 (Tetenal) it was brilliant. The previous chromes such as Agfachrome 50, required, indeed, proprietary processing.

Agfachrome 64 gave some of the best blues I have ever seen, but without the overall blue cast typical of Ektachromes of the same era.

 

[Trius]

A few months ago I got hold of some 20 year old Ektachrome 64, supposed to be kept in the fridge. I exposed one film and had it developed. It came out almost transparent. If they were mine, I would get rid of them. Beside that, as far as Inremember, Agfa had their own process, not E6. Frank

With the advent of Agfachrome 64 they abandoned their proprietary processing and shifted to E6. IIRC, they improved the grain, but saturation was somewhat increased.

 

[sevo]

With the advent of Agfachrome 64 they abandoned their proprietary processing and shifted to E6.

Agfachrome 64 is E6 (and younger than 40 years, it was introduced in the late seventies) - the parallel Agfa AP41 (NOT C-41) process films (Agfachrome CT18 and Agfachrome Pro 50) were rated 50 ASA.

"Proprietary" is debatable, by the way - indeed it was the other way around. AP41 had been put into the public domain when the German patents were voided after WWII, so that it turned into the global cross-manufacturer standard used by everybody except Kodak. While Kodak did not share their proprietary E processes. In Europe it was not until Kodak E-4 that they permitted third party labs to process Kodak film, and until E-6 that they made it a free standard.

 

[x-ray]

A few months ago I got hold of some 20 year old Ektachrome 64, supposed to be kept in the fridge. I exposed one film and had it developed. It came out almost transparent.
If they were mine, I would get rid of them.
Beside that, as far as Inremember, Agfa had their own process, not E6.
Frank

Agfa was E6. I ran hundreds of rolls of it.

Your Dmax will be gone is my guess. Try running some in your regular B&W developer. Try running it like PX or similar 100 ISO film. You might even do a clip test.

 

[sevo]

Agfa was E6. I ran hundreds of rolls of it.

Beware, Agfa originally was not. Indeed they had invented the main competitor to the Kodak E series processes back in the 1930s. Agfa gradually switched to E6 in the late seventies, and retired the last AP41 reversal process films (Agfachrome Professional 50 S/L, in silver boxes) in 1984. The last batches of Pro 50 expired around 1987/88. But until the mid nineties, there still were fresh (GDR) Orwo films (and USSR and other Comecon films) for the same process around.

I found Agfachrome Pro 50 sheet film unsuitable for black and white development - it has some dye (sensitizer, couplers or AHA layer?) that requires colour developer and/or bleach for clearing. It turns out faint black on opaque brown when processed with D76 and rapid fixer, and anything I tried to clear the stain removed the silver image as well. While the AP41 process can be recreated (and was sold in kit form until maybe ten years ago in Germany), the films do not age gracefully either - there are much cheaper methods to arrive at truly horrible, faded colours...

 

[James1]

Agfachrome Pro 50...

...the films do not age gracefully either - there are much cheaper methods to arrive at truly horrible, faded colours...

I quite like that sometimes sevo! 😀

I suppose it depends how the film was stored, as always - and I've had very good success with Orwo and Svema stuff that has been kept properly.

I'm removing my post above though, on the basis that both the OP's films are E6.

 

[Mark Wood]

From this list, it appears there were different versions of Agfachrome 64, the earlier ones being Agfa's AP-41 process and later, E6:

http://www.aphog.de/wp-content/koshofer/Agfa Lev. Farbdiafilme-1.pdf

 

[Bingley]

Thanks for the suggestions. I may shoot a test roll and develop in a b&w developer per Don's (Xray's) suggestion.