Sixty-year-old undeveloped film

I recently liberated a box of old photos and negatives from my grandfather's
personal effects. Along with the developed items, I found three rolls of
apparently
exposed but undeveloped 35mm film. One is Kodak "Panatomic," and the other
two are Kodak "Panchromatic SS" and "Panchromatic SX." I assume the latter
are color film. Assuming they're contemporary with the other 35mm negatives,
they were exposed around 1940. Is there any chance that they'll produce
usable
negatives, or are they junk?

Thanks
-Mark

 

Its definetly worth a try at developing them, I know of a guy who was given
an old camera, found a film inside and had it developed, the photographs
where taken by his grandfather during a holiday in germany a few years
before the outbreak of WWII, he had some clear photos of Adolf Hitler at a
rally, so you never know, might be soem really interesting photos on those
films.

Brian.......................

 

Panchromatic means black and white film with approximately equal
response
to all ranges of color. I've developed some 40 year old 120 film this
year
with good results and printable negatives, just requiring a higher paper
contrast. Developing black and white is pretty cheap, so you'd be out
a little time and money at home (or a little more money if you send it
out custom) against the possibility of having some irreplaceable family
pictures (and a good story to tell.) Why not?

Rob Dean

 

Panatomic is the predecessor to Panatomic-X. Panchromatic
SS is black and white film SS means super-sensitive. Not
sure of the SX, are you sure it says that? Both of the
others are 1930's films older than sixty years, more like 65
or more years old.
Its possible for the latent image to survive that long.
Roll film seems especially long lasting perhaps because the
tight rolling prevents oxidation. There is an outfit called
Film Rescue that specializes in processing of old films, not
cheap but they have a good record of success.
http://www.filmrescue.com/
Otherwise I suggest using a fairly active developer at
much lower than normal temperatures. I have film data going
back to the mid 1940's but not much before that. I'll look
but I don't think I have specific instuctions on these
films.
Panatomic replaced a fine grain motion picture stock
called Background-X c.1938, I think Panatomic replaced
Background-X shortly after. By the early 1940's Panatomic-X
had replaced both. I would guess these films date from
c.1937, maybe even earlier. It is certainly worth trying to
develop them.

 

Why don't you process them and find out? What have you got to loose?

 

Here's a scan of the film cans:

http://www.speakeasy.org/~mgendron/graphics/film_cans.jpg

 

Well, the unopened antique film cans look nice on my shelf.

 

Kodak did not start crimping on end caps until the mid-60's (or later) so
you should be able to "pop" the lids on these canisters in the darkroom,
process the film in trays (I'd almost guarantee too much curl to load the
film on any kind of reels!) and then replace the spools and end caps and put
the film canisters on display on the shelf.

 

Well, dang! The film cartridges were empty. Oh well. . .they're nice
antiques.

 

These look like they were packaged for special purpose
use since they say Eastman rather than Kodak on them. I
wonder if they were even packaged by Kodak, they may be bulk
loaded cassettes with lables showing the kind of film in
them. SX with some thought is probably Super-X. This was a
motion picture stock. The brand "Super-X" was used for 16mm
reversal film but was a 35mm negative stock before that, c.
mid 1930's. Eventually it was replaced by Plus-X and the
name Super-X used for the reversal film. SS is Super
Sensitive Pan, also a motion picture stock of the mid to
late 1930's. Panatomic was also used for a motion picture
stock replacing the former Background and Background-X
stocks, both very slow, very fine grain (for the time)
motion picture negative films for outdoor use. Background
implyed the film was intended for filming background
"plates" i.e., the films used in rear projection shots.
What I think is that these are bulk loaded from "short
ends" of these films. That might have been done pre-ww-2 but
tons of film were available military surplus right after the
war and were sold both in bulk and spooled.
Its too bad the film is gone because the type of
perforations would tell the story. 35mm motion picture
negative stock uses Bell & Howell perforations, which have
semicircular sides. 35mm positive films and still camera
films have Kodak Standard perfs which are oblong with
rounded corners. Some very early film for 35mm still cameras
had the negative perforations but films from at least the
mid 1930's, perhaps even earlier, had KS perfs.

 

Well, I probably _do_ have the film, since the cartridges were
in a box with numerous rolls of 35mm negatives. Let's see. . .
here's some "Agfa Supreme Pan" with the Bell & Howell perfs.
We have some "Agfa Plenachrome" with B&H perfs.
Here's some "Kodak Panchromatic Nitrate Film" with some
interior shots of my great-grandfather's liquor store in
Framingham, Mass. B&H perfs on that, as well as on the
"Eastman Panatomic." There's some "Super XX" with
Kodak perfs. A roll of "Superpan" with B&H perfs.
Something called "Plenachrome," also B&H perfs.
Yes, a veritable plethora of old film.

These sure are wound up tight. Any suggestions for how
to flatten them enough to get them into sleeves?

Thanks
-Mark

 

I may have old developing instuctions for some of these,
I'll check.
Some brief history. The German company Agfa bought out Ansco
in 1926 and operated it until the outbreak of WW-2 when it
was seized by the U.S.Government. The Agfa trade name
continued to be used until about late 1943. Ansco was the
oldest U.S. photographic manufacturing company dating to
around 1840. Agfa/Ansco made a wide variety of film and
paper; they were Kodak's chief competition.

Supreme Pan was a medium speed panchromatic film sold as
motion picture negative stock and also for 35mm still
cameras. It was their competition to Kodak SS Pan and Plus-X
motion picture films.

Plenachome was an orthochromatic (not red sensive) film for
box cameras, the competition to Kodak Verichrome. Agfa also
made a Fine-Grain Plenichrome for 35mm cameras.
Panatomic was a very slow very fine grain film, the
predecessor of Panatomic-X, probably about ISO-12

Kodak Super-XX was made until about twenty years ago. It
was a medium speed rather coarse grain film with excellent
tonal rendition and B&W to color rendition. Speed now would
be around ISO 150 or 200.

Agfa Superpan was a medium speed panchromatic roll film
with excellent tonal rendition, similar in speed and
application to Kodak Plus-X

I suspect these films date from the mid 1930's perhaps
sometime around 1936 to 1939. At that time some 35mm still
film was probably still sold with B&H perfs. Plenachrome was
never available as a motion picture stock so that must have
been the case.

About the only thing I can suggest for flattening the film
is to put into a chamber with very high humidity for a time.
Try hanging them in a small bathroom and turining on the how
water in the shower. The moisture should penetrate the
gelatin reasonably evenly, a small amount of weight on the
ends should pull them flat. Be careful since some of this
film may be pretty brittle. If so there is not much that can
be done for it.
The Kodak Panchromatic Nitrate film is almost certainly a
motion picture stock. Kodak stopped making nitrate for still
cameras, even 35mm cameras, sometime in the early 1930's.
All nitrate was discontinued in 1951 (trivia: Sunset
Boulevard was the last feature picture shot on nitrate).
Kodak's nitrate seems to be among the most stable but no
nitrate is very stable. Typical indications of decomposition
are brown patches, "rust" especially at the edges,
wavieness, and soemtimes, but not always, a camphor (moth
ball) odor. The fire danger from small amounts of nitrate is
not significant but it should still be stored in a
ventillated container so any evolved gasses can escape. Not
a problem for single strips of film or a few loose
negatives.
Safety base film can also decompose, as the motion picture
industry found to their horror recently. This applies to
still as well as motion picture film. Decomposing film will
look wrinkled and may have a vinegar odor. I think this is
mainly a problem with the tri-acetate films made after about
1945. In any case, the strong curl of your film _may_ be due
to this decomposition. If the negatives have any value I
suggest copying them as soon as possible.

 

They're already developed. I am referring to the negative
strips. Sorry, I wasn't clear about that.

Another item in this collection is a box of Agfa 2-1/2 x 3-1/2
sheet film (also already developed.) Here's the box (256k
download) with the Agfa/Ansco trade name:

http://www.lukejtornatzky.com/graphics/agfa_box.jpg

Those dates sound about right, considering my grandfather's
apparent age in some of the photos.

Thanks, I'll try that.

 

Actually my fault for not reading more carefully.

Interesting. Agfa Superpan Press was a fairly fast film for press
and industrial photography. It was Agfa's competition to Kodak Super
Panchro Press Type-B. Superpan Press also seems to have been a popular
portrait film judging from the technical data from publications like
_U.S.Camera Annual_. Sometime in the early to mid 1930's (I don't
remember the date) Agfa developed the use of Gold sensitizer which
immediately nearly doubled the speed of their films without increasing
grain. It caught Kodak with their pants down and it took them a while
to catch up. By 1940 Kodak was again making the fastest film on the
market. This was sold under the name Super Panchro Press, Sports Type.
This had a speed of probably about ISO 400 to 600. Remarkable stuff
for the time but evidently fussy. BTW the Type-B on Super Panchro
Press means its color sensitivity. Kodak devided panchromatic films
into three groups; A, B, and C, in order of increasing red
sensitivity. Type-A were the first pan films, which did not have very
high sensitivity to red light. Type-B is a medium red sensitivity
film, most current pan films are Type-B. Type-C was a high red
sensitivity film. Currently Kodak Technical Pan is about the only
Type-C film but in the past Kodak made others since it was evidently
difficult to make a film with very high overall sensitivity without
unbalancing the red end of the spectrum. I don't know if Agfa/Ansco
made any Type-C films but they did not classify their films as Kodak
did.
The 1940 date peeking out from the torn label suggests the film was
sold perhaps a year earlier. These are truely bits of the past and I
would preserve them.

Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles, CA, USA