Author Topic: mystery film  (Read 2118 times)

formica

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mystery film
« on: January 30, 2011, 06:13:04 AM »
my parents gave me a bulk loader they found somewhere awhile back. it still had film in it. i shot a test recently developing it in bw chemistry. the film is really dark(images only visible if you hold the negs up to bright light), super grainy when scanned. all signs that it is some sort of colour film. the emulsion is sort of greenish-beige colour. i compared it to the slide and negative film i have and it looks different. any ideas what it might be? there is no film type markings except for the number: 48D H72616.

i'll probably shoot another test and have a lab develop it and see what i get. any thoughts/suggestions?

                 william

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Re: mystery film
« Reply #1 on: January 30, 2011, 09:57:06 AM »
Google wasn't much of a help!

formica

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Re: mystery film
« Reply #2 on: January 30, 2011, 01:41:29 PM »
Google wasn't much of a help!

yeah, i tried that too. i may just have to shoot a test and have it developed and hope for the best.

        william

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Re: mystery film
« Reply #3 on: January 30, 2011, 02:48:45 PM »
I suspect vivitar.  I can't be 100 percent certain but it's one of those films I rarely see and it isn't 'branded' on the edges like many films.  with d-76 and a 1:1 dilution of d76, vivitar 400 is 9.5 minutes if I recall correctly.

formica

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Re: mystery film
« Reply #4 on: January 30, 2011, 05:57:03 PM »
but wouldn't that make it bw film? the thickness of the negs leads me to believe it's a colour film. i don't think a bw film would have been so thick and grainy.

           william

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Re: mystery film
« Reply #5 on: January 30, 2011, 10:10:06 PM »
Well, if it's a color film, shouldn't it have an orange cast?
Try simply fixing a piece of the leader... that'll show you if it's color.

It could also be some type of slide film...
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formica

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Re: mystery film
« Reply #6 on: January 31, 2011, 04:25:34 AM »
i did a test with just fix awhile back and it seemed to clear ok. so you may be onto something with it being slide film.

         william

formica

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Re: mystery film
« Reply #7 on: January 31, 2011, 10:43:01 AM »
well, i know now that it indeed is NOT color film. shot a test roll and had a boss of a lab develop it for me. no images just like when you develop bw in colour chemistry. he said it had the look of tmax, but looking through the kodak book we couldn't find anything that matched the edge numbers. he suggested that perhaps the fix wasn't strong enough and gave me some colour fix to try.

perhaps gregor is correct in the vivitar film. i'll run some more experiments and see what i can get.

            william


formica

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Re: mystery film - solved!
« Reply #8 on: March 10, 2011, 08:37:35 AM »
today the boss of a lab i go to found words on the mystery film. panchromatic! so apparently it's some sort of bw slide film similiar to agfa scala. can this be developed in regular e6 chemicals?

          william

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Re: mystery film - solved!
« Reply #9 on: March 10, 2011, 09:05:32 AM »
today the boss of a lab i go to found words on the mystery film. panchromatic! so apparently it's some sort of bw slide film similiar to agfa scala. can this be developed in regular e6 chemicals?

          william

 ??? How do you get "Panchromatic" means slide film? It just means it reacts to all the colours and isn't Orthochromatic. Slide film through C-41 should have produced something.

also, No, B&W slide film can't be developed in E6. There's a special process for it.

Are you sure this isn't really old B&W that is heavily fogged with age/time/heat? hmmm
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formica

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Re: mystery film - solved!
« Reply #10 on: March 10, 2011, 09:32:37 AM »
today the boss of a lab i go to found words on the mystery film. panchromatic! so apparently it's some sort of bw slide film similiar to agfa scala. can this be developed in regular e6 chemicals?

          william

 ??? How do you get "Panchromatic" means slide film? It just means it reacts to all the colours and isn't Orthochromatic. Slide film through C-41 should have produced something.

also, No, B&W slide film can't be developed in E6. There's a special process for it.

 
Are you sure this isn't really old B&W that is heavily fogged with age/time/heat? hmmm


   well, that's what the boss said. maybe he's wrong? all i know is the film itself says "panchromatic". how is panchromatic developed? i was thinking the film might just be very old fogged bw film like you suggested, but now that i've found a place where it says panchromatic on the film itself that seems unlikely.

              william




Heather

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Re: mystery film
« Reply #11 on: March 10, 2011, 09:51:32 AM »
panchromatic tends to refer to B&W film that responds to all colours not just green/blue (red insensitive, aka ortho film)...unless someone can correct me on this? You just develop it like any other film... however it does tend to be a more old fashioned term hence my idea that it's just *old* rather than exotic... besides, you can B&W slide (reversal process) out of nearly any kind of normal B&W negative film.

On the other hand, if he processed it in C-41 and found ANYTHING on it (like edge markings that say panchromatic), it's not B&W because C-41 bleaches out all the silver and B&W negative or positive processing film are *all* silver halides, if you run B&W through C-41 you come out with a strip of clear plastic. C-41 film has the image formed in "dye clouds" which are left behind after you strip out the silver stuff... this is what makes the image very dense when you only process it in B&W chemistry.
I'm not awake yet, i'm not sure any of the above makes sense  :-[

thinking about it, it could be a C-41 process B&W film. Wikipedia suggests that Panchromatic Film is a term used for B&W only, not colour, but if you can see edge markings after running it through c-41, it'd suggest this weird hybrid ;)
« Last Edit: March 10, 2011, 09:53:56 AM by Heather »
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Re: mystery film
« Reply #12 on: March 10, 2011, 09:54:01 AM »
William - nearly all modern B&W films are panchromatic (HP5+, FP4+, TriX, Delta, Tmax, etc etc etc).  As Heather says, it just refers to the film's colour sensitivity. It certainly doesn't equate to a reversal black and white film like scala.

The film being panchromatic wouldn't have any bearing on the film base as such.

A lot of black and white films can be process as positive images like slides.  You can buy kits for this (reversal processing kits) or send them to a lab like http://www.dr5.com/  if that was something you were interested in.

L.

formica

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Re: mystery film
« Reply #13 on: March 10, 2011, 10:02:51 AM »
thanks for the info heather and  leon. now i'm getting confused. so does the film leader having "panchromatic" written on it just mean it's some sort of bw film? the base tends to be very thick and dense(on the rolls i've developed in hc 110).

heather, i brought in the film i had developed in hc110 for him to look at. in the past the boss had run a roll through the c41 machine and it came out blank which ruled out regular e-6/c-41 films.

  i guess mystery isn't fully solved afterall.

           william

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Re: mystery film
« Reply #14 on: March 10, 2011, 04:25:38 PM »
Actually, the base might not be so dense in itself, but the overall fog will definitely add to the density.

My guess is still that it's a regular B&W film.
Francois

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formica

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Re: mystery film
« Reply #15 on: March 10, 2011, 05:08:27 PM »
you may be right. any idea which films printed "panchromatic" on their leaders?

          william