Topic: Developing expired Ilford HP4

[cs1]

I found a lovely roll of Ilford HP4 (135) with expiry date "March 1971" in its original packaging. I got good results with overexposing expired film one stop per decade since the expiration date. So I'd have to overexpose the HP4 ~4 stops. It's rated at ISO 400. Since I don't want to go lower than ISO 100, I'm thinking about exposing it at ISO 100 and push it another two stops during development. Which leads me to the question: how would you develop this film in Rodinal? I tend towards simply developing it with the same times as HP5+ with a 1+25 Rodinal solution at 20°C. The other alternative would be stand development the film (which I've never tried). I've seen remarks on this forum that stand developing this particular film works as well. I'd appreciate any advice. Cheers!

[gsgary]

i would stand develope it 1+100 1 hour

26 years out of date tri x stand developed



Fresh HP5 stand developed

[cs1]

The stand developed photos look very good. Would you expose the HP4 at box speed (ISO 400) and stand develop or would you also overexpose a few stops?

[Indofunk]

I'd say stand develop as well. Hard to go wrong (you can search this forum for my user name and "rodinal 1:100 develops anything" for humorous proof ). As far as what speed to expose it at, I've exposed 1960s film at box speed (and stand developed) and I've gotten nice results. But there's really no harm in overexposing as it's pretty easy to pull back highlights (definitely easier than trying to pull up nonexistent shadows!). Good luck!

[gsgary]

I don't think the speed you shoot it at with stand developement will make much difference
This is Tmax 100 30 years out of date shot at 400 by mistake

[cs1]

That's a brilliant photo!

Thanks for your advice. I'm going to expose the HP4 at box speed and stand develop it in 1+100 Rodinal. I'll keep you posted about the results.

[cs1]

Well, no success with the HP4. I don't know what went wrong. I went for a 1+100 Rodinal stand development for 1h after exposing the film at box speed. My guess is that the film was simply in a bad shape from the start.