This is topic Old undeveloped Kodacolor film question in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.


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Posted by Oscar Neundorfer (Member # 458) on 07-11-2003, 06:50 AM:
 
I recently ran across several rolls of Kodacolor film which had been shot but never developed. These may be as old as 20 years in some cases. What are the chances that these could be developed and actually produce usable pictures? What happens to exposed but undeveloped film over the years?

The film has not been stored in high heat conditions, for what that is worth. These rolls have been in an air conditioned house.
 

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Posted by Hugh McCullough (Member # 1542) on 07-11-2003, 07:20 AM:
 
Try www.rockymountainfilm.com
They specialise in processing old films.
 

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Posted by Hillary Charles (Member # 769) on 07-11-2003, 07:31 AM:
 
If the canisters say "Process C-41" on them, you wouldn't have to send them to Rocky Mountain. That would still be a current process. C-22 requires different chemicals which Rocky Mountain can use. If they are C-41, you can take them to any mini-lab, or on-hour photo (no Robin Williams jokes, please ) and see what you have. There may be images on the film, but the color will be horrible. The worst case scenario would be that fogging will obscure any images. It would be best to try one roll and see if the results warrant having the remaining rolls processed.
 

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Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 07-11-2003, 09:19 AM:
 
Sorry if this sounds silly, but I take it that these films definitely are Kodacolor as in still camera tripack negative film, and not Kodacolor as in the lenticular colour home movie film sold during the late '20s and early '30s? If you know for sure that they're only 20 years old, that rules out the latter.
 

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Posted by Oscar Neundorfer (Member # 458) on 07-11-2003, 09:39 AM:
 
Thanks for the replies.

Hillary, these MAY be C-22, but I don't remember at the moment. I will check them when I get home tonight.

Yes, Leo, these are still camera rolls and not home movie film.
 

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Posted by Hillary Charles (Member # 769) on 07-11-2003, 10:14 AM:
 
Oscar, if they ARE C-22, and you feel there may be something worthwhile on the film, it may be worth sending a roll to Rocky Mountain. Several years ago, a woman brought in a roll that was t least eight years old. We could process it on site, and while the color was far from perfect, she was very moved by what she saw. They were family snapshots which included pictures of her late husband. She was glad to have these "new" photos of him.

Best of luck
 

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Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 07-11-2003, 10:32 AM:
 
Here's another old undeveloped film question.

My Dad has been gone for 20 years. Way back in the day, he used to be a photographer when 4 X 5 Speed Graphic cameras were still popular. (Late '50s I presume.)

I was going through a closet one day and I found an old box full of negative holders. You know... Looks like a tool box. It's felt lined and has slots for the holders to slip down into. It holds something like 10 of them.

Well, I looked inside and found two or three negative holders. I thought to myslef that if there was film inside it'd be long since expired. I opened them up and they were all empty except one. The piece of film had an image on it! I think it was a piece of film that had been exposed and never developed. I imagine that, over the years, it spontaneously developed itself.

Needless to say, I slapped the cartridge shut again.
But I'm wondering if that piece of film can be developed and fixed so I can get a good look at the image. I think it's a picture of my Dad (self portrait) from about 50 years ago, long before I was born.
 

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Posted by Clint Koch (Member # 1179) on 07-11-2003, 12:11 PM:
 
I have used www.rockymountainfilm.com in the past and the results were fine.
 

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Posted by Stephen Furley (Member # 1277) on 07-11-2003, 02:45 PM:
 
If these films are 20 years old then they will not be C22. This process was replaced by C41 before this time, I used to do C22 processing, and I think it was replaced by C41 around 1973. I don't know about America, but here in England Kodacolor X was the last C22 film, and Kodacolor II was the first C41 one. Both were 80 ASA.
 

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Posted by Mike Olpin (Member # 1115) on 07-11-2003, 03:14 PM:
 
I have a bunch of super 8 cartrages up in the addict. Can those still be developed?
 

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Posted by Hillary Charles (Member # 769) on 07-11-2003, 06:42 PM:
 
Randy, you might want to take the negative in its carrier to a pro lab and explain the situation. It shouldn't be difficult for them to fix the neg for you. Heck, if you just want to fix the image as you saw it, without risking changing it through developing, you could buy the smallest bag of Kodak fixer, mix it up and put the neg in a tray for about 11 minutes. That should save the image.

Mike, Super-8 is still being used, so there are labs which will develop those (provided they are current processes like K40--which would appear on the Kodachrome cartridge, if I recall correctly). However, if they've been in the attic for some time and subjected to extremes of temperature, the latent image may have taken a beating.

Mr. Pytlak would probably have info on which Super-8 stocks are currently still in use.
 

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Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 07-14-2003, 03:04 PM:
 
Heat and radiation cause unprocessed film to deteriorate. Keeping film cold greatly slows the chemical changes in the unprocessed emulsion. But natural radiation (cosmic rays and gamma rays) eventually will cause some fogging, especially with the higher speed (larger grained) films. If the images are valuable, it's worth trying to process the film in the recommended process. Custom processing with a bit more bromide, anti-foggant, or restrainer may help control age fog.

Here is Kodak's information about film storage:

Kodak Film Storage Recommendations

As others have noted, the current process for consumer color negative films is Kodak C-41, which has been in use since the early 1970's:

Process C-41

The older Kodacolor-X films used a cooler C-22 process, and will NOT survive processing in the hotter C-41 process.

Kodak EKTACHROME consumer and professional reversal films now use process E-6:

Process E-6

The older EKTACHROME process was E-4:

Process E-4

KODACHROME films require a very specialized and sophisticated process (K-14), since the dye-forming couplers are in the process, not the film.

Here are the current professional motion-picture processes for ECN-2, ECP-2D, VNF-1, RVNP-1, and B&W (D-96, D-97):

Kodak Motion-Picture Processes

As others have noted, some labs specialize in processing outdated films, or films with obsolete processes.
 

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Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 07-14-2003, 08:51 PM:
 
For whatever it's worth, I recently had a few rolls of Ektachrome processed; they were exposed in 1999 and have sat under room-temperature conditions since then. The colors looked fine, but there was a noticeable (but not too bad) loss of shadow detail. Considering that my expectations were fairly low, I was impressed. This was done by the local E6 lab (Colortek) and not by Rocky Mountain or any other speciality lab.
 

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Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 07-14-2003, 10:07 PM:
 

quote:

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I recently had a few rolls of Ektachrome processed; they were exposed in 1999 and have sat under room-temperature conditions since then. The colors looked fine, but there was a noticeable (but not too bad) loss of shadow detail.

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