Processing OLD panchromatic film

An uncle-in-law has some panchromatic film from over 20 years ago that he'd like to process. It was kept at room temperature all these years, unfortunately, but it'd be interesting to see if the images can still be had. When he moved from Yugoslavia to Canada he had to leave his darkroom and photographic equipment behind but brought his film with him. It all went in a box and was lost/misplaced for a long period of time.

It's DIN 20 and DIN 22 film, which according to wikipedia, is ISO 80 and ISO 125. I believe it's a German brand. It's labeled as OR WO (Veb Filmfabrik Wolfen). Any advice on what developer to use and if deviation from the standard development time/process is recommended?

Thanks for any help that can be provided.

Kodak HC-110 has a good reputation as a low-fog developer for old film. Try looking at the Massive Development Chart on digitaltruth.com for some starting points... your dev time may need to be a bit longer than 'normal' to deal with the fog, lowered contrast, and speed loss you can expect with long out-of-date film.

I have processed film over 40 years old, from a camera that was stored in an attic in the NE (hot and cold) and actually got some good results, with some fogging on the edges. I used HC-110, dilution B, and extended the time about 20%. The kicker is, I used the developer on some new ilford film, normally a one-shot process, and since I didn't think it the old film was worth it, instead of dumping the used HC-110, I processed the old film. No marking on the film, and the only markings on the paper were the frame numbers, and the word "Pancrhromatic". No manufacturer's name.

The person that gave me the camera doesn't know who's in the picture, so its still a mystery.

Wayne

I've had so-so results with film from the late 60's and early 70's using HC-110 and adding benzotriazole.

I recently bought an old Kodak folder with a mostly unexposed roll of 116 Verichrome Pan film in it. I finished the roll and developed the film in GSD-10. Despite some fog, the images looked very good! I'm not sure how old the film is, but I'm guessing it's older than 20 years. I think HC110, Rodinal, or DK50 are good choices for old films. I'd stay away from D-76 type developers. Good luck!

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Originally Posted by SeanEsopenko

An uncle-in-law has some panchromatic film from over 20 years ago that he'd like to process. It was kept at room temperature all these years, unfortunately, but it'd be interesting to see if the images can still be had. When he moved from Yugoslavia to Canada he had to leave his darkroom and photographic equipment behind but brought his film with him. It all went in a box and was lost/misplaced for a long period of time.

It's DIN 20 and DIN 22 film, which according to wikipedia, is ISO 80 and ISO 125. I believe it's a German brand. It's labeled as OR WO (Veb Filmfabrik Wolfen). Any advice on what developer to use and if deviation from the standard development time/process is recommended?

Thanks for any help that can be provided.

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Adding 1 ounce of Liquid orthazite(Edwall) per quart of working developer solution will clean up fog and make for better negs and printing. ROD

Thanks for all the advice everyone. I e-mailed a link to this thread to the uncle-in-law and he said he's going to try his hand at it.