Misc expired film questions - Help

[ScottPhotoCo]

Hello everyone,

I am just going through and organizing my random film stash and I came across a few film types that I'm not that familiar with so I thought I'd see what you all have to say about how to handle, expose and process these films. Here's what I found:

Kodak Vericolor III, type S - Expired 03/1991
Kodak Technical Pan - Expired 03/2002
Kodak Plus-X pan - Expired 02/2004

Full disclosure: The Vericolor is 4x5 and the Technical Pan and Plus-X pan are medium format.

Any recommendations on shooting and processing these?

Thanks in advance.

Tim
www.ScottPhoto.co

[David Lobato]

Vericolor III Type S is daylight balanced color negative film. It should be okay with C-41 processing.

[dsphotog]

Tech pan- asa 25 develop in POTA,
Plus-X 125 - dev in D76, HC110-B, etc

[ScottPhotoCo]

Thanks Gents.

Forgive my ignorance, but what is POTA?

Tim
www.ScottPhoto.co

[Ari]

...what is POTA?



http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/123326-REG/Photographers_Formulary_01_0070_Phenidone_Pota_Developer_for.html

[Jody_S]

Hello everyone,

I am just going through and organizing my random film stash and I came across a few film types that I'm not that familiar with so I thought I'd see what you all have to say about how to handle, expose and process these films. Here's what I found:

Kodak Vericolor III, type S - Expired 03/1991
Kodak Technical Pan - Expired 03/2002
Kodak Plus-X pan - Expired 02/2004

Full disclosure: The Vericolor is 4x5 and the Technical Pan and Plus-X pan are medium format.

Any recommendations on shooting and processing these?

Thanks in advance.

Tim
www.ScottPhoto.co

The Vericolor III does not age well. This was one of Kodak's line of professional films color-balanced for immediate use upon delivery, as opposed to their amateur films designed to reach peak color balance a year or so after sale. In my experience, even if stored frozen, VPS III will have important color shifts especially around the edges. You can use it as is if you like the effect, but do not attempt anything where color balance is important.

The others should be fine.

[Leigh]

I expect you'll have better luck with the black&white films than the color film.

Color films use organic dyes that change characteristics with age, even if frozen.
B&W films have no such dyes, so they don't have that problem.

If the B&W films exhibit fog, that can be mitigated somewhat by adding a bit of Benzotriazole to the developer.

You might want to try Diafine developer for the B&W films. It's a two-part product with excellent shelf life.
DO NOT presoak when using Diafine or other two-part developers. Part A is absorbed into the dry emulsion.

Unlike most developers, Diafine uses the same time for all films with no change in characteristics.
It's insensitive to temperature, being usable over the range from 70° to 85°F with no change in timing or result.

- Leigh

[dsphotog]

Thanks Gents.

Forgive my ignorance, but what is POTA?

Tim
www.ScottPhoto.co

Hi Tim,
Sorry I didn't have time to go into detail, Kodak Tech Pan is a high contrast film originally intended for super fine grain copy work. Such fine grain that Kodak marketed it as 4x5 quality on 35mm film! To get a full tonal range it needs to be developed to lower contrast.
Kodak made Technidol developer specifically for this film, since it's been out of production quite a while, the current equiv. is POTA.
Happy shooting!
David

[ScottPhotoCo]

Thanks everyone! Looks like I just need to get out and shoot this stuff. :)