developing long expired fotokemika sheet film

[bukaj]

I have a box of sheet film made by Fotokemika rated at 100 iso. It expired in 1989, says made in Yugoslavia and from my understanding says was manufactured under license in Germany.

The box is unopened and I have no idea under what conditions it was stored at. I'd like to get a recommendation on starting points for my development. I'm thinking of shooting it at 25 iso and cutting the sheet into a few pieces and developing at different times. I do my developing at a community darkroom and have access to HC-110 and F76. Since I plan on doing this test this weekend, I'm limited to those two developers.

I know Fotokemika made the last of Ekfe film and uses the Adox formula and from what I've read I'd guess the film I have is probably very similar to the film that was recently made. I tray develop, so these are times I pulled off the massive dev chart. For Ekfe 100 6/13.5 min (hc-110dilB/f76) and for Adox CHM 7.25/13.5 min (hc-110dilB/f76). This is at iso 100 and 20C.

I usually use HC-110 so I think if I cut a sheet into 4 strips and develop starting at 6 minutes, and have each other strip a minute or 2 longer each, so either 6, 7, 8, 9, or 6, 8, 10, 12 minutes.

Any suggestions and tips are welcome because I've never done something of this sort before.

Thanks.

[Mark Woods]

Hello Bukaj,

I'm shooting with some Ilford Special Portrait film rated at EI 125. It was frozen in 1979. I did 2 tests and zeroed the new EI at 32. I love the film. The reason you need to lower the EI is twofold: 1) less sensitivity of the emulsion & 2) you need a more dense negative to compensate for the added Dmin density. Your EI25 sounds right on, but, as usual, test, test, test.

Enjoy!

[Domingo A. Siliceo]

I have a box of sheet film made by Fotokemika rated at 100 iso. It expired in 1989, says made in Yugoslavia and from my understanding says was manufactured under license in Germany.
[...]


Efke film was manufactured in Samobor (http://goo.gl/maps/RZuFh), then Yugoslavia but now Croatia. They ceased production in 2012 (http://lavidaleica.com/content/fotokemika-ceases-production-affects-efkeadox). If you're interested in Efke history, you can follow The Fotokemika Project (http://thefotokemikaproject.wordpress.com/), a group trying to save Efke's heritage.

Sorry for the off-topic.

[Carsten Wolff]

Great plan, bukaj, doing test strips. HC-110 is a good choice, too. I recently did some APX100 from 1979 in it and it came in at about ISO50 with surprisingly low fog. Very printable.
All the best,
Carsten

[bukaj]

Thanks for the tips. I think I'll do one sheet at 25 and one at 50 and cut those into 4.

Carsten, how did you develop your film and what times did you use? i see massive dev chart suggests 7 minutes for APX100.

A bit related, but according to the massive dev chart, why do some films give the same time when developing in tanks and trays and some different?

[LF_rookie_to_be]

I develop a lot of 8x10" Efke 100 in a Jobo 3004 drum slowly hand-rolled back and forth. Brand-new Adonal R09 1+25, 8,5 minutes - that gets me the right density. The films is a lot less expired than yours, though (2012 and 2013 dates).