Orwo Np15 Np20 Dk5 Develop in A49

Gast · 2005-06-20T21:35:03+00:00

Hallo! Ich habe kürzlich einen mittelgroßen Posten an Orwos Filme NP15, NP20 sowie DK5 bekommen. Ich wollte hier mal fragen, wie es mit der Entwicklungszeit...

Gast

Hello! I recently received a medium-sized batch of Orwo NP15, NP20 and DK5 films. I was wondering if anyone here could tell me what the development times are like in Calbe A49 (1+2)? Does anyone have any experience with this? I’d really appreciate any replies. Philip

MirkoBoeddecker

Philip, This question has been asked several times already, but I know you can’t search for it because the daft software for this forum doesn’t accept search terms with fewer than three letters... We’ve posted the original A49 GDR instructions on our website. A49 table from FOTOIMPEX . Whether these times still apply to 18-year-old films remains to be seen. Actually, it’s not worth using such old material. Best regards, Mirko

Gast

Hi, I'm afraid I have to disagree. I've tried it myself and got brilliant results with over 20 films. Best regards, Marwan

MirkoBoeddecker

Marwan, The NP22 or NP 15 wasn’t a bad film by any stretch of the imagination. I worked with it myself for years. The question that arises, however, is this: if I don’t know how my film has aged, and there’s therefore a high probability that it won’t produce any “brilliant” results, and if you work out the cost per image of a good, fresh film and weigh that against the effort involved in creating the image and the follow-up costs for development and prints, then I think you can ask yourself “whether it’s still worth it” or whether this is a case of saving money in the wrong place. I myself haven’t seen any non-grey NP’s for years, but our lab technician has developed hundreds of such ‘grey-hounds’ and the disappointment was written all over the faces of those collecting their films every single time... If the colleague above has several films, all from the same batch and stored identically, then it’s certainly worth giving it a try. Best regards, Mirko

Gast

OK, that’s true. Mine were all frozen and from the same batch. I suppose I’m surprised that, unlike colour film, black-and-white film can last considerably longer even during improper storage, but I wouldn’t take any risks either. That’s true. Just one final question: were the NP 15 and the Efke ADOX 25 related in any way??? Regards, Marwan

Gast

The strangest thing I’ve ever come across in this regard was a find I inherited. My uncle was a photographer and had bought a freezer for his colour film as early as 1950. He kept his darkroom until his death two years ago and bequeathed it to me; the freezer has been running practically the whole fifty years (certainly a work of real craftsmanship), and among other things it still contained 18 rolls of Eisenberger film (Trockenplattenfabrik Otto Kirschten, Eisenberg, Thuringia) with 17/10 DIN, expiry date 1952 (!!!), which, surprisingly, are still perfectly usable and wonderfully nostalgic, with metal spools featuring a wooden core. I suspect he didn’t like that particular type, or perhaps liked it so much that he put the films on ice, yet couldn’t or wouldn’t part with them; I couldn’t ask him anymore, of course. Apparently, films don’t get damaged when frozen; I’ve also read about the photographic plates from the North Pole expedition that were developed after thirty years. Regards, E. Kuhn

CPD

Hello Erhard, So how did you carry out the development of the colour films? Did you make the historical developers yourself? Was the original speed still intact? Best regards, CP

Gast

CP, I suppose I didn’t express myself very clearly; those were Panchromatic black-and-white films. The freezer was actually bought to store Telcolor films and papers (Tellco (Switzerland), as Agfa wanted to pay a price to take the material off our hands, as my uncle said – those were the days). E. Kuhn

Hoddy

CP, I suppose I didn’t express myself very clearly; those were Panchromatic black-and-white films. The freezer was actually bought to store Telcolor films and papers (Tellco (Switzerland), as Agfa wanted to pay a fee to take the material off our hands, as my uncle said – those were the days). [color="#3366FF"]I’ve now taken a black-and-white ORWO NP 18 out of an old ZeissIkon Nettar (bought on eBay) that had its exposure about 45 years ago and has been sitting in the camera ever since. Developed in Neofin Blaue, 6-minute agitation, it produced flawless negatives. Waldo [/colo (some loss of quality due to my scanner) http://www.vfdkv.de/pics/8270B8F2872A452AB...7ECDE546A9C.jpg

uworischki

(some loss of quality due to my scanner) http://www.vfdkv.de/pics/8270B8F2872A452AB...7ECDE546A9C.jpg

Hi Waldo, One swallow doesn’t make a summer... Apart from that, I still use NP15 + NP20 sheet and roll films, which I bought sometime in the early nineties along with R09, manufactured in 1986, N113 and A300 from the same period... :rolleyes: Regards, Uwe

fiedel321

The strangest thing I’ve ever come across in this regard was a find I inherited. My uncle was a photographer and had bought a freezer for his colour film as early as 1950. He kept his darkroom until his death two years ago and bequeathed it to me; the freezer has been running practically the whole fifty years (surely a fine piece of craftsmanship), and among other things it still contained 18 rolls of Eisenberger film (Trockenplattenfabrik Otto Kirschten, Eisenberg, Thuringia) with 17/10 DIN, expiry date 1952 (!!!), which, surprisingly, are still perfectly usable and wonderfully nostalgic, with metal spools with a wooden core. I suspect he either didn’t like that type of film, or liked it so much that he put the films on ice, but couldn’t or wouldn’t part with them; I couldn’t ask him anymore, of course. Apparently, films don’t get damaged when frozen; I’ve also read about the photographic plates from the North Pole expedition that were developed after thirty years. Regards E. Kuhn

Hello E. Kuhn, The article is already seven years old. I’d still like to try to answer your question. Do the Otto Kirschten films still exist? I’d be very interested to know. I live in Otto Kirschten’s former home and am researching his history a little. Here is a link to it: http://eisenberg.otz.de/web/lokal/kultur/detail/-/specific/Fruehere-Kirschten-Villa-wird-saniert-828990467 So are the films (still) available? Best regards G. Fiedler