Photux
Hi everyone,
I recently found – yet again – a roll film that had only been exposed for half the usual amount in a camera I picked up at a flea market. It’s an ‘Agfacolor Special CN S’, which, according to my research, was developed for the C-17 process.
It would probably even be possible to reconstruct the process somehow or adapt it to the C-41 process, but as it’s unlikely to produce any meaningful colours anyway, I’d prefer to save myself the effort and simply develop the film in black and white. From what I’ve read so far, it shouldn’t have any masking, so it should be quite well suited for that.
The all-important question: how do I develop it? Does anyone have a rough idea regarding the time (and possibly temperature)? I’d prefer to use Rodinal or D-76, as I have both of these developers at home as standard.
It’s clear that I can’t expect much, but in my view, not even trying would be the far worse alternative. ;)
Best regards
Daniel/Photux
Olivinyl
Hello Daniel
I’d simply give it a go with a stand development using Rodinal.
I’ve already achieved quite good results this way, even when I’ve performed the exposure on the film with a higher ISO rating from halfway through.
I’d try using 500 ml of water + 3–4 ml of Rodinal.
Shake the mixture at around 18–20 °C for the first 30 seconds, then shake it three times every 30 minutes.
I would develop the film for 120 minutes.
The already exposed film you found in the camera will have lost a huge amount of speed over the last 30 years and will have significant fog. The latent image will have suffered just as badly, though.
Just give it a go!
If you want to perform exposure on the remaining film, I’d choose something between 12–25 ASA, or even lower.
I’ve found with a few rolls of Agfa Vista 200 (expired 5 years ago and stored at room temperature) that these films only reach around 80–100 ASA (developed in C41).
Best wishes, Oli
Photux
Hi Oli,
Thanks for your reply. My attempts at stand development and using Rodinal have always gone pear-shaped so far – I had the feeling that the developer was losing its potency after a short while. But maybe I’ll give it another go; I’ve got nothing to lose, after all. ;-)
Best regards,
Daniel
Olivinyl
Hi Daniel
Perhaps it’s down to the water in Hanover?
Why not try using distilled water for the developer?
Best wishes, Oliver
Gast
There’s a company in England that specialises in this sort of thing: http://www.processc22.co.uk/
Otherwise, the only other option I can think of is Rodinal stand development.
Photux
I’m familiar with that specialist English firm, but for me it simply isn’t worth the effort – particularly in terms of cost. Especially as I’d expect the result to be more of a mottled effect than a true colour.
The tip about distilled water is good – I think my attempts at stand development were back at my old place, where the water quality was indeed very poor. I’ll pick up a canister next time I go shopping and give the film a go. :)
Photux
Just to bring this thread back up for the sake of completeness: I tried stand development in destilled water, but without success. The film was almost opaque (probably some emulsion that should have been removed during the original process), and there was practically no image visible. It ended up in the bin.
Just in case anyone reading this is facing the same problem... it doesn’t seem to work. ;)
michael-kielgmxnet
The film is just incredibly fogged. These old Agfas seem to have a tendency to do that. I once exposed a roll myself and then developed it in Orwo Color developer (Process 5168).
The result was a dark film on which almost nothing could be made out. So it doesn’t seem to be down to the Rodinal, but rather the film itself.
