Old Colour Film Developing

[Peter Wright]

Does anyone know of a lab that can develop mid-80's vintage colour film?
I haven't seen the film so I'm not sure if it's E-4 or C-41's predessor.

Cheers,
Peter

[Michael A. Covington]

"Peter Wright" <pwr...@cyberus.ca> wrote in message
news:3B2F3F6B...@cyberus.ca...

> Does anyone know of a lab that can develop mid-80's vintage colour film?
> I haven't seen the film so I'm not sure if it's E-4 or C-41's predessor.

In the mid-1980s, the processes were the same as today. E-4 and C-22 bit
the dust around 1975.

[James Robinson]

Peter Wright wrote:
>
> Does anyone know of a lab that can develop mid-80's vintage colour film?
> I haven't seen the film so I'm not sure if it's E-4 or C-41's predessor.

One of the regular participants in this group provides such a service
out of Saskatchewan.

Here's his link, to save him the humiliation of blatant self-promotion:

http://www.filmrescue.com/

Note that if it is current K-14 or E-6, they don't handle it. Just send
it to a regular lab. They will do old rolls of C-41 in a modified
process.

[Francis A. Miniter]

Hi Peter,

Can you give us the designation on the film. That would help define the
process.

There is:

Rocky Mountain Film Lab, Aurora, Colorado
Film Rescue Labs, Saskatoon (I am not sure, Greg, please tell us where you
are),
Saskatchewan, Canada
and one in England, who posted to this newsgroup about 6 months to a year
ago. You can find that one in a Google Advanced Group search.

Francis A. Miniter

[Peter Wright]

Thanks, that's the site I was trying to find.

Peter

[filmrescue]

Hello Francis

Though I hold citizenship from both the U.S. and Canada our lab is located in a small town
in Canada Called Indian Head. The reason for our location here is because my extended
family on my fathers side is around here and the water supply is top quality untreated
spring water so I need only use distilled water for final rinses. We do keep a U.S. address in a town called Fortuna N.D.. It is to this location all U.S. orders may be sent to avoid all of the hassles
of customs. I go personally to this location to do pick-ups and custom clearance
for packages coming in and going out. To date not a single order of thousands has been
lost in shipping; knock on wood.
As a point of interest, for C-41 film, that as a rule of thumb is 7 years beyond its expiry date,
we recommend it be processed in AN-6 developer. This is a high contrast developer
designed for the aerial industry. Once the film has been processed we do a test color
print onto Kodak Altra and if we can not get a fair print onto this paper we resort to
printing it onto the high contrast Panalure paper in order to salvage a better print. For
long expired E-6 we recommend that you take it to a custom lab and have it
cross-processed C-41 pulled about one stop. This is your best bet for getting something decent off of it. If you must have slides process the film E-6 pulled one half.

Greg Miller
Film Rescue International

--
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via Mailgate.ORG Server - http://www.Mailgate.ORG

[Peter Wright]

Hi Greg,

Actually I wrote the original post. I still don't have the details on the film but have a little information on its origin. The film was purchased in the USSR in the mid-eighties and shot in Moscow. I'm
assuming it's print film. It may or may not be C-41, but the local labs in Ottawa wouldn't handle it and claimed it used a different process. I'll provide more details when I actually see the film canisters.

Cheers,
Peter

[Francis A. Miniter]

Hi Peter,

You must be out to play "Stump the Chumps" to borrow a phrase from "The Car Talk Guys" (humorous automobile analysis on National Public Radio in the USA).

Russian film, indeed! I hope some one who frequents this group has experience with film in the old eastern European countries. I place my bet (and this is a totally uninformed guess) that the USSR did not move
from the C-22 process to C-41 as fast as the west did, if, in fact, they ever had the C-22 process and not some national color process. C-41 was developed for high speed processing to cater to consumers,
replacing human labor with capital equipment. Not a priority in the USSR.

Francis A. Miniter

[filmrescue]

I believe that would be quite correct Francis, though I am unsure at what point they did actually switch.

Greg Miller

[Peter Wright]

I've seen the film and it conveniently has no develop process markings. I would guess that a clip test would
be in order.

Peter

[filmrescue]

Are you sure that this is in fact a color film? If you send us this film and if it is a film we have never seen we will do a clip test at no charge. Keep in mind you may lose an exposure. If a second clip is necessary (though unlikely) you will lose a bit more film. If you need to discuss details further the most practical method would be to call us at 1 800 329 8989.

[Dominic Roberts]

Hello all,

I've read the information provided, and as an educated guess, I would
say the film is a Svemacolor film - the major Russian film
manufacturer in the 1960's-70's.
Here's where it gets complicated. Svema Corporation made numerous
films, both Colour neg, Colour slide, and B&W. Most used the old ORWO
processes (5166 or something like that, off the top of my head), but
some did not, and used Agfa ACN / AP-41 processes. (although luckily
very similar).
Svema also had the annoying habit of selling unmarked cassettes (or
using someone elses rejects)

As Greg will of course know, you can usually tell the filmtype by
looking at emulsion colour and thickness (however not a failsafe
method) so I agree, a clip is the best bet.

Good Luck, but don't expect magic results - it's almost like expecting
those China holiday pictures shot on Lucky Film to come out looking
like Velvia...!

Dominic Roberts, 'Process C-22'
http://www.processc22.co.uk

filmr...@sk.sympatico.ca (filmrescue) wrote in message news:<3B323C35...@sk.sympatico.ca>...

[filmrescue]

Well informed as usual Dominic.

Greg