Developing old Agfa IF film
Hannu Järventaus
One of my friends has found an old Agfa b/w film.
He thinks the films is exposed but undeveloped.
On the cassette there are markings:
17 Din Agfa 40 ASA
IF
36 Exp. Pat. 135
and with small print: 25/60/0887
The film is very old (how old; does someone know?), so I don't have
any instructions for suitable developers and developing times.
I have some 'old fashion' developers like Agfa Rodinal and Ilford ID-11,
and some never formulas, like Kodak TMAX and XTOL and Ilford Ilfotec LC29.
I would like to know some suggestions for developing times at 20C
and some suggestions what to do and what not.
--
Hannu Jarventaus
Espoo, Finland
Richard Knoppow
"Hannu Järventaus" <hannu.ja...@tekla.fi> wrote:
Its tough without having a film name. Lets see what we can guess
at. The ASA speed system was adopted in 1946 so the film must have
been made after that. In the US Agfa owned the Agfa/Ansco copany
which made coated Agfa films and papers here. These were similar to
the european emulsions although the names may have been different.
Agfa was siezed by the US government durring the war and changed its
name back to the old one of Ansco but continued to make the Agfa
products until well after the war. Looking at Agfa roll films from
this period it seems that the recommended developing times for a gamma
of about 0.8 is around 8 to 9 minutes at 68° in Agfa's equivalent of
D-76 (Agfa 17M). My later Ansco information gives times for only
Ansco proprietary packaged developers and I don't know their
equivalent to the published formulas. But unless this film is _much_
newer this is probably a good start. Ilford ID-11 is identical to
Kodak D-76. Perhaps someone has a post-war Agfa European film handbook
with more definite information in it.
---
Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles, Ca.
dick...@ix.netcom.com
Helge Nareid
On 5 May 1997 08:08:59 GMT, "Hannu Järventaus"
<hannu.ja...@tekla.fi> wrote:
>One of my friends has found an old Agfa b/w film.
>He thinks the films is exposed but undeveloped.
>
>On the cassette there are markings:
>
> 17 Din Agfa 40 ASA
> IF
> 36 Exp. Pat. 135
>
>and with small print: 25/60/0887
>
>The film is very old (how old; does someone know?), so I don't have
>any instructions for suitable developers and developing times.
Checking my film database, I found that my 135 film #2 was a roll of
Agfa Isopan IF at 40 ASA (it is the only one of this type in my
files). My roll of film was exposed in 1971, and looking at the
negatives, it appears that the emulsion number of my roll was 904. I
seem to recall that this film was phased out fairly shortly afterwards
(within a year or two). I have no record of the developer or
developing time, but I believe I developed it in Rodinal. As a
_guess_, I would suggest something like 7 minutes at 1:50 dilution.
Rodinal is a fairly safe bet with any Agfa BW emulsion (except for the
chromogenic varieties).
- Helge Nareid
John G .Silver
: One of my friends has found an old Agfa b/w film.
: He thinks the films is exposed but undeveloped.
: The film is very old (how old; does someone know?), so I don't have
: any instructions for suitable developers and developing times.
: I would like to know some suggestions for developing times at 20C
: and some suggestions what to do and what not.
Assuming that the film is of the very fine grain type that was common just
before and after the war, you can expect it to be very contrasty.
There is a standard way of dealing with this problem and the first step is
to divide the film into grades. ie Slow means fine grain and contrasty,
medium means you could be lucky, and fast means lots of grain and flat. It
probably has limited red sensitivity.
I would suggest you take a snip from the end of the roll about 6 frames
long. You develop this first.
Try 7 minutes at 65f in D76 1:1. Do use a few drops of Benziotriazol.
Count them, I usually use 3 drops per tank full.
After you have developed the snip you can adjust for the next strip.
It is better to risk a frame by cutting through the middle of it than the
whole lot
Let's know how you get on.
JS
Jean-David Beyer
John G .Silver wrote:
>
> : One of my friends has found an old Agfa b/w film.
> : He thinks the films is exposed but undeveloped.
>
> : The film is very old (how old; does someone know?), so I don't have
> : any instructions for suitable developers and developing times.
>
> : I would like to know some suggestions for developing times at 20C
> : and some suggestions what to do and what not.
>
> Assuming that the film is of the very fine grain type that was common just
> before and after the war, you can expect it to be very contrasty.
>
> There is a standard way of dealing with this problem and the first step is
> to divide the film into grades. ie Slow means fine grain and contrasty,
> medium means you could be lucky, and fast means lots of grain and flat. It
> probably has limited red sensitivity.
>
> I would suggest you take a snip from the end of the roll about 6 frames
> long. You develop this first.
>
> Try 7 minutes at 65f in D76 1:1. Do use a few drops of Benziotriazol.
> Count them, I usually use 3 drops per tank full.
I would think the number of drops would depend critically on whether
you used a Standard Dropper (which makes standard sized drops)
or the ones I get herbal preparations in, which are most likely
not standard. Furthermore, it would depend on what concentration
BZT you use. I believe Zone VI mix it up to 2%, I mix mine to 1%,
and as I recall, it is available somewhere at 0.2%.
Personally, I would not use BZT in D-76. If the film is fogged,
depressing the fog also depresses the low values, so there is no
real benefit. And if you use too much BZT, you lose shadow detail
that you might wish to preserve. The only problem with (uniform)
fog in a negative is that the printing time gets a little longer.
>
> After you have developed the snip you can adjust for the next strip.
>
> It is better to risk a frame by cutting through the middle of it than the
> whole lot
>
> Let's know how you get on.
>
> JS
--
Jean-David Beyer
Shrewsbury, New Jersey
Peter Siepen
Helge Nareid (nar...@online.no) wrote:
: On 5 May 1997 08:08:59 GMT, "Hannu Järventaus"
: <hannu.ja...@tekla.fi> wrote:
: >One of my friends has found an old Agfa b/w film.
: >He thinks the films is exposed but undeveloped.
: >
: >On the cassette there are markings:
: >
: > 17 Din Agfa 40 ASA
: > IF
: > 36 Exp. Pat. 135
: >
: >and with small print: 25/60/0887
: >
: >The film is very old (how old; does someone know?), so I don't have
: >any instructions for suitable developers and developing times.
: Checking my film database, I found that my 135 film #2 was a roll of
: Agfa Isopan IF at 40 ASA (it is the only one of this type in my
: files). My roll of film was exposed in 1971, and looking at the
: negatives, it appears that the emulsion number of my roll was 904. I
: seem to recall that this film was phased out fairly shortly afterwards
: (within a year or two). I have no record of the developer or
: developing time, but I believe I developed it in Rodinal. As a
: _guess_, I would suggest something like 7 minutes at 1:50 dilution.
: Rodinal is a fairly safe bet with any Agfa BW emulsion (except for the
: chromogenic varieties).
According to a fairly old Rodinal data sheet Agfa IF 17 DIN should
be developed 7-9 minutes at a dilution of 1:50 (temp. 20 C),
depending on motiv contrast.
So Helge's guess was rather good.
Peter