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  #1  
Old 17th December 2008, 08:02 PM
Mike O'Pray Mike O'Pray is offline
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Default Help - Unknown film & Developer's Nightmare

Here's a test for all of you. I have been asked by a friend to develop a 120 film that has been removed from the camera she has. We've no idea who the taker was and no info on the film either.In fact there is no info at all

All I can say is that the backing paper is black on both back and front and has the frame numbers and all writing which is in English in a kind of lightblue/grey.

When you get to the end which says "exposed film" there is a broad arrow and in the middle of the bottom of the arrow there is a machine punched hole which is about 4/5mm in diameter. Anyone recognise this 120 film from thisa paltry info?

Assuming there is anything on the film I guess the key is a dev time that is a kind of compromise as there is no indication of speed either( who in the hell was allowed to get away with this)

I have DDX and was hoping that the times for 100-400( my assumed speed range) were going to be within a minute of each other but the variation is more like 2-3 mins which is quite a lot.

Any suggestions as to what I should go for will be gratefully received.

Thanks

Mike
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Old 17th December 2008, 08:07 PM
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How do you know the film is black and white?
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Old 17th December 2008, 08:10 PM
Mike O'Pray Mike O'Pray is offline
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A good question and I don't but we think that there is enough circumstantial evidence from the background to believe it is B&W

Mike
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Old 17th December 2008, 08:21 PM
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Well I'd suggest using a compensating developer or semi stand development which will have similar dev times for 100 and 400 speed films. That way you should prevent any over development of highlights keeping them under control and negs should be printable.
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Old 17th December 2008, 08:26 PM
Mike O'Pray Mike O'Pray is offline
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Thanks. Are there times for DDX that are in the semi-stand range? Perhaps I should add that I have Perceptol as well but this may simply introduce another complication.

Mike
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Old 17th December 2008, 08:27 PM
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My suggestion would be a pyro type developer or a 2 bath like Emofin. If you live near to Dave perhaps a dip in some of his Prescysol or better still support Peter and buy a bottle!

Is it possible to roll the film to the start in the darkroom and see what is written there?

As an afterthought some of the Fuji colour films have light blue writing on them.

Bill
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Old 17th December 2008, 08:36 PM
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Prescysol would be my choice 10.5 minutes semi stand. I've processed 100 and 400 ISO films together at that time.
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Old 17th December 2008, 08:37 PM
Mike O'Pray Mike O'Pray is offline
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Thanks but for a one-off I don't want to buy other devs. I will one day get Prescysol but really want to do something with this film now and call it a day.

I suppose that in the absence of magic bullet advice which I know isn't possible I may have to look to those who have a lot more experience than me of the effect of under/overdev times and which is the lesser evil.

So if say Agfa 100 was the lowest time at 7 mins and D400 the highest at 12 but the majority of 100-400 times lie in the 8-10 mins range, am I better to go for the top end of 10?

This is pure speculation but I think we can rule out the film being other than the trad type ie not T grain or the Ilford/ Fuji equivalent.

Mike
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Old 17th December 2008, 08:39 PM
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Never used DDX but according to the instructions on Prescysol, you can use the same time for different speeds and makes of films, especially when using their semi-stand recommendations so it might be worth trying that. Otherwise I would probably use Perceptol 1+3 for around 22 mins at 20degC. That will be compensating.
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Old 17th December 2008, 08:42 PM
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I'd say a fair chance it's APX400. Does it say Hier Falten at the end?

Another possibility is Arista EDU400.

I have such a leftover roll (people send me odd rolls to try out from time to time) ... I'm just trying to work out which camera it went through.
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