I like old film. I find it fun to shoot, as I generally have low expectations and am thrilled to have anything come through. You’ve got your foggy and moody look that just might make for interesting print.
The thing is, I don’t shoot a lot of what I would consider antique film. If you think I’m splitting hairs between old and antique, I give you the case of Kodak Verichrome.
I have a fair stock of old Verichrome Pan from the late 1960’s mostly on 620 spools. This is old film, but usable in my case for the odd 620 camera I might want to shoot (and am not in the mood to respool a 120 to 620).
Then there is this roll of film, Kodak Verichrome Safety Film, a loose-in-a-box of random things that someone gave me. This is not just old, but rather antique, produced sometime between 1931 and 1956. The film backing should be the color red but clearly has been faded by time and the abuse of it’s travels.
I don’t shoot this film normally; usually it sits on a shelf as a reminder of the past and that we all fade (now who’s foggy and moody?). This film roll however was destined for a blaze of glory; we hit a cold weather streak here in California, which lead to some 10C HC-110B solution sitting in my darkroom, and that inclining of experimentation popped in my head.
Could I shoot and develop this? I’d developer old film with cold HC-110 before, and that developer was near it’s expire. Let’s give it a spin.
Since this film spool had Brownie stamped on it, I grabbed a Kodak No. 2 Brownie, a Model D from around 1915, and loaded it up.
Given the film age and Verichrome Safety Film having maybe an ISO/ASA of around 50 when it was fresh off the line, I figured I was in store for a bumpy road. Like, ISO 1 kinda of road. But that really wasn’t the point, so I quickly worked up some math in my head decided on some exposures in some very bright light and hoped for the best.
10C HC-110B at 20 minutes or so and a long 10 minute fix and you find out that hope is a funny thing. Even with long exposures in blinding light, the latent images tried valiantly to beat the fog but largely failed. Most shots are whisper thin, except oddly for one in the living room shot of one of the girls being wiggly in a 25 second exposure.
Fun fact: that’s the longest any of my kids have sat for anything. And she was sitting still. So was the bird on her shoulder. Yes, that’s a bird. Kids are great.
All and all, I’d say my half hour experiment wasn’t a total loss. One, my cold long soak HC-110B still does a fair job (your timing will likely vary because antique film). Two, box cameras are fun to shoot which I largely had forgot.
If you want to see someone who had a better luck with old Kodak Verichrome Saftey film, take a look at Adam’s blog post on shooting a roll in a Kodak Autgraphic 1A. Otherwise, take an old camera for a spin, antique film or not (go some buy some new film, it’ll be easier), and go have some fun.