After my successful soiree into the world of processing ancient film, a couple of people have given me some more films to try, first up is the iconic roll film Adox R17.
As you can see from the image above Adox still produce film and you can compare 1958 box alongside 2007 packaging.
I have blogged about the history of Adox in a previous post link so I'll not go over that ground again here.
Inside the box the roll was wrapped in a red foil, I'm not sure if this is original, but it seems to be the correct width and colour, so I have no reason to doubt Adox used foil and the picture above is representative of the product.
Above is the roll taken out of the foil, it has a metal spool and on the backing (not visible) the word 'EXPONIERT' which means exposed in German.
Inside the box the roll was wrapped in a red foil, I'm not sure if this is original, but it seems to be the correct width and colour, so I have no reason to doubt Adox used foil and the picture above is representative of the product.
Above is the roll taken out of the foil, it has a metal spool and on the backing (not visible) the word 'EXPONIERT' which means exposed in German.
I decided to process the film in Ilford ID11 at the recommended time for KB17 which is 6.5 mins.
Here are the images:
There has obviously been some slight damage from the backing paper over the last 50 years, but overall these images are surprisingly good.
They definitely come from the correct timeframe for the film which was dated AUG 1958, judging from the clothes.
From this shot a calendar can be seen, the date March 1958
A window view, clearly England, I'll try to find out where and who these people are.
More to follow....
© Images and text Mark Antony Smith 2007
6 comments:
Hi thanks for the comment on my Fringe photographs on my blog, there are more on flickr. I had a great time when I was up there. I had a chance to use my pentax 6X7. I got my transpanancy's back from the lab today, some of my fringe shots are a little under exposed, the look really good when they are held up to the light colours are really good (I used EPP) But they do not scan that well.
The B&W I shot came out well.
I shot a fair bit of APX up there. All I can say is APX 100 + Rodinal is just fantastic.
My 10.5cm f2.5 was made in 1963 and has allot of cleaning marks on the coating, it is still sharp wide open, I would like to see how it compares to one with good optics. The 105 was a very useful focal length to use at the Fringe. I do not own a 85mm Nikkor but I want one they seem to be quite expensive, I will try to get a good pre AI one.
Have you been shooting weddings with 35mm? Glad to hear you exposed some APX.
Interesting to see that you have more found film and again thanks to good old ID11 got some good photographs.
You have the early version of the 105 based on the Zeiss Sonnar, I think Nikon used the same optical formulation from their RF range. I love those 'scalloped' barreled Nikkors and have a 50 F2 HC as my standard.
I have a few lenses with cleaning marks and it makes little difference performance wise.
We'll have to meet and then you can try my 105 from the mid 70's which is a slight re-design of your lens to give less aberrations close up.
Hello I much prefer the scalloped barrelled Nikkors all metal! I have a very good 200mm/f4 and like you the 50mm HC f2 I also have a 55mm f.3.5 micro nikkor dating from 63.
I have 41 rolls of in date 120 apx100 and about 95 rolls of 120 APX400 old emulsion in the freezer.
The in date agfa pan I got from an ebay seller last year that I had been buying Agfa film and chems from, his user name is apfel.de. You might be interested to know he has some 220 Agfa 120 160 portrait that is short dated.
He got 100 rolls of of 120 apx last year and offered it for sale to me, I bought 30 rolls. the rest of my 120 APX100 I bought of ebay last year. The APX 400 I bought of a pro photographer who had gone totally digital it has been frozen since new and is still good.
What is your method for APX 100? I have been exposing on bright days at 100 asa and developing for 13 mins.
Charlie
I see you have spied Retro photo's cheap forte deal. I have ordered 10 rolls along with some of that new Adox 25asa B&W film on a clear PET base. Let me know how you get on with the forte, I think D76 would be a good start for this film.
Thanks for the apfel.de tip I looked at his shop and I'm tempted by the Portrait 160, which was my main wedding film in the early 1990's. I can still remember the 'pear drops' smell when you peeled them from the backing before processing.
I use APX pretty much the same as you, but have also had good results at 1:100 for 20 mins agitation one inversion per min,
I use the higher dilution as I scan and digi-print, I'd love to have my DeVere 504 with Cathomag head and print on Portriga but alas, those days are gone.
I have 2 more old films to process one Tri-x and one Plus -x both from about 1960-63 period.
mark ......
your plays with old films are simply pleasure to look at....... the old agfa, the more recent kodak and this adox.....
simply cool....... on the wings of history... both of photography and of anonimous people and the atmospher in the frames........
great work man.....
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