Classic camera (well, plastic, and old, anyway) and classic film

I've posted a couple times recently about the Ansco Pioneer 620.

First the test roll I put through it, which I figured out later I had

overdeveloped something terrible. Then the old Kodacolor-X that had

been in the camera when I got it.

 

There's one more chapter on this, and then I'll shut up other than to

post an occasional image here and there. That, of course, is the roll

of Verichrome Pan 620, still in the box and expired in August 1965,

that was in the leather case when I received the camera.

 

Now, some folks would have put this roll on eBay -- the box looked

better than many I've bought off the shelf in little drugstores and

tourist traps when I still shot 620 as my primary film format. But

since I had this Pioneer 620 sitting here, and the film, it was

inevitable...

 

Now, this film has been expired for almost forty years, but the images

were shot this past Sunday, the 23rd of January, 2005.

 

Unfortunately, the film had lost about two stops of speed, and had

also acquired both a considerable overall fog, and an even thicker

periodic fog that appears to have affected one side of the roll, even

inside the original Kodak foil/paper wrapper. Still, a few of the

images were passable...

This old garage stands alongside Wendover in the disputed territory between High Point, Greensboro, and Jamestown (North Carolina). I drive by it every time I go to Costco for grocery shopping, at the very least. This time, I had my trusty Ansco Pioneer loaded with antique film.<div></div>

That would never do, you could hardly see the old building. Had to get closer...<div></div>

Here's another shot, from near the American Legion post on Penny Road in Jamestown. There's a little park here, with a lake and lots of tall trees -- most of them decently bare in winter, as should be the case in the South.<div></div>

I mentioned a lake -- you can tell this is a lake from the reflection, right?<div></div>

Okay, last one -- another shot from near the American Legion post...<div></div>

Donald,

 

Hey, not bad for 40 year-old film! I processed some 30 year-old Tri-X film which I had received with a Minox C I bought. All the images had a general fog to them, and bad lack of contrast. I know how it is...

 

--Micah in NC

Yeah, one had hopes for VP, since it was such incredible film otherwise -- but the results were good enough that I think I'm going to go ahead and modify the camera to take 120 and get a bunch of J&C Pro 100. At $1.19 a roll if you buy 10, it's hard to argue with the price -- even at only 8 shots on a roll, that's still cheap.

Must have been bad storage conditions. I got a large batch of VP127 from the mid 1960's that aged very gracefully. I did one test roll, correct EI about 40 to 50, if I recall.

Yeah, EI 40-50 is an upper limit for what I got, but the periodic fog is odd -- and this wasn't open in the camera case, it was still sealed in the original Kodak box and inner wrap (looks just like what they use now, but the material is paper over foil with a plastic middle layer instead of one or more layers of plastic with an aluminized coating as they are today). Oh, well, doesn't really matter -- there was only the one roll. Just gotta get something fresh to put in this camera, now -- might pick up a roll or two of Plus-X or Delta 100 locally just to tide me over.