GAF Film ( and Paper ) Developers

can anyone give me information about the GAF Universal Developers?

i know they sold several of them many of which were the olde ansco formulas-

i am trying to figure out which one i used (with great results) when i found an old

can at a place i used to rent - i'd love to buy the chemistry and mix it myself :)

 

the dilution for film was 1:5 ... paper was 1:2/1:1 depending on softness desired

 

at one point i was told that it was ansco 130 ... but i know now that GAF and ansco

never sold it as a universal film/paper developer, just as a universal paper

developer ... and after that i began to think it might have been ansco 125, but the film

dilution was suggested at 1:3 :( ...

 

any suggestions about what it might have been?

or recollections from personal experience?

 

thanks in advance !

 

- john

1n 1938 agfa/ansco had a microfilming process and made copies for the US govenment. a second copy was being sent to the NAZI's in berlin

in diplomatic pouches. (see: the "the man from bloomfield(nj)

or the quiet canadian ( stevenson) a master british/ canadian

spy catcher. worked closely with MI6 and the OSS. anyway the german agfa assets were seized and they were forbidden to do business in the usa for 20 years.

agfa/ansco became ansco and was "sort of" run by the us government during WWII. Kodak was still going about it's (peacetime)

style of business and had to be told to be more us war oriented or else. remember there was only kodachrome- no ektachrome.

I believe agfa had some kind of color slide film at that time.

and had since the early 1930's.

anyway ansco developed the high-speed anscochrome for airial photography- possibly with us gov research funds.

high-speed may have even beed asa 25 or 32, not as fast as the later " high speed anscochrome 100) it was a process similar to the later ektachrome. one of the unusual things was there was a "partial development" where the film could be developed as a negative

( first development) washed dried and sent to a stateside lab for later( color development) because of lack or temperature control in war areas.

camera enthusiasts in the 1960's before it's demise, thought little of it and tended towards kodachrome or even the very blue ektachrome of that time. I bought and had ansco develop a 36 roll or film of flower pictures and they were excellent. National geographic used ansco 100

and mentioned the film used NG even had a kodachrome lab.

later GAF ( the newer name) had color print film. never used it.

when i was married in june 1960 kodachrome was KING .

35mm color print film did not exist for a few more

years-- or i would have used it. kodacolor 120/127 DID exist in the 1950's and i used 1-2 rolls a year as a young teen.

the first color print film i used was an agfa product asa16

in 1961 or 1962. it was new.

it was sad to see gaf withdraw from th color film business.

agfa came back to the usa after 158 and had some acceptance problems and was up and down a bit. photo cullen in montclair nj

thought highly of agfa products and stocked many of them.

In the late '60s, early '70s, when I didn't have enough allowance money to buy the good Kodak stuff, I'd have to go to the little store that sold GAF (General Analine & Film) products. In all honesty, I didn't notice much difference between that and Dektol, other than it came in red cans. It definitely wasn't well promoted, at least in the US, and compared to Kodak.

the can i mention was left on the sill of a darkroom window for the better part of 20

years ... the room suffered from sweltering heat in the summer and it was pretty cold

in the winter. i was broke and had a ton of film & paper so i thought i would

experiment with "the can" - it was the best developer i have used to date. long scale

prints and my negatives were very long scale too.

 

wishing i could find more of this stuff!

 

-john

This sounds like something you might fnd in an old Photo-lab index. If I remember, I'll look for it tonite when I git home.

 

 

tim in san jose

THANKS tim :)

 

- john

John,

 

What you might be looking for is Agfa 103. Listed in the 1939 Photo-Lab Index Quarterly supplement No. 5 as 'Universal Film and Paper Developer'. Film though is diluted 1:2 Normal development time of 5 min. @ 65 deg. F. Paper Development is also 1:2 with softer development made by diluting 1:4.

 

Agfa 125 also fits the bill with Film dilution being 1:3 while paper is 1:2 to 1:4.

 

I found no developers with a dilution rate of 1:5 but then again, this book only goes up to 1941.

 

Let me know if you need any formulas.

 

tim in san jose

thanks tim!

( again :) )

 

i have a photo lab index from 1944 ... and i had my eye on ansco 125 ( agfa?) ..

it was that 1:4 instead of 1:5 that kept me from it ...

 

thanks again!

 

-john

For all intense porpoises, Agfa == Ansco. Agfa = German, Ansco = American.

 

The companies were split during the war.

 

tim in san jose