Kodak Traffic Flow Recording Film SO-370.... what is this?

<p>I don't usually touch old film, but I found a roll of this recently: Kodak Traffic Flow Recording Film, 35mm, 36 exposures, SO-370. What is this? I can't find anything online. The only thing it says on the box is this: "This 35mm b&w negative film is intended for telephone traffic monitoring only and is not recommended for conventional photography." Telephone traffic??? The box is dated Jun1980.<br>

<br />If I shoot this, what ASA would you recommend, and could it be processed in a common developer? I wouldn't do it myself, but would drop off at a lab.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>It would have been used to record traffic meter readings in telephone exchanges.</p>

<p>Accelerating intellectual obsolescence can be a bear, lol. John's answer is likely succinct, but leaves me scratching my head as much as the film box instruction. To be pragmatic: Research the effect of the expiry date on ASA and expose accordingly, and don't use it for a do-or-die project. Please post how it turns out.</p>

<p><a href="https://www.flickr.com/groups/fossilised_film/discuss/72157625159060556/">This Dupont stuff from the 1970s </a>may be similar. You would need to determine the film speed and conditions for development. I wouldn't bother with it unless I could develop it myself (and then, if it were me, I still wouldn't bother with it).</p>

<p>I'll take a guess.<br>

It may be a form of Kodak Recording Film 2475 <a href="http://125px.com/docs/film/kodak/2475.pdf">HERE</a></p>

<p>In the days before video was in wide industrial use, traffic flow studies were done with special intermittent motion cameras. Stop action shutter speeds and high DOF required very high speed film. The cameras were often mounted on telephone poles to get a high vantage point. The "SO" in the name means "Special Order". I would guess it mostly came supplied in long rolls for these special application cameras. A short roll, with perforations for standard 35mm camera, may have been the "special order" feature. </p>

<p>This stuff is only 34 years out-of-date and is marked "not recommended for conventional photography"?</p>

<p>What are you waiting for? Shoot it (in your camera, not like a wounded horse), that's what it's for!</p>

<p>house slogan: "we don' need no stinkin' Lomo"</p>

<p>Here is a website that explains the reading of meters in telephone exchanges:<br>

http://www.seg.co.uk/telecomm/automat3.htm<br>

I worked in this type of exchange, nearly 40 years ago. </p>

<p>Leica made a camera to record telephone meters:<br>

http://collectiblend.com/Cameras/Leitz/MDa-Post.html</p>

<p>Interesting info, John</p>

<p>Probably was for photographing message registers at AT&T before divestiture. There were a variety of cameras made for "the phone company" that would photograph an array of 10x10 electromechanical counters. This demanded pretty high resolution film. The message registers had a counter for each subscribers "message units," for billing purposes.<br>

There was KS-19995 film made for AT&T that would be developed in D-11. So this could be that. I suspect it was really just repackaged Kodak High Contrast Copy. Tell us what color both sides of the film are, and I can tell you if it's High Contrast Copy.<br>

One of such cameras was the KS-20900, which was a rig with a Topcon T camera, RE. Auto-Topcor 25mm f/3.5 lens with focus locked, polarizing filter, and a Beseler/Toshiba electronic flash. See Bell System <a href="http://etler.com/docs/BSP/030/030-304-301_I1.pdf">BSP 030-304-301</a>. But there were several other rigs.</p>

<p>I have nothing to add to this, but I'm curious if the OP has found any more information about this film. I just came in to 36 rolls of it, and I'm trying to figure out how to shoot and develop it. I use HC-110 as my developer, but also have T-Max at the ready.<br>

Have you shot and developed any yet? I'd love to hear about/see your results with it.</p>

<p>I appreciate all the responses and find the information very interesting. While I'm very curious about film history and the various uses of film, this particular roll won't be used by me. I'm too busy working on other projects to mess around with it at this point. I'm willing to pass it on at my cost ($6 postpaid) if someone wants it.</p>

<p>I ran a test roll, and found the film to have a nice range. Here's a link to what I did, and some samples at various ASA's - http://www.apug.org/forums/viewpost.php?p=1686016</p>