616 kodacolor

[dothesteve]

Just got a c.1922 Kodak 616 folder with 'Focusing Doublet Lens'

& 'Kodon' shutter along with several rolls of 616 Kodacolor

(daylight ASA 32) with 1957 expiry date. (Don't worry, I paid

practically nothing for it.) I found a place in Penn. that develops

for $13 a roll and I'm rarin' to see if I can still get a decent image

out of this setup. Any hints on exposing film to compensate for its

age?

[art_haykin]

If that film hasn't been refrigerated, there's little likelihood it'll be any good, after all, it's 46 years out of date. BTW, does your lens have f/stop and shutter speed controls?

[briany]

sorry i can't be of any help.. maybe overexpose by a stop and print darker to overcome fog??.. but I would love to see the results of this experiement.

[lyle_gordon]

If it were black and white film it would probably have come out printable but colour films that old weren't even very good when they were new but 50 years later I doubt if anything will be printable. Alas it can't hurt to try (although you will be down 13$ that you could have spent on new film).

[art_haykin]

$13 seems high just to process a roll with no prints. Also, your rolls of film, if left unopened COULD have a collector's value to some. There are all kinds of collectors, and some who just collect old Kodak stuff.

[kelly_flanigan1]

The old 616 and 116 Kodacolor negatives we have in the house from 1944 are abit faded. The negatives have an interesting "bar code" which is a key for the Kodak printing process. The key is a punched set of holes; along the edge of the negative; for color correction. The negative sleeves waen you not to trim the negatives down; which would loose the key; for that roll of film. Kodacolor print film was asa 25 in 1946; 20 Weston; 32 for Ge meters! according to the Kodak literature. Room temperture stored film of mine that is asa 125 plus -X; from 1975 required 2 extra stops exposure; to get a decent image. Your 40+ year old probably would require 3 stops extra exposure; thus the asa 32 would be asa 4; as a rough starting point. Base fog will be horrid; alot of scanning tricks and photoshop can pull the images iut of the muck; maybe.

[kelly_flanigan1]

Have the lab save the old spool; and paper backing; if you have the film developed.

[dothesteve]

Zowie, some great responses.

 

1st off, Art, the camera has f11-f32 and B-T-25-50-100 shutter

speeds, plus 3 guess-focus ranges to choose from.

 

2nd, I was mistaken about Rapid Photo in Penn. developing 616,

tho they do other C22 films [ http://www.rapidphoto.net/c22.html ]

So far the most promising is in the UK & charges $25.

http://www.processc22.co.uk

 

Et seq: Assuming I get an encouraging response from labs I've

emailed, I'll post any halfway decent shots that come out. BTW, I

probably wouldn't bother with all this but for the achingly lovely

young woman I snapped in the local café. [sigh] If the film's a

dud, I've got some nice paper backing with which to respool

70mm. Or else sell the lot to a good home.

[kelly_flanigan1]

C-22 can also be developed in D-76; like a B&W film. You will get a orange base; with dark images; if the film is good. I did this in the late 1960's; with free C-22 in 620 films. Since the base is redish; they take along time to print with an enlarger! We did mostly contact prints; and used much faster enlarging paper; to blast thru the red/orange base of the films. Getting a 616 reel might be a hunt!

[al_kaplan1]

Some older plastic adjustable reel will take 616 film. You'll probably have to find a tank and reel at a yard sale or on eBay.

[chris_eve]

Just a quick note on tanks/reels for 116/616 ... I've got a Paterson Major (black bakelite) and the reel expands to cover 116, but it's only designed for a 6-frame film, the "newer" 8-frame roll of Verichrome Pan that I'd salvaged from an old camera for my collection was left hanging out the end of the spiral by some inches :-(

 

A point to consider both in your search for a tank/reel and in your re-spooling efforts if your backing paper is from an 8-frame film.

[photojim]

You won't get good images from the film. The dyes in the emulsion just won't be there anymore.

 

There is a company here that develops obsolete film, but they do old negative film as monochrome film and get rid of the colour layer. They can get decent black and white results, but the colour images they try to get are muddy and almost invisible. And that's with film from the late 1970s. Yours is twenty years older than that.

 

Keep the film intact as a collectible, keepsake or novelty. Film for Classics in New York might be able to get you some current film for the camera that you can try.