What is this film?

[bryan_cass]

<p>I am going through my grandmother's boxes of negatives and scanning to preserve them. I found some very old (1940's?) color 120 film that I have not seen before. The images are 6x8 and the color has faded so much so that I can only scan them in B&W mode - there is not enough color information to even restore - just some of the blues and greens are left. The film has a series of holes punched in the edge for each frame. What kind of film is this?</p>

<p>Thanks!<br /> Bryan</p><div></div>

[vick_vickery]

<p>Bryan, I think that even us old guys are gonna need a little more info...I don't recall any 120 film with holes in the edge. Are the "holes" on one side or both? Are they square or round? Is there any writing anywhere on the film? Are the holes on all frames? Are the holes so evenly spaced that it was done in manufacture or do they look hand-punched?</p>

<p>The only 120 sized film I recall having holes along the sides would be some of the old 70mm film meant for certain electrically driven portrait cameras...looked kind of like some kind of super 35mm film.</p>

[bryan_cass]

<p>Wow Vick, you're quick! :-) I posted an example of one of the negatives. This is my mother at Halloween time I think. Probably Oct 1946?</p>

[vick_vickery]

<p>Oh...never mind, the photo didn't come up the first time I looked! These look hand punched...maybe some sort of identification code with the different sized and spaced holes? With nothing else to go on, you've stumped me! :-)</p>

[scott_murphy_photography]

<p>I would not give up on restoring them in color quite yet. Nikon Scanners like the LS-8000 and LS-9000 and Nikon Scan 4 software can go a long way towards restoring badly faded color negatives.<br>

You could always send me one and let me see what I can do with it. I can't make any promises but I can at least give it a try.</p>

[bryan_cass]

<p>They look machine punched to me. They are in the same order and spacing for every frame on the roll. Although different rolls have a different number of holes per frame. It's like some kind of roll ID thing maybe? Not sure if the holes were punched by Kodak (I'm assuming it's Kodak film) or the developer.</p>

<p>Bryan</p>

[bryan_cass]

<p>I already gave up, Scott. That image you see here is the best that Photoshop can do with the colors. The red channel is just plain faded away completely. The blue is almost gone as you can see in the broom handle ... the green is still there although extremely faint.</p>

[bryan_cass]

<p>The holes do not line up exactly the same with each image on the roll, so I have to assume it was something that Kodak did to help index the film either for the camera or for the developer?</p>

[oskar_ojala]

<p>Reminds me a bit of the notches in sheet films, but I've never heard about this... You need to find some old timers for this one.</p>

[david_mcniven]

<p>Seem to remember years ago reading or hearing something about an old camera with variable format mask accessible from outside in mid-roll and that it punched holes for registration.<br>

A collector would probably know.<br>

Interesting mystery though.</p>

<p> </p>

[bill poole]

<p>You might try cross posting to the classic manual camera forum. Some smart folks about old cameras and film over there.</p>

[steve salmons]

<p>It could be that these holes were used to register (or identify) the negative size correctly in an early automated printing system.</p>

[brian_durham]

<p>It's Kodacolor most likely - post WW2 - probably larger than 120 in width. I was scanning some of my grandfather's negatives and ran across some negatives. The size on my grandfather's negative was 616 film.  If it's 70mm wide, then it's 616 film - it produced 2.5 inch by 4.25 inch negatives.<br>

I didn't have much luck scanning my either - my greens were much more pronounced than yours.<br>

Off to the film lab -<br>

Brian</p>

[david_mcniven]

<p>I'm not aware of any current software that will restore these without a Photoshop alchemist and a lot of guesswork - but who knows what may be available next year?</p>