Old Film that my Dad brought me

[larrydressler]

<p>As I said the Kodachrome-X is for display the rest is going to be shot it is new K64.</p>

[cj8281]

<p>I opened one of the Sukura film boxes and opened the waxed paper and retrieved these instructions. They are tiny. This is both sides, I believe that I got the front page on the left and the back on the right.</p>

<p>Adrienne what about panchro F? Did you find any reference to that?</p>

<p>Frank S, yes all of these are new in that they have not been used or some of them, opened. The one that I fear the most is the Agfa after reading about the old cellulose nitrate. It is the only one that is truly sealed up. At least that I can see, some of the Kodak ones might be sealed up too. Does anyone know if the Verichrome is cellulose nitrate or the later safety film? What are the chances that any of them are the nitrate film? I have read that nitrate film was done by 1950 or 51 but that some of them were replaced by as early as 1940 or so. I just read on Kodak's website that in 1948 Kodak introduced tri-acetate safety base film in 35 mm. So that would lead me to believe that it is nitrate film.</p>

<p>Anyway here is the instruction sheet.</p>

<p> </p><div></div>

[larrydressler]

<p>Kodak said safety film if it was not nitrate based.</p>

[cj8281]

<p>Yeah but how do you tell without developing the film, much less opening the box? Here is the link to that Kodak page.<br>

<a href="http://www.kodak.com/global/en/corp/historyOfKodak/1930.jhtml?pq-path=2217/2687/2695/2700"> http://www.kodak.com/global/en/corp/historyOfKodak/1930.jhtml?pq-path=2217/2687/2695/2700</a> It does say 35 mm but there is no other mention of safety film that I saw. I think they might have tried out the safety film on the public before going in on the Movie film. Although they had good motivation to replace the movie film as the cellulose nitrate was "somewhat flammable".</p>

[gardena]

<p>Clay, I found 2 sites which show your Sakura Panchro F film.<br>

http://neco.mediacat-blog.jp/c2299_3.html<br>

If you do a Google translation remember that sakura means cherry blossoms and Google has a poor stock of proper nouns and is very literal!<br>

It seems you are concerned about which if any of the films are nitrate film. I don't know how to tell, but if it will help, according to the instructions you scanned, to develop the Sakura film, you need metol, Sakura anhydrous sulphuric soda, dihydrobenzene, Sakura anhydrous carbonated soda, and bromine potash. I know no chemistry and nothing about developing film, so if this list reads oddly please excuse it!<br>

I found one another site which I will put in the next reply as I seem unable to keep photonet open and copy and paste from another website at the same time.<br>

Cheers<br>

Adrienne</p>

[gardena]

<p>Clay, here is the other site:<br /> http://www2f.biglobe.ne.jp/~ter-1212/sakura/sakurafilm1.htm<br /> It is a Sakura film catalogue. If you click on the links at the very bottom (even if you can't read them), in one of them you'll find pictures of Sakura developers and other interesting but very quaint stuff. The lighter was some kind of special gift.<br>

BTW, I was wrong when I said the 'kuro' of 'pankuro' (which is how panchro is written in Japanese) meant black. It is a Japanese abbreviation for the 'chro' of 'chromatic'. Hope this makes sense.<br>

The instructions you sent say the film is general purpose with a fine grain.<br>

I wonder how your grandfather got hold of the Japanese film. Was he connected with the occupation forces or anyone in them by any chance?<br>

AG</p>

 

[cj8281]

<p>Adrienne Garden, where is the use by date on the Sakura box? I would imagine that it would be the ink stamp and that is numbers. Thanks for the links, I tried to post to the one guys blog but I don't think I was successful. I don't know how he got the film. One of his cameras is an old Reflecta that is in German and he had a Minolta Vest that looks to have been made before the war, I think it is a 1936 model. I have put film through both cameras. The Reflecta is down for repairs at the moment though. The one piece that holds the two spools was off from the factory and it causes the backing paper to shred on one side. I will be making a minor adjustment to it and remounting it in a better location. I shall try and find out from my Grandma some more of what my Grandpa did after the war was over.</p>

 

[gardena]

<p>Clay, the expiry date is on the back of the box, (the side divided into 4 squares with small print on it), shown second down from the top right in your scan. It is in the top right square (the pale green one). In that square you can see two rows of little Chinese characters printed on the box in black.The top ones says 'Expiry date' (有効期限） which is given as 2605 6. The 26 is Showa 26, that is the 26th year of the reign of the Emporer Showa (now deceased - it is Heisei 22 this year). That equates with 1951 in 'our' calendar. The 05 is May presumably. Don't know what the 6 is - unless it is the day. Under that is the 'manufacturer's serial number (製造番号) which I can't actually make out, but I guess it doesn't matter too much.<br>

As a matter of fact, I'm pretty sure Sakura film was still available when I first came to Japan in 1973.<br>

I put the Japanese in just to see if it would work. Can you see it or do you just get a bunch of question marks? I've always wondered about this on photonet. I do sometimes see different scripts, at other times question marks.<br>

Moderator trust me. They are not profanities!<br>

If you are interested in sites or blogs showing camera collections I am sure I can find you some. The Japanese are great collectors of cameras among a lot of other things.<br>

Cheers, Adrienne</p>

<p>Cheers, Adrienne</p>

[mfophotos]

<p>Since Kodak's movie film was the first "safety" film, that would be 35mm, and the larger roll-film formats were changed to acetate base later. The Getty Conservation Institute was at one time asking for examples of old films and papers for their work. I don't know if they still are looking for anything, but they might be. <br>

If it were me, I would just keep that set of old films as a collection, maybe with an appropriate camera, in a nice display box. <br>

Those films are so old, that it's likely that they won't spool properly anyways, and just curl up inside the camera as they are wound onto the takeup spool, and of course, are probably so badly fogged as to be rendered useless. I have shot some 50 yr old Verichrome Pan, and it wasn't awful, but it wasn't great, either. </p>

[lee_smiley]

<p>How do I get in contact with Gene M. I have an old film we found in my Grandmothers house cleaning out after she past. I want to see what is on it. It is Verichorme Pan 679 Filim.<br>

Any suggetions?</p>

[larrydressler]

<p>See if his profile is in the members area and send him a note.</p>

[cj8281]

<p>Gene M website as listed above is <a rel="nofollow" href="http://westfordcomp.com/updated/found.htm" target="_blank">http://westfordcomp.com/updated/found.htm</a>. You might find a contact me on this site. It has been awhile since I have gone digging through it. Good luck with your project. The last roll of film that I processed that was really old was shot during the early 60's.<br>

Again, Good luck.</p>

[shalom_septimus]

<p>Necro'ing this thread... I just bought a buncha old spools on that auction site. Mostly for the 620 and 616 spools in it, the rest being 120 and not much of interest. (There were a few ancient Kodak metal spools that have the keyslot on only one side, mildly interesting.)</p>

<p>The reason I'm adding to the thread, though, is because one of them has "SAKURA" in raised lettering twice on each end, and is wrapped in some kind of plastic (that's gone sticky with age), then overwrapped by a paper label that says something in Japanese on it. Under the Japanese is "ATTENTION: Before loading film, remove this vinyl tube." I don't read Kanji, but the kana at the beginning clearly says "フィルム" (firumu), which I guess is as close as they can get to "film", and later "ビニール パイプ" (biniiru pa'ipu), presumably "vinyl paper"...</p>

<p>I wonder what that's all about. Was there film wound over this from the factory, and then when you finished it and switched the spool to the takeup side, you had to take this stuff off? And if so, why was it there in the first place?</p>

<p>(I think I'll leave it on, it's more of a curiosity than otherwise and I have too many empty 120 spools already...)</p>