Thanks, Richard. If we try the Dektol 1:4, would it be a shorter or longer development time than the D76 or Xtol development? We probably don't have a red safelight available for development by inspection. What temperature do you consider low? Janet Ness > From: dickburk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx > To: pure-silver@xxxxxxxxxxxxx > Subject: [pure-silver] Re: Plenachrome film development > Date: Thu, 3 Feb 2011 01:37:09 -0800 > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "janet ness" <nessj@xxxxxxx> > To: "pure-silver" <pure-silver@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> > Sent: Wednesday, February 02, 2011 8:20 PM > Subject: [pure-silver] Plenachrome film development > > > > I have a student in my darkroom class who will be bringing > in to develop a roll of Plenachrome 120 film that was in an > old box camera he just purchased. Since this film is 50 > years old or more, I expect it is fogged. Would it help to > add some Benzotriazole solution? I have some on hand and the > container says that it is used for paper, but could it help > the film? We have no idea how long to develop the film in > Xtol, but I expect we can't overdevelop it. We don't > expect this film will yield much, but what the heck, we have > to try. > > Janet Ness > > Plenachrome was Ansco's answer to Kodak Verichrome, a > medium speed (about ISO 64 daylight) orthochromatic film > meant for box cameras and similar use. An old chart for > AGFA-Ansco 17, very similar to D-76, gives a time of about 8 > minutes @ 68F for a gamma of 0.8 > If the film has been exposed the best you can do is to > give it normal development. Any anti-fog will tend to > destroy whatever latent image remains. I would also > recommend developing in a very active developer like Dektol > 1:4 at quite low temperature. Images from some very old film > has been recovered by using process developer at cold temps. > If the film is unexposed normal development without an > anti-fog but with perhaps a stop or more of extra exposure > will be most likely to be successful. While anti-fog can > result in clear borders it changes the curve of the film > and, since it looses speed anyway, has no advantage other > than making the negatives a bit faster to print. > Plenachrome was well-liked in its day and was a good > film. > Beware that if the film is very old it may have > suffered from vinegar syndrome. Ansco's support was not as > stable as Kodak's so some older still film has suffered > pretty badly. > Save the box, its good memorabilia. > > -- > Richard Knoppow > Los Angeles, CA, USA > dickburk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx > > > > ============================================================================================================= > To unsubscribe from this list, go to www.freelists.org and logon to your > account (the same e-mail address and password you set-up when you > subscribed,) and unsubscribe from there.