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Explore the world of vintage lenses through repair notes, real test shots, and detailed archive threads packed with images.

Explore the world of vintage lenses through repair notes, real test shots, and detailed archive threads packed with images.
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What is the oldest film / formula sold today?
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I'm looking an ancient pair for my Kodak Retina I. Ilford HP and FP are from the 1930's but they been revised so many times there is probabaly nothing ancient. Kodak Tri-X is from 1950's but revised too in 2007 to TX.

Fomapan 100 and 400 are probably pretty old formulas but which one is older, 200 is totally different. 400 has a very bad reputation, so it has to be old. Smile

Svema / Astrum can be old formulas too but hard to buy.

Rollei is former Agfa?

Any others that come into mind?



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Well, you know the oldest photographers mixed their own chemicals. There are several free old books online with formulas...


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visualopsins wrote:
Well, you know the oldest photographers mixed their own chemicals. There are several free old books online with formulas...


but you can't fix glass plates in the Retina Very Happy


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Not that old!lol

https://www.digitaltruth.com/data.php?doc=filmdevs


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That's the thing about film -- it has been continually revised practically since its introduction.

Are you wanting to find some old stuff to run through your old Kodak? If that's the case, my recommendation would be to keep a sharp eye out for very old, very expired film on eBay. Go to the Vintage gear heading, and find the Vintage Film subhead, search there.

I took a look. Didn't have to search too far before I found some old Tri-X. Expired in 1972 and 1974:

Click here to see on Ebay


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Tri-X film develop in HC-110 is classic. From 1940s to now.


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visualopsins wrote:
Tri-X film develop in HC-110 is classic. From 1940s to now.


I thought that too, then all of them were Kodak products too. Wink


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I have been using HC-110 for many years, Now I buy Legacy Pro L-110, a clone of Kodak's developer without the viscosity. Much easier to measure and mix, looks like the same results.

Phil


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No good for that camera but Cyanotype paper is still sold commercially. The original version was discovered in 1842 and people do still use that formulation, though I think most modern cyanotypes are with improved blends/processes.

Of course People also still use Daguerreotypes (3 years earlier) but AFAIK those are always freshly prepared by the photographer.


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It is still possible to find rolls of Plus-X on ebay, look for something 1998 exp. or later, it should still be fresh enough for good results.

Ilford Pan 100, and 400, are also supposed to be old emulsions, or at least older than their western-market counterparts (how old, I do now know, there is some discussion about what precisely these films are in relation to Ilford's home market films).


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Back in the early 90s, I bought a couple of dozen rolls of Plus-X that were expired in 1983. The guy I bought them from told me he'd kept them in his freezer. So I did the same. It wasn't until 2009 that I started shooting with that film. By about 2012 I'd shot the last roll of it. I got a lot of excellent photos from thata old Plus-X. Negatives were thin when I used the recommended development times with D76, so I increased development by about 1 minute, and that helped a lot. So anyway, what I'm getting at is Plus X can be way, way, way beyond its expiry and still render usable images.


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YO !!! I have a 120 roll of Kodak Plus-X dated in the 1980's so will give it a try ---