Photography/cinematography with vintage expired film

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Photography/cinematography with vintage expired film

Postby aussie_bloke » Thu Jan 23, 2014 10:59 am

G'day all.

It's been a long while since I posted in these forums, I am still interested in NBTV but have for the past 4 months sidestepped into another field of interest which is film photography and cinematography, and my specialty is using really old expired film and home developing them as a B&W negative in Caffenol C (coffee/vitamin C/washing soda) http://www.caffenol.org/recipes/ !

I started getting into Super 8 as I had some cameras handy, a roll of 1979 expired AGFACHROME Super 8 film and I only just learned that you can still buy Super 8 brand new. So I first shot my 1979 AGFA in my Canon Autozoom 518 Super 8 camera and home developed it in Caffenol C and I got dark but recognizable pictures, sent it for transfer and this was the result http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q45RMF-3pRY . I also have shot a few other expired Super 8s from the 70s and 80s along with new ones which I got professionally colour developed, they can all be seen on my YouTube channel, here are the links to my enhanced versions of my films with sound (recorded separately):
AGFACHROME (exp 1979) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgPkkGwniIk
Kodak Ektachrome 160 G (exp 1982) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAwb6KG65Ko
Svema (exp 1988) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GivSAUMk2so
Kodak Vision3 50D (new) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVcSPTBCifU
Kodak Kodachrome II (exp 1968) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5io6gXqxls (only got a few good frames on that one)

I then got into the photography side of things home developing my photo films and of course been buying ultra expired films decades old as I have some vintage cameras kickin around. The oldest used a 1951 expired Kodak Verichrome 120 type. I have uploaded them to my flickr page:
Kodak Verichrome 120 type (exp 1951) http://www.flickr.com/photos/51853869@N ... 713198853/
Kodak Super XX 120 type (exp 1953) http://www.flickr.com/photos/51853869@N ... 644925263/
Kodak Verichrome Pan 116 type (exp 1969) http://www.flickr.com/photos/51853869@N ... 917304115/
Getting images off really ancient film is an absolute buzz for me!!! :D

Also been experimenting with tri-chrome and bi-chrome photography taking B&W photos filtered with primary colours and tinting them and adding them on top of each other using my photo programs, been getting good results:
Tri-chrome http://www.flickr.com/photos/51853869@N ... 577220456/
Bi-chrome http://www.flickr.com/photos/51853869@N ... 584901484/

Lastly I have also home developed film in (would you believe) beer, yes film can be developed in beer, of course with vitamin C and washing soda combined. The beer of choice I used was good old Aussie VB Victoria Bitter, "the best cold beer is Vic, Victoria Bitter", the first roll I got ultra dark pictures due to the beer being way too warm, but the second roll I got much better results reducing the temperature and develop time and here they are on my flickr page http://www.flickr.com/photos/51853869@N ... 606291373/ .

Anyways thought I'd share with you all what I've been up to lately as I am sure film would be also of interest in these forums.
aussie_bloke
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Postby Steve Anderson » Thu Jan 23, 2014 3:23 pm

Gee, that takes me back some years....

Some 30+ years ago I used to do my own monochrome processing though using current film, mostly Tri-X (400ASA) and conventional chemicals. Ilford ID-11 developer, stop-bath and Ilford Hypam fixer. I cant recall what I used to process the paper prints.

But, as imaginative as what you are doing is, what a criminal use of beer!

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Postby Lowtone » Sat Jan 25, 2014 7:01 pm

Im familiar with super8, i used it the last time in 2012.

in 2002 i filmed on an expired roll from 1984, it was grainy but good
in 2007 i used a roll from 1986, and the colours were all off and the picture too bright ( both Kodachrome 40 )

Your dust and scratches seems so unnatural that i Wonder if they were digitally added; what causes such defects ?
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Postby aussie_bloke » Sat Jan 25, 2014 10:26 pm

Lowtone wrote:Im familiar with super8, i used it the last time in 2012.

in 2002 i filmed on an expired roll from 1984, it was grainy but good
in 2007 i used a roll from 1986, and the colours were all off and the picture too bright ( both Kodachrome 40 )

Your dust and scratches seems so unnatural that i Wonder if they were digitally added; what causes such defects ?


They were not digitally added, if you are referring the unnaturalness of them being white instead of black, that is because all the films I shot were developed as negatives and inverted on digital transfer, hence white dust and scratches. If these were developed as reversal films then the dust and scratches would come out black like on your typical old projected film.
aussie_bloke
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Postby Lowtone » Wed Jan 29, 2014 6:46 pm

ah ! that explains all.

i have still old rolls of Ektachrome and Agfa something, but the price of processing is too high nowaday for those films that i don't know if it is Worth it
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