Help Needed with Shooting Old Super 8 Film

[jellybean]

So i have a cartridge of old Kodachrome 40 that expired in 1982. I'm just exposing it for the heck of it in my Braun Nizo S 560 and I'm gonna develop it as a negative. I've heard that for every decade the film is expired, you over expose one stop. So far i've been over exposing by three stops. For example, i let the meter take its automatic reading, then i set the aperture three stops down from where the meter says it should be. I'm also shooting at 18 fps to allow for some more light and i have the camera set to the tungsten film mode to take off the daylight filter. Am i doing this right? Help would be greatly appreciated! Thank you

[BAC]

For every decade after the expiration date cut the film speed in half or like you said overexpose one stop. So if it expired in 1982 you would meter it at around ASA 5 or less. You will not get a good image and the negative will be very dense. You should develop it as black and white, there is no way to develop it as color. The first thing you want to do before developing is remove the remjet:

- Dissolve 100g sodium carbonate (calc.) in 1l water (35°C) (You can use it several times)
- Put the film in the tank
- Fill the liquid into the tank.
- Turn the tank once or twice.
- Empty the tank immediately .
- Fill water (35°C) in the tank. Shake the tank for 30 sec. permanently.
- Repeat once or twice.

Then develop in HC110B 6min, with pretty strong agitation every minute then do a normal Black and White fix.

This is what it may look like: http://www.indofunkstudios.com/images/b ... scene1.gif

[jellybean]

Thank you BAC! Also I was wondering would I beable to shoot the old Tri-X 7278 stock with a Nizo S 560? I read the manual and I hear that it only reads up to 160 Asa for tungsten and 100 Asa for daylight. Is there a way that I can properly expose this film?

[slashmaster]

For every decade after the expiration date cut the film speed in half or like you said overexpose one stop. So if it expired in 1982 you would meter it at around ASA 5 or less. You will not get a good image and the negative will be very dense. You should develop it as black and white, there is no way to develop it as color. The first thing you want to do before developing is remove the remjet:

- Dissolve 100g sodium carbonate (calc.) in 1l water (35°C) (You can use it several times)
- Put the film in the tank
- Fill the liquid into the tank.
- Turn the tank once or twice.
- Empty the tank immediately .
- Fill water (35°C) in the tank. Shake the tank for 30 sec. permanently.
- Repeat once or twice.

Then develop in HC110B 6min, with pretty strong agitation every minute then do a normal Black and White fix.

This is what it may look like: http://www.indofunkstudios.com/images/b ... scene1.gif

I might also want to try what Jellybean wants to do. Tell me something, if this is your film, when you had it on the rack drying while it was still 16mm, did it cup like a metal tape measure as it dried? I'm having major problems with my film cupping as it dries. Don't know what to do. Turn up the room temperature? Turn it down? Maybe while doing my final rinse I should use colder water?

[BAC]

For every decade after the expiration date cut the film speed in half or like you said overexpose one stop. So if it expired in 1982 you would meter it at around ASA 5 or less. You will not get a good image and the negative will be very dense. You should develop it as black and white, there is no way to develop it as color. The first thing you want to do before developing is remove the remjet:

- Dissolve 100g sodium carbonate (calc.) in 1l water (35°C) (You can use it several times)
- Put the film in the tank
- Fill the liquid into the tank.
- Turn the tank once or twice.
- Empty the tank immediately .
- Fill water (35°C) in the tank. Shake the tank for 30 sec. permanently.
- Repeat once or twice.

Then develop in HC110B 6min, with pretty strong agitation every minute then do a normal Black and White fix.

This is what it may look like: http://www.indofunkstudios.com/images/b ... scene1.gif

I might also want to try what Jellybean wants to do. Tell me something, if this is your film, when you had it on the rack drying while it was still 16mm, did it cup like a metal tape measure as it dried? I'm having major problems with my film cupping as it dries. Don't know what to do. Turn up the room temperature? Turn it down? Maybe while doing my final rinse I should use colder water?

That wasn't my film, it belongs to someone I've been giving pointers to on the Filmwasters forum. That's a forum for shooting stills, not movie film. He was given a Kodak Brownie and decided to give it a shot. That was just a very short test strip that he did. He did the HC110B development based on what others on the forum have done with 35mm Kodachrome. I ran a short piece of Kodachrome Double 8mm film through a miniature Hit camera and semi-stand developed it in Rodinal for an hour. The negative was very dark but I was able to get an image out of it. I hung the short strip of film from one end to dry for 24 hours and didn't get any cupping. Maybe a slow even drying is better but I've never done a whole roll of 8mm film so I don't know. I send all my movie film to a lab for processing.

Hit the Bell by Bryan Chernick, on Flickr

[jellybean]

For every decade after the expiration date cut the film speed in half or like you said overexpose one stop. So if it expired in 1982 you would meter it at around ASA 5 or less. You will not get a good image and the negative will be very dense. You should develop it as black and white, there is no way to develop it as color. The first thing you want to do before developing is remove the remjet:

- Dissolve 100g sodium carbonate (calc.) in 1l water (35°C) (You can use it several times)
- Put the film in the tank
- Fill the liquid into the tank.
- Turn the tank once or twice.
- Empty the tank immediately .
- Fill water (35°C) in the tank. Shake the tank for 30 sec. permanently.
- Repeat once or twice.

Then develop in HC110B 6min, with pretty strong agitation every minute then do a normal Black and White fix.

This is what it may look like: http://www.indofunkstudios.com/images/b ... scene1.gif

Thank you BAC! Also I was wondering would I beable to shoot the old Tri-X 7278 stock with a Nizo S 560? I read the manual and I hear that it only reads up to 160 Asa for tungsten and 100 Asa for daylight. Is there a way that I can properly expose this film?

[mr8mm]

If the film has been stored in the freezer for most of its existence, how does frozen storage change development times and methods? Shouldn't it be closer to fresh film than film stored at room temp?

[BAC]

Jellybean, I'm not familiar with that camera but is should have a manual exposure option. You will need to meter the light either with the internal meter or a handheld meter then then set the exposure manually in the camera.

John, when I get expired film that I don't know how it was stored I use the 10 year rule and it almost always works. In my experience the degradation seems to slow down a bit when it gets down to around 5 ISO. I do have some expired Regular 8mm E100D that I purchased from you several years ago that I have stored in the freezer and it still works good as new.

[milesandjules]

My testing showed only 1 stop needed to compensate for 1981 expired kodachrome.... and 5 stops for 1981 ektachrome 160.

Also i 3d printed up some 1 stop and 4 stop asa cartridge plugs for this very purpose i have them on thingivers if you have a printer....this fools the camera into thinking its shooting lower speed film.

http://www.sitesupport.123dapp.com/123D ... gs/3093113

cheers
miles