An unexpected item

StephenM

StephenM

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I've had a parcel today with the final 2 5x7 film holders in, from Japan this time. Boxed Lisco holders, which would pass as new except for a very neat identification number written on the holder. There was however another item in the parcel, which I was not expecting. No, not a Yorkshire tea bag a la West Yorkshire Cameras, nor a bottle of Suntory whiskey which I suppose would be the Japanese equivalent of a Yorkshire tea bag. It was a film box.

The seals appear to be unbroken, so I suppose the box labelling correctly identifies the contents. In large print, it says on the front "Kodak professional film". In smaller print, and not on the front, it's identified as Ektar, in 7x5 size. And on the box side is the expiry date. I can't recall the month offhand, but the year is 1979.

Any idea what I should do with it? I'm personally unlikely to use it, as I don't use colour much, and the out of dateness suggests it may not be at its best. Processing it would probably have to be done by me, as most labs I've looked at in the past seem to only handle 5x4 and 10x8 if they touch LF at all. Given the date, I wonder what process is used. Does C41 go back that far? I can recall slide film using E3 and E4, and we're now onto E6. I don't know if print film (Ektar is print film, isn't it?) has similarly gone through the numbers.

Suggestions on what to do gratefully received. I could even be persuaded to pass it on ;)
 
Is it a current process though?

Wikipedia states that Kodak introduced Ektar in 2008. That this was a different film to the Ektar Kodak introduced in 1989. With an expiry date of 1979, this film can't be either. Back when it expired, slide film was E4. Has C41 continued unchanged for over 40 years?

I'm unwilling to spend £30 on a kit, given that the capacity is given as 14 films of unspecified size. If I assume 35mm, that's a film area of about a 10x8 sheet, or say 2 5x7s. 1 kit should process the 25 sheets, provided that the used chemicals last longer than it takes me to use 25 sheets in a medium I'm not really happy in. If the film doesn't give acceptable results, it's £30 down the drain with the chemicals.
 
Your research squares with mine. On relooking, it is indeed Ektapan (not heard of that before) expiring in November 1979. So certainly worth trying. I'll look up my Kodak data book...
 
Interesting. The notch code matches that in my Kodak Black and White Darkroom Dataguide. But, the box I have in front of me lists a catalogue number different from the data sheet. The box has CAT 168 9173 on it.

The Kodak dataguide gives the resolving power as 125 lpm, the same as the other conventional 125 ASA films, less than TMax 100 which is listed as 200 lpm and more than TriX at 100.

Does a different catalogue number imply a difference in formulation I wonder.
 
A comment from a Photrio thread from 2008 https://www.photrio.com/forum/threads/royal-pan-ektapan-super-xx-etc-tell-me-about.26410/
Ektapan was meant to match the speed and contrast of color negative film- to be used alongside VPS II in the studio portrait business. The large studio that I shot for c.1980 used it in 70mm long rolls. I forgot about it after that- until about 7-8 years back I decided to try it outdoors in 4x5. My 'zone system' tests suggested that it was slow and contrasty. Which surprised me, but the negatives didn't lie. I made a couple of good photographs with it; it worked well with low-contrast subject matter, but I never bought any more when it was gone. I went back to TXP.
Click to expand...
 
StephenM said:
Does a different catalogue number imply a difference in formulation I wonder.
Click to expand...

Possibly, or possibly not. Kodak Cat Nos tended to imply (especially back then) country of origin. 1 series was US, 3 series UK and 5 series Chalon, France. It fell apart later, but it should hold for the 70s and 80s.

What Cat No have you got?
 
Boots said:
Possibly, or possibly not. Kodak Cat Nos tended to imply (especially back then) country of origin. 1 series was US, 3 series UK and 5 series Chalon, France. It fell apart later, but it should hold for the 70s and 80s.

What Cat No have you got?
Click to expand...

168 9173

Wherever it originated, this came from Japan to me.
 
Pure guesswork, but I think it more likely that a change of film base prompted the cat no change. I saw in the data sheet that the film had an Estar base at the time of the discontinuation described in that sheet. Estar, although available for the mid-50s (Wikipedia tells me) was only in general use for film from the 1990s. Your 70s film would have probably have an Acetate base. My money would be that the emulsion would not have changed.
 
StephenM said:
... Given the date, I wonder what process is used. Does C41 go back that far? ...
Click to expand...

I know it's now likely that it's black and white film, but I was intrigued by that question. I think I've got a couple of C22 colour films from my early days (shot and processed at the time), so I did a search and found this from AG:

"C22 Process is an obsolete process for colour negative film (print film) and was the predecessor to the current process C41 in use today. C22 was superseded by C41 in 1972 so any films around today, unprocessed, are very old indeed."

So if it had been colour it would likely have been C41!
 
Many thanks for that. It's obviously been a very stable process - or does it just imply that reversal films have changed more than negative ones?
 
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