Oldest looking film stock

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liverpool_f_

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Hi all,

It is great for many people that the currently available film stocks (even ones with names that have been around for decades) are generally updated regularly to become modern emulsions. That got me thinking that when you see a photo that was taken a long time ago, it has a quality that is not generally recreatable in modern times. You can use a period camera and take a photo of a period object or situation, but the currently available films are technically very different than what was available back in the day. You can use expired film of course, but that will have a very different aesthetic from what it would have looked like if you shot it when it was fresh.

So my question is what current production films will have the most dated looking results. Either because they have remained unchanged for years or because they use older technologies. I am interested in suggestions for black and white as well as colour, although I suspect all colour film remaining on the market is of modern emulsion.

I look forward to your responses.
 
I have bought some Ilford Ortho to try in my 1928 Zeiss Trona. Hopefully it should have the look of the orthochromatic films of old although I haven't got around to trying it yet.
 
I've just bought myself a selection of the less usual films from Analogue Wonderland to try out over the coming months.
 
The other thing to consider is the paper used for prints. Old chloride paper gave cold effect while ones with a lot of bromide were warmer. Then there was POP (printing out paper) that was used for contact prints that self darkened and did not need development only fixing, that had a very distinctive look and when used with large format negatives that may have been ortho you get a whole other effect.
 
The oldest one that springs to mind is Double-XX (Eastman 5222) which as far as I can tell is unchanged since 1959. HP5+ is probably the easiest to get hold of picking up the "+" moniker in 1989 vs FP4 which got it's + in 1990. Tri-X is one of the longest serving films too, but got it's update to 400TX in 2007.

Finding an emulsion still in production that hasn't been tinkered with since the 50s is probably unlikely, so you'd be left trying to "recreate" that look in post processing or with a film trying to emulate that older look (not aware of any that specifically have that as a marketing point).

I really like Double-X and it does have a very definite "look" to it that I can't get with HP5 or Tri-X.
 
By 'dated' do you mean blind to red light? If so, the following comparison showing some of the differences between 2 modern orthochromatic films (Ilford Ortho 80 and Rollei Ortho 25) and 1 modern panchromatic film (Kodak Tmax 100) could be of interest

thedarkroom.com

Orthochromatic vs Panchromatic film - A Photo Comparison

This history of B&W film as it evolves from Orthochromatic to Panchromatic
thedarkroom.com thedarkroom.com
 
Interesting question.
Maybe email the guys at the Film Photography Project.

I believe they sell film that's made up from old stock which can be bought on Analogue Wonderland.

Films like Dracula and Wolfman. They also sell Kodak vision 3 but I don't know if that's an old emulsion or not.

analoguewonderland.co.uk

Search: 6 results found for "wolfman"

Welcome to Analogue Wonderland, your online destination for all things film photography. We offer a wide selection of analogue cameras, film, lab services, and accessories to help you capture beautiful, timeless images. Shop with us to find the perfect camera film for your analogue photography...
analoguewonderland.co.uk analoguewonderland.co.uk

Home - The Film Photography Project

filmphotographyproject.com filmphotographyproject.com
 
Just a side note, if you found a film would you not need to develop in similar vintage developer like HC110 or Rodinal?
 
A very good point about the printing paper. When I started out (50+ years ago) an old friend of my fathers gave me a lot of old paper from his early darkroom days. I remember there being Kodak 'Velox' which was for contact printing and 'Bromide' paper for enlarging. Back then the developing options were 'Soluprint' (Johnsons - Unitol or Universol for film, Soluprint for paper) or Ilford ID20.
I don't remember ID20 being widely available so I used to make my own from the raw chemicals - I still do. I also make up ID11 for developing PanF, FP4 and any film I can find to work in my 127 cameras (Purma Plus).
 
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