Since I got a freezer full of random Orwo films, I need to start shooting them more. So on my recent trip to Budapest I brought with me two rolls for my trusty LC-A (the perfect travel camera).
One was a roll of NP27 that expired a couple of decades ago, that I shot at ISO100. The other is a bulk loaded NP22, that I do not know when it expired. Compared to other NP22 rolls I have shot, this bulk roll has not aged very well. It doesn’t have a huge amount of base fog, but it just seems to lack speed. I shot it at ISO50 (not having looked at my notes I did the same mistake twice) and again I got very thin negs.
Both rolls were souped in HC110 dil. B (1+31) with an extra addition of 2ml 1% Benzotriazole (BZT) for 8,5min. The BZT will reduce the base fog but also reduce the film speed. A slightly lower base fog makes for easier scanning, dense negs will make the scanner show a lot of banding and that really bad, so I’d rather lose a little bit of shadow detail. I have also noticed that a key factor when working with expired films and trying to get minimal base fog is to develop for a shorter amount of time if possible. Hence, dil. B is better than dil. E. The difference is not huge, but still, it is visible.
I think I should have given them both a stop more light, and maybe develop for a little bit longer.. but I think also the batteries are running out on my LC-A, and when they do that, the camera starts underexposing shots now and again for no apparent reason. So there’s that too..
As always, here are some example shots. First, some NP22:
And here is some NP27.
Alright, that’s it for this time. If you want to read more about my experiments with Orwo films here are my previous posts: