What vintage is this FP4?

srichards

srichards

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Suz
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Found this in the minox today that I bought ages ago. What was the latest metal canisters were available? Film itself is a strange blue hue. No idea whether anyone used it as I did fire the shutter a few times myself. It was also set to the wrong speed as the speed thingy is on the base and it is in a half case. I obviously opened the back and knackered a good number of frames so is it worth sending off to develop?
 
The latest metal cassettes were available? Today. Nearly all film is supplied in metal cassettes. FP4 was discontinued in 1990 so the film is at least 30 years old. It was introduced in 1968 so is less than 52 years old .
 
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It has to be worth developing to see what, if anything of interest , is on the roll.

Saying that paying a lab may be OTT.

I’d semi stand dev it for an hour like I’ve done many old films in the past but sadly I don’t live in the uk to help you out.
 
Ilford do free postage both ways so I'm considering them as they are reopening this week. They do dip and dunk and are likely to know how best to deal with one of their own ancient films. I'm curious but I'd think it's 99% likely to be blank or boring...

I wonder if it's possible to tell the age of a minox from the serial number?
 
srichards said:
Ilford do free postage both ways so I'm considering them as they are reopening this week. They do dip and dunk and are likely to know how best to deal with one of their own ancient films.
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(y)

srichards said:
I'm curious but I'd think it's 99% likely to be blank or boring..
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Only one way to find out…..

srichards said:
I wonder if it's possible to tell the age of a minox from the serial number?
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I would suspect so;)

http://www.submin.com/8x11/collection/minox/minox_serial.htm
 
I used FP4 in the late 70s and very early 80s, and I don't remember the 35mm cassettes looking like that, so I'd hazard a guess that it's earlier than that... probably 50s/60s?

As others have suggested, perhaps send it to Ilford and see if anything can be retrieved from it? With a good deal of luck, perhaps some photos of an early performance by Jimi Hendrix or other such historic icon. On the other hand, if we don't hear from you again, then we might assume that it contained something altogether less savoury. :whistle:

Best of luck and keep us posted. (y)
 
I have put the geriatric roll in the fridge as I think it will take a few weeks for Ilford to start up and get going again. Filmdev aren't doing B & W at the moment so I can't send it to them and I'm not sure they'd want a rickety old film.

The camera itself was made between 1974 and 1994 I think. I will have to check the serial number. I had to read the user manual to find out how to open the back :eggface: It slides off rather than popping open! The voigtlander clone I have pops open. The minox is a much more solid design.

The meter works. I should really check the batteries at some point. The meter does move so I'm assuming the battery works....
 
I agree. Send it to Ilford and see what happens. At best, you'll find something interesting; at worst, you'll have wasted a fairly trivial amount of money...
 
I'm not sure of the date but it doesn't have the earliest version of the labelling. These two cassettes are from my schooldays in about 1969 when I was still using FP3 and FP4. Once FP4 came out, bulk FP3 was so cheap, even for a schoolboy, that I bought at least 100 feet of it.I keep the cassettes, as in those days Ilford cassettes were reusable, the caps easily pop off with thumb pressure.

fpfilms.jpg

I developed some roll film HP3 that was about 50 years old in an old Bessamatic that my cousin gave me by giving it about 20 minutes in ID11 at 1:1 and the negatives came out OK. I don't know if that will be of any help but if you develop the film yourself. you will get to keep the reusable(?) cassette.
 
Oh. If it's re-usable I wonder if someone has put something completely different in it then? The film itself was a strange blueish colour.
 
I've never dealt with them Suz, but MS Hobbies are the long-established experts on Minox cameras in the UK. Might be worth a look, especially with regard to batteries?
 
Peter B said:
I've never dealt with them Suz, but MS Hobbies are the long-established experts on Minox cameras in the UK. Might be worth a look, especially with regard to batteries?
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That's brilliant thanks. That makes mine a 1978-1981 camera as it's a GL. That site is a treasure trove of information and usefulness (y)
 
srichards said:
I have put the geriatric roll in the fridge as I think it will take a few weeks for Ilford to start up and get going again. Filmdev aren't doing B & W at the moment so I can't send it to them and I'm not sure they'd want a rickety old film.

The camera itself was made between 1974 and 1994 I think. I will have to check the serial number. I had to read the user manual to find out how to open the back :eggface: It slides off rather than popping open! The voigtlander clone I have pops open. The minox is a much more solid design.

The meter works. I should really check the batteries at some point. The meter does move so I'm assuming the battery works....
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If you’d like me to stand develop it in Rodinal I’m happy to do it for you Suz.
 
Before you spend money on that, in light of those cartridges apparently being used by bulk film re-loaders, and you saying the film in yours has a distinct blueish tinge to it, perhaps a straw poll as to whether or not it might be FP4 from the late 70s might be best?

If it's E6 slide film then would development as B&W deliver any images? For instance, back in around 1980 I used to buy bulk tins of Barfen E6 slide film and load my own ex-B&W cartridges with it. I can't remember if that film had a blueish tinge to it though. So doing a bit of research on what might be in there might be best before spending money on finding out the hard way that it's not FP4? On the other hand, if you're feeling flush then what the heck! ;)
 
I can tell them it's a strange film. I'm assuming they can pull the leader out to check what it is before committing to anything?
 
srichards said:
I can tell them it's a strange film. I'm assuming they can pull the leader out to check what it is before committing to anything?
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Perhaps a good way of assessing customer service, if nothing else. Best of luck and keep us posted. :)
 
Mr Badger said:
Before you spend money on that, in light of those cartridges apparently being used by bulk film re-loaders, and you saying the film in yours has a distinct blueish tinge to it, perhaps a straw poll as to whether or not it might be FP4 from the late 70s might be best?

If it's E6 slide film then would development as B&W deliver any images? For instance, back in around 1980 I used to buy bulk tins of Barfen E6 slide film and load my own ex-B&W cartridges with it. I can't remember if that film had a blueish tinge to it though. So doing a bit of research on what might be in there might be best before spending money on finding out the hard way that it's not FP4? On the other hand, if you're feeling flush then what the heck! ;)
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This is one advantage of semi stand developement.

Regardless of b&w neg film, reversal film or c41, they will all render latent images and any mix of those film can be souped at the same time in the same soup.

Trying to guess the film content is
I think going to end in tears.

Semi stand has its drawbacks, primarily that the results typically lack contrast but that can be easily rectified in post.

Besides we’re not expecting masterpieces from such old films anyway.
 
Well. Curiosity has got the better of me and I've wanged it into the post to Ilford already! Now we wait....
 
waits with bated breathe.........................:)
 
Managed to scan in a few before my beloved minolta Scanner died :( It made the stuck carrier noise and now it's just confused and vuescan can't see it. :sulk:


I wonder where these were taken? The person with the camera seemed be having building work done as they have a photo with scaffolding in taken from the inside of the house. So I'm assuming the photo below the ladders is their place.

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1st picture

Black Mountains Wales..?
.
View_to_the_west_from_Blaen-yr-henbant_-_geograph.org.uk_-_293127

but taken from the East
.
View_to_the_west_from_Blaen-yr-henbant_-_geograph.org.uk_-_293127.jpg
 
Not a scooby unfortunately.

Will have to use the flatbed and scan the rest tomorrow in the hope they took a photo with a road name or town name in it....
 
Well this is fantastic. Can't scan a bloody thing with the canon in transparency mode. Preview is blank. It scans the holder in normal mode. FFFFFFFFFFFFSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!

Ha. Being very thick. Forgotten to take off the doodad in the lid.... vuescan doesn't give errors. Had to use the canon scan in transparency mode and then it popped up with the message about it :facepalm: You can tell how often I scan in film with this one.... ahem.
 
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A few more. There's a street name in one of them but of course it's completely unreadable!

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Some more. There's a lot of repeats. I have no idea whether they're the right way round either due to the film being a serious curly b*****d and me not being that careful about which way it ended up in the holder....

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It's somewhere where there are hills and maybe if you set the scanner to max scan it might be possible to read the street name.
 
I don't think any scanner would be able to get the street name off at that size and distance in the photo. It's also at an angle.
 
Looking at the cars I'd say that is reasonably recent, certainly this millennium :) and maybe even within the last 10 years.
 
I had the CSI guys look at it, they zoomed in and enhanced with their magic, it said high street :)
 
Yardbent said:
an early series Range Rover...?
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It looks like a Mk1 Land Rover Discovery, but the negative has been scanned the wrong way round as the spare wheel should be on the right hand side, with the number plate light/rear door handle on the left.

Range Rovers never had a factory-fitted rear wheel, it was stored internally, vertically mounted on the left hand side of the boot, with a carpet cover over the top of it as soon as they realised where their market was and got rid of the original rubber mats and poshed it up with things like carpet, 4 doors, head rests and a rev counter!
 
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srichards said:
Wouldn't surprise me if others were transposed.
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Don't worry, it happens, I know it's supposed to be shiny side down on my scanner, but with modern films I often find it hard to see a difference between the sides, and I can never be bothered to remember which way round the film edge writing and numbering should be... and I've got to put reading glasses on to see that these days! *wanders off grumbling* ;)
 
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