Every once in a while, I see a film that I’d never heard of, and think “I have to try that!” Ilford has long been my favorite film supplier, and to see an old stock that I never knew existed, definitely piqued my interest. For a while the Film Photography Project was selling this film that they called Mark V in 24-exposure rolls. I think that Lance Rothstein is also selling it at his unusual expired film site. I didn’t know that Ilford manufactured film for the cine industry, but the Ilford Mark V film dates from 1978. That indeed, is very expired. After doing some research, I figured it was worth a shot with this film that expired the year I was married. As you know, we have a rule of thumb regarding exposing expired film — which is that it typically loses 1 stop of sensitivity per decade. Black and white films do a bit better with age, and the lower the ISO, the better the film survives. Some films like the old Verichrome Pan, which was rated at ISO 125, seem to survive just about anything, with decent results on 50+ year old film. The Mark V film was originally rated at ISO 400, and I looked at examples online, which are most often rated at ISO 50, so I went with that.
I loaded the film in my Nikon F3HP, which is one of my favorite Nikon SLRs. I didn’t shoot anything that was one-time thing, just in case the results sucked. I finished the roll over the span of a couple of weeks, the last one being post-Helene, which devastated so many areas around me. I developed the film in HC-110B for 6.5 minutes. I must have been distracted, because after I rinsed with water, and poured in the fixer, it was actually from the jug of D-96, not fixer. Oblivious to my error, I agitated the developing tank as usual, and then as I went to pour out the “fixer” into the jug, I saw my stupid error. I rinsed the film again, and this time, poured in the fixer. I didn’t know what I was going to get, but I figured that I really screwed up the roll.
After fixing and rinsing, I took the film off the roll and hung it to dry. I could see that the film base was quite dark, but I could also see the frames - dark, but not opaque. Once the film dried, I then scanned it in on my Epson V700, and I was pleased to see that the images actually looked pretty good!
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| Mark V film - it "cups" a bit and dies not lie flat in the scanner holder. |
Here are a few examples from the roll.
My thought on this is that it takes a lot to screw up a roll of film, especially b&w. I basically double-developed the film, and yet I got usable images. Unfortunately, I only purchased 1 roll of the Mark V, and now it is sold out. Despite my best efforts to screw it up, the results were acceptable.
The film is obviously grainy, and the dark base is probably related to the age of the film. Rating it at ISO 50 was a good choice, though. Without knowing the history of how the film was stored, I’d say it did much better over time than I could have foreseen.
Regarding b&w cine film — my current go-to is expired Eastman 5231, which is much like Kodak Plus-X. I rate it at ISO 80, and have gotten stellar results using D-96 for 8 minutes. While it’s a hard-to-find film, I have a source, and am really grateful to be able to shoot with it. The other b&w cine film choice is Kodak XX, or Eastman 5222. It’s a terrific film, and I used to buy it in bulk long before the cine film to 35mm stills became a big deal. Another choice is Orwo UN54, which is an ISO 100 b&w film. I have used it, and it’s a pretty decent emulsion. So, there are other choices, but the Ilford Mark V must have been really nice back when it was fresh.
