Agfacolor CN17 -- process?

[Rolleiflexible]

I have five rolls of Agfacolor CN17
with a 1967 expiration date. Does
this film process in C-41 or does
it require special treatment? Any
suggestions as to using it would
be most appreciated.

[Ian Grant]

It requires Agfa's own process, I do have the formulae. It can't go near C41 as the emulsion isn't hardened for it and some it would come off the base during processing causing a major contamination issue.

If you want to try it I can copy the formulae for you.

Ian

[Rolleiflexible]

Ian, thanks for the offer, but I've
not attempted color processing --
I run thousands of rolls of Tri-X
through chemicals but color seems
to intimidate me, in shooting as in
processing. :-)

Do any commercial labs still
process the film? Does the
process have a name?

Sanders

[Ian Grant]

Rocky Mountain Labs will do it & charge an arm & leg There's also someone in the UK, it's not difficult if you have the chemistry, I just checked & my books are in the UK, I only have the CT18 fransparency formulae here in Turkey..

It was just called the Agfacolor process, the CN17 just means Colour Negative 17°DIN, I did use Agfacolor a few times the prints are still excellent I preferred it to C22, but c41 came out soon after & that was just a whole new ball game.

Ian

[Domin]

If you don't want to mix the CN17 chemistry by yourself, C41 chemistry at lowered temperature will probably work if the film is still ok.

C41 chemistry is way different but most probably there is not much to lose in terms of color rendition or dye stability as this is outdated and old technology film. I think will be sufficient to check if film is usable at all.

I know of two people in Poland who do process color film in Orwo process which is if I remember correctly quite similiar. But its quite far away from you.

[Ian Grant]

The differences between Agfacolor and C22/C41 were quite substantial, Ron (PE) could elaborate more,but the way the dye couplers worked was quite different so using C41 chemicals at a low temperature isn't likely ti be remotely worthwhile, as the dyes won't form properly.

Anyway Sanders wants a lab who can process them.

Ian

[Domin]

Were talking 40 years old film. It might be as well fogged beyond any usability or lost much of sensitivity. At best it makes this film artsy and collectors item at worst.

I processed some old Orwo film in both original process and lowered temp C41 and it works. There is crossover in c41, the color rendition is peculiar but much of it goes to "properly" processed film as well.

[Ian Grant]

Were talking 40 years old film.

It seems like yesterday

Well not quite, it was the first serious colour negative film I used, I had been processing Ferrania transparencies and E3/4.

I guess it really depends what results you want from a film, 4 films isn't really enough to experiment. There was a thread a few months ago about processing 50's Gevaert & Orwo slide fim that was more practical because the OP had a decent amount of bulk film to experiment with.

Ian

[Claire Senft]

If one just wanted to play with this, I would guess that cutting off a frame and trying a standard b&w developer would give a silver image. Obviously, the first try would probably be well of the mark for time.

[Ian Grant]

While searching for something else I found this lab, they process CN17