Expired Film Treasure: 135-size GAF Versapan Black and White Film (Abandoned Films 04)

 

Background

Dear Readers, this will be a continuation of my irregular series about discontinued photographic films ("Film from the Dead"). It sounds very photo-geeky, but don't worry, there will be urban decay examples and even some "pretty" pictures. 

I have written about older films before. Long-term readers may remember that in spring of 2020, my friend gave me a cooler full of GAF Versapan 4×5" film packs. He had stored them in freezers since the 1960s. They proved to be completely viable, and I liked the results so much, I looked for other sizes of Versapan film on eBay. Amazingly, a fellow listed three rolls of 135 size (regular 35mm) with 1974 expiration, which he claimed had been frozen. Well, that was too good to resist, so I bought them. 

Some of you old-timers may remember when GAF sold many types of film in the United States (I am not sure about foreign distribution). The black and white emulsions were well-regarded, and I do not know why they stopped production of consumer products in the 1970s. This was 30 years before the digital tsunami overwhelmed the film companies, so digital is not a culprit here. GAF stands for General Aniline & Film Co., an old-line film company from Binghamton, New York. The history of this company is complicated and was intertwined with ANSCO and Agfa. Read a more detailed history on Mike Eckman's excellent review of an ANSCO Super Regent camera. 

Technical Notes

I loaded my first roll of Versapan in a Pentax Spotmatic II camera at exposure index (EI) of 100 and used part of the roll around Vicksburg. Then I exposed the second half in my Leica M2 camera. I sent the roll to Northeast Photographic in Bath, Maine, to develop in Xtol developer. Xtol is an amazingly effective developer and appears to work well with almost any black and white emulsion. The negatives displayed high base fog, which is common for old film, but plenty of density and detail. For my second roll, I exposed at EI=64 in a Vito BL camera.

I scanned the negatives with a Plustek 7600i scanner. The Silverfast Ai scanning software did not have a Versapan profile (obviously), but with some experimenting, I selected the profile for Kodak BW400CN film. This was surprising because BW400CN was a chromogenic film (C-41 development used for color print films), but regardless, I liked the way it handled the Versapan. But for some frames, the Kodak Plus-X profile looked better. 

Vicksburg

Clay Street view west to the Yazoo Canal (50mm ƒ/1.4 SMC Takumar lens, 1/125 ƒ/5.6½)

Back of 1220 Washington Street (24mm ƒ/3.5 SMC Takumar lens)

Ergon Refinery, Haining Road, Port of Vicksburg (55mm ƒ/1.8 Super-Takumar lens)

Tracks under I-20 bridge (135mm ƒ/3.5 SMC Takumar lens, 1/30 ƒ/5.6½, yellow-green filter)

Smith's Appliances, Magnolia Road (35mm ƒ/2.0 Summicron-M lens)

Smith's Appliances is full of interesting automobile and filling station memorabilia. Thank you Mr. Smith for generously letting me take pictures inside. This was a 1-sec exposure with the Leica camera placed on a shelf.

Bamboo grove, Confederate Avenue, Vicksburg National Military Park (50mm Summicron lens)

Bridge over Stouts Bayou, Letitia Street (Vito BL camera, 1/30 ƒ/5.6)

Collapsing church, Glass Road (Vito BL camera, 1/30 ƒ/11, yellow filter)

Edwards

Abandoned trailer, US 80 approx. 1 mile east of Edwards (35mm ƒ/2.0 Summicron-M lens) 

East of Edwards, US 80 is the frontage road just south of I-20. I do not know if this was the alignment of 80 originally or if the old road bed was subsumed by the interstate. West of Edwards, 80 is the original 1920s roadway.

Utica

Burks Gro, Utica (Vito BL camera)

Delta and Waverly, Louisiana

Silos off Levee Road south of Delta, Louisiana (50mm ƒ/2.0 Summicron-DR lens, orange filter)

Farm shed on LA 577 south of Waverly, Louisiana (Vito BL camera, 1 sec. ƒ/5.6)

Port Gibson and Yokena

Cottage on Ingleside Karnac Ferry Road, Port Gibson (Voigtländer Vito BL camera)

Alexander Road, Yokena (Voigtländer Vito BL camera)

The woods north of Port Gibson have some interesting old cottages and grungy trailers off the winding roads. I need to return to explore some more.

Avon

Abandoned farm, Riverside Road, Avon, Mississippi

Conclusions

This was a pleasant surprise! Amazingly, this Versapan still works and looks great. I love the tonality for my type of pictures. It shows that 50-year old black and white film that has been cool-stored can be used years after its expiration date. One roll of Versapan is left in my freezer - on hold for a future project.

These ancient Versapans were definitely more grainy than Fuji Acros or even contemporary Kodak Tri-X. Versapan looks like an old-school mid-speed film, like Plus-X. Well, no wonder, it is 50 years old. It gave many of my pictures a gritty press photography look, which I like for urban decay. Looking at the original TIFF files carefully, I can see many tiny white spots in the negatives. I think they are not bubbles from development but rather deterioration of the emulsion. Resized at 1600 pixels to show here on the web, the spots are invisible. 

It is fun to experiment with old films, but you need some assurance on how they were stored. 

The next article will be on Kodak Panatomic-X film in 135 size.  

Appendix

Please click the link for the data sheet that came with the GAF Versapan film. They list the film speed as ASA 125/22 DIN. Unfortunately, it does not provide any development times for contemporary film developers. 

Old Railroad Machine Shop, Levee Street, Vicksburg, Mississippi

Kansas City Southern (KCS) rail yard, Levee Street, Vicksburg (Panatomic-X film, Spotmatic camera, 135mm ƒ/3.5 Super-Multi-Coated Takumar lens, ⅛ sec ƒ/11.5)

Levee Street runs along the Yazoo Canal waterfront following the west edge of Vicksburg. Formerly, warehouses, silos, and machine shops of various types lined the road. Many have been demolished over the decades, but it still has an industrial look, especially with the presence of the Kansas City Southern railroad shunting and work yard right next door.  

Levee Street view north (28mm ƒ/3.5 Super-Multi-Coated Takumar lens)

Levee Street view south (28mm ƒ/3.5 Takumar lens)

I have seen this old workshop since I moved to the area. It is clad with miscellaneous materials of interesting textures.

 

I see junk inside the shed but never any activity. I assume the railroad owns it.

South side of workshop with railroad track and parts (28mm ƒ/3.5 lens)

The building was secure and I did not want to trespass. I do not know if railroad tracks ever went into the work area.

This brick shed is on the grounds of the KCS rail yard and may be decades old. The mid-century buildings are steel utility construction, so I assume this brick shed is early 20th century. Long-term readers may remember that I wrote about a handsome 1890 brick office/utility building that once stood in the rail yard. Sadly, the railroad demolished it in 2011. 

Kodak 135-36 Panatomic-X film, expired 1991

I took these photographs on 35mm Kodak Panatomic-X film. Kodak discontinued this wonderful, fine-grained, black and white film around 1990, but an eBay seller offered a brick which he claimed had been frozen. My experience with cold-stored 120-size Panatomic-X is that it is almost perfect, with no fog or other deterioration. These frames are from the first roll of three that I bought from that vendor. I exposed the film at EI=25 in a Pentax Spotmatic camera. I also tested my newly-acquired 28mm Super-Multi-Coated Takumar lens. Praus Productions in Rochester, New York, developed the film in Xtol developer. I will show more Panatomic-X examples in the future.

Demolished: the old Mississippi Hardware Store, Washington Street, Vicksburg

2400 Washington St., Vicksburg, February 2008 (Olympus E-330 digital file)

Mississippi Hardware Company formerly occupied a rambling building on the corner of Speed and Washington Streets in Vicksburg. At one time, likely the late-1920s through the 1940s, the building was a car dealership. My friend, Martha, told me that she and her husband bought a 1941 Studebaker there in 1945 when her husband returned from World War II. When it changed into a hardware store I do not know (can any readers help?).

For most of the 1980s until 2019, the building was not commercially used. For a few years in the 1990s, a pawn shop occupied part of the front. I remember stopping by a couple of times. Then, for years, an antique flatbed truck with an antique Austin car on the bed was parked under the overhang. Part of the roof collapsed in the early 2000s. Finally, the City of Vicksburg condemned the building. I chatted with the contractor who was doing the demolition. He said the work was difficult because of the debris from the roof. Also, he had to brace a rear wall, which was in danger of collapsing on the downhill property.

Former Mississippi Hardware Company, 2400 Washington St., Vicksburg, June 2019 (Kodak Ektar 25 film, Pentax Spotmatic camera, 24mm ƒ/3.5 Super-Multi-Coated Takumar lens)

(Kodak Ektar 25 film, Spotmatic camera, 24mm Super-Multi-Coated Takumar lens)

June 13, 2019 (digital file, Fuji X-E1 camera)

Giant crab (Kodak Ektar 25 film, Spotmatic camera, 24mm Super-Multi-Coated Takumar lens)

Former basement, Speed Street (Kodak Ektar 25 film, Spotmatic camera, 24mm Super-Multi-Coated Takumar lens)

The site is now grassy and slopes down to the west. Another piece of our architectural heritage is gone.

Most of the June photographs are from the long-discontinued Kodak Ektar 25 film, which I exposed in a Pentax Spotmatic camera with a 24mm ƒ/3.5 Super-Multi-Coated Takumar lens. I scanned the film with a Plustek 7600i film scanner. The colors were off on this expired film, but Photoshop CS3's auto color correction function largely corrected the colors. The film is lower contrast than when it was new, which suits me for my type of photography.

A few from the Rubber Reclaiming Factory in Black and White, Vicksburg, Mississippi

Dear Readers, I thought the Kodak Ektar 100 color frames in my previous article were effective at showing the old rubber reclaiming facility at Rubber Way, south of Vicksburg. But my black and white film came back from Praus Productions, and the rubber plant looked especially grungy. Maybe urban decay looks best (best? worst?) in monochrome. (Click any photograph to enlarge to 1600 pixels wide.)

As I wrote before, there is no shortage (tonnage) of rubber tire carcasses lying around at the site. I was surprised to see that some inner tubes were still inflated.

I looked for the Kingfisher again, but no sighting this time. Plenty of water - is it green in summer? I heard gurgling and pulsing - a plugged pipe or drain perhaps? Or Alligator-zilla?

This is the massive machine that once shredded old tires. I wonder when it was built? Might it be mid-20th century? Was it new when it was installed here or brought in as a used item from another company?

These photographs are from Fuji Acros black and white film, exposed at EI=80 in a Leica M2 camera. For the first 5 frames above, I used my 24mm ƒ/3.5 Super-Multi-Coated Pentax Takumar lens via an adapter. The photograph of the rubber machine is from my 35mm ƒ/2.0 Summicron lens. I scanned the negatives with a Plustek 7600i film scanner.

Abandoned Resort Hotel, Nerantza, Greece (black and white film)

The hulk of the Angela resort hotel looms above the coast road in the little town of Nerantza. Nerantza is a seaside resort or summer-home community about 10 miles west of Corinth, facing the Gulf of Corinth. The town had a building boom of sorts in the 1960s and 1970s, which led to this 4-story concrete hotel. It may have once been known as the Angela. My brother-in-law recalls teaching wind-surfing to tourists in the 1970s, and he said the hotel closed in 1981 after a major earthquake caused structural damage. The hulk has been empty since then.

The fence around the back lot has fallen down, so it is easy to enter the grounds. In 2011, I took digital pictures inside, but now the structure looks dangerous, and I did not want to venture inside. The former kitchen area had a mess of fallen debris on the floors. The courtyard in the second photograph above formerly had a metal framework to support awnings, but the steel has been removed.

Someone had dumped bricks and building material into the pool. Hmmm, mosquito-breeding habitat?

A short distance to the east, an unfinished concrete edifice sits along the coast road. Is it awaiting another developer??? Awaiting hope?

These photographs are from Fujifilm Acros black and white film, exposed at EI=80 and developed in Xtol by Praus Productions (Rochester, New York). I used a 24mm Super-Multi-Coated Takumar lens with an adapter on my Leica M2 camera. Framing is a bit difficult because I do not have a 24mm viewfinder, but a wide lens is valuable for close quarters in this type of setting. I scanned the negatives with a Plustek 7600i film scanner.

UPDATE OCTOBER 2022:  The hotel is being restored. Some company is ambitious.

Successful Experiment: Pentax Takumar 24mm Lens on my Leica M2

Background

When I travel overseas and need to pack light, I often take my Leica M2 rangefinder camera with its compact 35mm and 50mm f/2.0 Summicron lenses (and light meter, filters, and hoods). But recently, I have been thinking wide, which must go along with my increasing girth. Some options:

1. New Leica 24mm f/1.4 Summilux-M lens. $7500 in USA. (Wow)
2. Used (OK, "pre-owned") Leica 24mm f/2.8 lens. About $1800. (Lesser wow)
3. Used Zeiss Biogon 25 mm f/2.8 ZM lens. About $750.
4. New Skopar 24mm f/4.0 lens. About $400

Of course the genuine 24mm M lens or the 25mm Zeiss would be best, but realistically I would not use them all that often. But we have a clean Super-Multi-Coated Takumar 24mm f/3.5 lens for the Pentax Spotmatic in the cabinet. It has a longer register distance to the mount than true M lenses, making room for an adapter. So I bought a $20 Fotodiox M42-Leica M adapter from Amazon and did a test run. (Note: all the M42 thread-mount Pentax Takumar lenses are excellent performers on film.)

Chinese specialty companies make adapters to fit just about any older manual SLR lens to most so-called mirrorless digital camera bodies. This gives new life to many beautiful classic film lenses. Most longer focal lengths, around 50mm or more, perform really well on digital bodies. The wide angles sometimes have problems with digital sensors, but in that I was using film, I was going to use a lens designed for film on the correct sensing media.

Results

The good: The optical results were better than I expected. I do not have a genuine Leica 24, so I have no basis for comparison. Sure, it is not as "sharp" as my 35 Summicron, but so what? Sharpness phobia consumes pseudo-photographers on digital camera web pages. For $20, I am pleased.

The clumsy: Framing is a problem. If I move my eye left and right and up and down the maximum extent across the M2's eyepiece, I think I see most of the 24mm coverage. The lens blocks part of the view, and using the genuine Takumar hood is hopeless. To do: buy a 24mm auxiliary finder. Focus is totally manual.

The heavy: The Takumar with its Fotodiox adapter is a bulky and rather heavy cylinder.

Here are some examples from Romania and Greece. The film was Fujifilm Acros, exposed at EI=80. Praus Productions in Rochester, New York, developed the film in Xtol. I scanned the film with a Plustek 7600i scanner using the Tri-X 400 profile (the SilverFast software does not have an Acros profile).

Rooftops, view from Kronhaus B&B, Braşov, Romania, 24mm Takumar lens. 

Room with a view, dormer window at Kronhaus, Braşov, Romania. Leica 35mm f/2.0 Summicron lens. 

Room with a view, dormer window at Kronhaus, Braşov, Romania. Takumar 24mm f/3.5 lens. 

Our room at a bed and breakfast in Braşov, Romania, had interesting views over the old tile roofs in the historic center. The two photographs above show the difference in coverage between the 35mm lens and the 24mm. The exposure is a bit different, and I think the 35mm Summicron does a slightly better job at distinguishing subtle tonal variations.

The view of the upper town and the Gothic tower of the Lutheran Cathedral of Saint Mary in Sibiu, Romania, is from the Council Tower. I used a yellow filter on the 24mm lens to darken the sky. The photograph is through glass, which you see in the upper left.

This abandoned hotel, possibly once called the Angela, is in Nerantza, Greece, a few km west of Corinth on the Gulf of Corinth. I have photographed here in 2011, but the 24mm lens with black and white film gives an appropriately gloomy look to this 1960s hulk.

Never-complete hotel, Nerantza, Greece

Conclusions

The 24mm Takumar lens works well on the Leica M2. Framing is clumsy and you need to guess the distance of your main subject, but that is not too critical with a wide angle lens. I already had the 24mm lens, so $20 for an adapter was a bargain way to get wide angle coverage. A 24mm auxiliary finder would be helpful.

Other photography articles

Please click the links for other articles about equipment, informal tests, and film:

• Decay with the Leica
• Decay with the Rolleiflex
• Kodak Panatomic-X film
• Decline of an industrial empire, Eastman Kodak Company
• Leica IIIC camera repaired and perfect
• Another look at the Leica IIIC camera
• 1950s 50mm Dual-range Summicron lens
• 135mm Takumar lens
• Olympus Trip 35 compact camera
• Another look at the Olympus Trip 35
• Fuji GW690II camera ("Texas Leica")
• Yashica Electro 35CC compact camera
• Kodak BW400 film
• Kodak Ektar 25 film
• 250mm Sonnar lens for Hasselblad
• 35mm Takumar lens for Pentax
• Fomapan 100 film
• Kodak Technical Pan film
• Quick test of a Leica Monochrom vs. film