Verichrome Pan Film in Mississippi and Louisiana (Abandoned Films 06b)

In 2020, my friend from Indiana sent me a roll of the long-departed Kodak Verichrome Pan film in 120 size (for medium format cameras). I used it on a snowy day in Vicksburg in early 2021 and loved the results. It was high resolution and just perfect for my type of photography. I never tried Verichrome Pan when it was in production, but now I wish I had. 

I have had surprisingly good results with discontinued black and white films such as Kodak Panatomic-X and GAF Versapan. But it is always a gamble with expired film and I decided to only buy fresh product from now on. Well, as you can guess, I was unable to stick to my own advice. A seller on eBay claimed two rolls of Verichrome Pan had been frozen for years, so I succumbed to temptation.

Of the two rolls, the first was perfect. The other was so thin, it was useless. That is the risk of buying expired film. I used that first roll in the Mississippi Delta on a blazing hot June day with harsh and unforgiving light. The camera was my Rolleiflex 3.5E with its 5-element 75mm ƒ/3.5 Xenotar lens. Even today, this 1959 camera is totally usable and optically excellent. Used Rolleiflexes in good condition sell for serious $$s on eBay or via auction houses now. Click any photograph below to see it expanded.

Louise, Mississippi

Louise is a small agricultural town in Humphreys County west of Yazoo City. It consists of a small core of houses with silos and former shops along Main Street. It may have been busy decades ago, when the railroad ran through town. But today, it is forlorn.

Main Street view north, Louise, Mississippi (1/30 ƒ/11, Rollei orange filter)

Main Street, Louise

Silos (1/15 ƒ/16, orange filter)

Main Street stores, Louise (1/30 ƒ/16, yellow filter)

Lee Hong Grocery, Louise (1/60 ƒ/11.3, yellow filter)

Quiet afternoon in Louise

Yazoo City, Mississippi

Yazoo City was the "Gateway to the Delta." It is still a busy town with a harbor on the Yazoo River. Timber is a major product. But the town is a bit rough.

Fixer-upper store, West Broadway, Yazoo City (1/60 ƒ/11.5, yellow filter)

Garage and gin, 301 West Bridge Street (1/125 ƒ/8, yellow filter)

Tallulah, Louisiana

The last stop on our Verichrome Pan trip is Tallulah, Louisiana. Tallulah is just off I-20 about 20 minutes west of the Mississippi River bridge.

Former Tallulah High School, Bayou Drive (1/30 ƒ/11.5, orange filter)

This was a blazing hot (95º + F) afternoon with harsh sun. I had one frame left and stopped at the old Tallulah high school. Much of the roof has collapsed, but the brick walls remain. The ball field to the left out of the picture view is still in use. It is sad that these handsome brick buildings are abandoned.

This ends our short Verichrome Pan tour. I probably should have dialed back from the orange filter to deep yellow or just plain medium yellow. Internet users claim that Kodak's discontinued Plus-X film was very similar in tonality and grain. My friend will send a couple of rolls of 35mm Plus-X for me to try. I'll post the results later.

Note: some film users on the internet believe the new Kentmere 100 in 120 size looks much like Verichrome Pan. I need to try it. Kentmere is made by Ilford company, and the 120 size is a recent (early 2023) introduction. 

Testing GAF Vesapan 4×5" Film Packs in Mississippi: Useful Early 20th Century Film Technology

Graphic Film Pack Adapter. The lack of a zip code indicates that the adapter is pre-1965 or 1966 vintage.

Sealed Versapan film pack, probably late-1960s vintage.

Would You Like Some Film Packs?

A good friend here in town is an experienced and very capable photographer with over five decades of experience. Early this year (2020), his wife emailed me wondering if I would like a couple of his film packs because they wanted to make space in the freezer. I thought, film packs? I had not used one since the early 1970s. They still exist? Come to find out, a couple meant an entire cooler full, and my friend had stored them in various freezers since the late 1960s! Well, this sounded like a photographic adventure, so I graciously accepted this generous gift.

1960s-vintage GAF VersaPan and Kodak Tri-X film packs in their original foil packages

What is a Film Pack?

A film pack is a metal box which holds 16 sheets of thin-based 4×5 inch film. Each sheet is attached to a numbered black paper tab. You place the metal box in a film pack adapter. My friend gave me an adapter made by the American company Graphic (see the first photograph). The user starts the film pack by pulling and then tearing off the initial tab of black paper. Then frame no. 1 is ready to use. Focus and compose your 4×5 camera as normal, and then insert the Graphic adapter. Pull the dark slide and take exposure no. 1. Then carefully pull the tab, and that first sheet of film pulls under the rest of the stack to the back of the group.

This makes sheet no. 2 ready to use in the front of the pack. In the photographs below, I have shown the handsome red metal film pack in the adapter and well as one of the 4×5 sheets pulled partway. When you expose sheet 16, you pull the tab and you have finished the pack. You can then remove the metal from the adapter in subdued daylight. The film manufacturers warn you to not press on the exposed black paper shield because then you risk a light leak. The pack adapter is a bit thicker then a normal Fidelity or Lisco sheet film holder but should fit under the ground glass of most brands of cameras.

According to Camera-wiki, Eastman Kodak introduced the film pack in 1903. Over time, Kodak sold at least 12 film sizes, and possibly European manufacturers offered even more. My experience in the 1970s was with 2¼×3¼" film pack in an old Certo Sport camera. I do not remember how many sheets were in that pack. The most popular size may have been 4×5" because the old time press reporters could take 16 quick exposures with their Speed Graphic cameras at a news event. Then they could pop another pack in the adapter and take another 16 frames. I read somewhere that Kodak finally discontinued their 4×5" film packs around 1992, when the last technician who knew how to assemble the packs retired. By then, most of the demand was gone because press/wedding photographers were using medium format or 35mm cameras.

The film pack lingered on in modified form to hold Polaroid instant films. Fuji's Instax film is a form of film pack.

The main criticism of the film pack was that the film was thin and too flexible. Darkroom users needed to mount this flexible film on glass negative holders. With respect to scanning, in my limited experience, the film will lie in the 4×5" holder of my Epson scanner with minimal sagging. Some companies sell holders with anti-Newton glass to ensure that the film would be absolutely flat. Regular 4×5" film is on a much thicker base and does not sag. The film pack film is a slightly larger than normal 4×5, so you need to trim it to fit normal scanner film holders.

GAF VersaPan film pack rear side. The lid on the adapter is open to show the handsome metal box. The paper tabs extend out of a slot on the top.

Front side with one sheet of 4×5" film partly pulled around the pack. When the pack adapter is not in the camera, a dark slide protects this surface. 

Graphic film pack under ground glass of a Tachihara 4×5" field camera. The adapter is thicker than the standard Lisco or Fidelity 2-sided film holder.

Tachihara Field Camera

Tachihara 4×5" field camera with a 135mm ƒ/4.5 Schneider Xenar lens.

The Tachihara is a light weight Japanese wood field camera. I bought this one in 1982 from Lee Beeder Cameras of California via mail order. Fred Picker's Zone VI Newsletters inspired me to try 4×5" photography. Picker was a controversial fellow and very fond of himself, but he did a good service to the photographic world by emphasizing large format photography in the era when most photographers had switched to 35mm cameras. The 1960s and 1970s were the years when 35mm press photographers seemed so glamorous and were taking shocking photographs in war zones. Most press photographers had discarded their Speed Graphics and other large cameras a decade earlier. Picker emphasized how a large negative could make magnificent prints that were simply impossible with the small film of a 35mm camera. The newsletters were well-written, and you can find them on the Internet Archive (highly recommended). Picker eventually sold Zone VI to Calumet Photographic, and Calumet is now gone, as well. His darkroom products and cameras sell quickly on eBay.

GAF and Ansco Film

Ansco was an American company founded in 1842. The company expanded into photographic products in 1847 and invented celluloid flexible roll film. Kodak used (stole) the technology and eventually lost a 12-year patent lawsuit to Ansco. As summarized in VintageCameraLab.com, the German film company, Agfa, merged with Ansco and renamed the new operation Agfa-Ansco. Agfa-Ansco thrived after the takeover, producing cameras, films, and photographic papers. Upon America's entry in World War II, the U.S. Government seized Ansco’s operations as enemy property because of the German ownership and its complicated association with the American IG Chemical Corporation (part of the IG Farben empire). During the war, production shifted to military optics, like sextants and bomber sights, and the “Agfa-Ansco” brand reverted to just “Ansco.”

After the war, Ansco remained under U.S. Government ownership and control until 1965, at which time it sold shares to the public. Post-war, Ansco thrived, selling 2 million cameras per year at its peak, as well as selling rebranded cameras from Agfa, Ricoh, Chinon, and Minolta. In 1967, Ansco changed its name to General Aniline & Film (GAF), an old-line American company that was best known for roofing shingles but who also had a photographic products division. The GAF film factory was in Binghamton, New York. From the 1950s to the 1970s, Ansco/GAF was Eastman Kodak's largest competitor in the US market. At some stage of this complicated history, International Paper owned both GAF and Ilford. I have read that the two companies shared some film or paper technology. In 1977, GAF finally ended production of consumer films, although the manufacture of other films continued (I assume aerial photography, X-ray, and other industrial products). Ilford, of course, still exists and makes a full range of excellent films.

Ansco offered some innovative products, including color films and the first ASA 500 slide film. Most of Ansco's color products have not lasted well and have suffered severe color shifts and fading. But  photographers praised the black and white films.

I tried to find information on the web about Versapan film but found very little. This is not surprising considering that it was discontinued at least 40 years ago. A few notes said it was an excellent product, but one needs to beware that the "good old days" often sound romantically good on internet forums. A Popular Science magazine from November, 1963, contained a short paragraph describing the new film. At that time, Versapan roll film was rated at ASA (American Standards Association) 125. A 1969 US Army still photography manual listed the cut film at a speed of 100.

Needless to say, with 50-year-old film, you are not sure how it will respond. Old film tends to lose sensitivity, so for my first pack, I decided to take triple exposures at each site using EI (exposure index) = 64, 32, and 16. With a pack holding 16 sheets, this would give me five scenes with one extra frame left over from the pack.

The next challenge was developing the film. I do not have a darkroom any more and therefore could not use open trays. My Jobo 4×5 daylight kit is for regular thick-based film. After some inquiries, I sent it to Northeast Photographic in Maine, where the owner developed the Versapan in Xtol using Jobo tanks. He reported that the film looked like new. I subsequently scanned the negatives with an Epson 3200 Photo scanner at 2400 dpi and cleaned minor blobs and scratches with Photoshop CS5's heal tool (the icon that looks like a bandage).

The Mississippi Delta

During our somewhat loose virus shutdown, I drove north into the Mississippi Delta several times to get out of the house, explore, use my Tachihara camera, and test the Versapan film. I like overcast days when the sky looks ominous and rain is pending. My first test was to compare the GAF Versapan with Kodak Tri-X Professional film. In the example of an old store in Yazoo City, Mississippi, the first frame is from Tri-X while the second is Versapan. The Tri-X recorded a little more texture in the sky, but the contrast of one or the other could be adjusted during scanning. I certainly can't claim that one is "better" than the other. The Versapan is fine grain and records fine detail. Remember, this film is five decades old.

CocaCola store, West Broadway, Yazoo City, Mississippi (Tri-X 400 film, Schneider 135mm ƒ/4.5 Xenar lens)

CocaCola store, West Broadway, Yazoo City, Mississippi (Versapan film, Schneider 135mm ƒ/4.5 Xenar lens)

I drove along Levee Road west of Yazoo City and saw an interesting petroleum tank farm. The scene let me test the ability of the film to record the dark tank cars as well as the clouds. It passed with flying colors! This was a gloomy day with spitting rain on and off. I cropped the center section to show the signs on the tank cars, which are almost legible. The grain is tight.

Tank Farm, Rialto Rd., Yazoo City, Mississippi, USA (Versapan film, 180mm ƒ/5.6 Caltar IIN lens, yellow filter, ⅛ sec. ƒ/11.3)

Crop of railroad cars at 100% scale, no sharpening

The little town of Midnight had an unused cotton gin with interesting shapes and textures. Many gins are unused now because farmers have shifted to soybeans or corn.

Midnight Gin, Old US 49, Midnight, Mississippi  (Versapan film, Schneider 135mm ƒ/4.5 Xenar lens, yellow filter, ⅒ sec ƒ/22.5)

By the time I reached Holly Bluff, the sun was beginning to break through the clouds. Some old storage silos glowed in the light. I think the Versapan does very well with metal and silver objects.

Silos, MS 16 north of Holly Bluff, Mississippi (Versapan film, Schneider 90mm ƒ/6.8 Angulon lens, 1/100 sec ƒ/11)

I took this picture with a tiny 90mm ƒ/6.8 Angulon lens that I bought recently. It does not have much extra coverage for the 4×5" format, but I really like the rendering on black and white film. The filter thread is 40.5mm, for which I have a Series VI adapter and various Leitz filters.

Returning to Vicksburg, the photograph below is a bayou (creek) which flows under 61 Bypass. I used a green filter to help lighten the foliage. This is an example of a high-contrast scene where the Versapan only retained some detail in the light sky.

Bliss Creek at N. Washington Street and US 61, Vicksburg, Mississippi (Versapan film, 180mm ƒ/5.6 Caltar IIN lens, green filter, ⅛ sec ƒ/11.7)

Some Concluding Remarks

Well, this was a pleasant surprise. Using a film pack on my 4×5" camera took me back to an earlier time. I really liked the convenience of having 16 frames in one easy-to-change cartridge. I had not used this camera in a number of years, and this was the incentive I needed to exercise it again. With regular Fidelity or Lisco film holders, each one holds only 2 sheets, and I need to load them in a dark closet at night. For a long day's outing, one can easily fill a cooler with holders (I mention cooler because in summer you want to avoid excess heat.). But with three convenient and thin film packs, you have 48 sheets ready to use. The bad news: as far as I know, no one packages regular film (i.e., not instant) in film packs any more.

The second surprise: this thin-base Versapan is still viable and looks good, even after five decades storage. Traditional silver gelatin emulsion is truly an amazing chemical and optical invention, despite the disparaging troll comments from the D crowd. For most projects, I will continue to use Kodak Tri-X, but it is a nice option to have this "antique" Versapan available. I will post some more examples in the future here on Urban Decay.

Thank you for reading. I have written about Tri-X 400 roll film on the 35mmc blog before. Stay well, record your world, and always explore.

This is no. 3 of my irregular series on Abandoned Films.

Update: I wrote about 35mm Versapan film in a February 2021 article. It, too, was useable.

The Flood of 2019 (Part 3), the Yazoo Backwater near Onward and Yazoo City, Mississippi

We will continue our review of the flooding in the southern part of the Mississippi Delta, the area known as the Yazoo Backwater. The last article was about the area near the town of Redwood. Here we continue north a few miles to Onward and briefly jump east to Yazoo City.

Onward is an unincorporated farming community near US 61 south of Rolling Fork. Onward is known for two historical notes:

1. This is near the site where president Teddy Roosevelt refused to shoot a baby bear that had been tied to a tree as a target for the president. A toy company picked up on the refusal to shoot, started making stuffed bears, and the rest is history - one of the most successful children's toys ever. It became an international toy, as well; my Steiff bear was from Germany.
2. The Onward Country Store has been in business since 1913. It is (or was) a popular stop with European tourists who travel on US 61, the Blues Highway. But there is bad news: the Onward store may have closed as of April 2019, according to an article in The Vicksburg Daily News. I will write about the Onward Store soon. 

Onward Store, 1996, before removal of gasoline pump canopy (4×5" Tri-X film, 75mm ƒ/8 Supar-Angulon lens)

This is the front of the Onward Store as of 1996. The store faces US 61 (the Blues Highway) and is just south of the intersection with Rte 1. Residents of Eagle Lake need to drive on Rte 1, then turn south on 465 and access the mainline levee. The levee road eventually gets them to Eagle Lake.

Farm north of Rte 1, April 11, 2019 (Panatomic-X film, Fuji GW690II camera, yellow filter)

Farm fields north of Rte 1 near 465 junction, March 29, 2019 (Ektar 25 film, Hasselblad 501CM, 250mm Sonnar lens)

Some of the fields north of Rte 1 were semi-dry, but heading west and closer to the mainline levees, the road dipped down, and the surrounding fields were inundated.

Flooded woods, Hwy 465, March 29, 2019 (Fuji Acros film, Vito BL camera, 50mm ƒ/3.5 Color-Skopar lens, GGr filter)

Flooded woods, Rte 1 near levee, April 11, 2019 (Panatomic-X film, Fuji GW690II camera, 90mm lens, ½ sec ƒ/16½) 

Rte 465 takes off south from Rte 1. The day I drove on it, a short section was underwater, but people were driving through, so I did the same carefully. The road runs through forest, much of which was flooded. What struck me was the number of snakes. I saw numerous ones that were squashed and hit at least one when it slithered across the road just in time for my tires. It appears that they cross from the woods on one side of the highway to the other. Most looked like black water moccasins, but one nicely patterned fellow sitting quietly in the middle of the pavement looked like a rattlesnake. (I decided to not get out and check in person.)

Unoccupied house, US 61, Onward (Fuji acros film, Vito BL camera, GGr filter, 1/30 sec ƒ/11½) 

Back in Onward, the fields just east of 61 were dry. I saw this unused mid-century house slowly being engulfed with vines.

Dusk at Egremont, view west, March 29, 2019 (Vito BL camera, 50mm Color-Skopar lens, GGr filter) 

Egremont is a small community south of Rolling Fork. I have more Egremont photographs to share in the future.

Hwy 16 west of Yazoo City, March 13, 2019 (Ektar 25, Hasselblad 501CM, 250mm Sonnar lens)

Hwy 16 west of Yazoo City, March 13, 2019 (Ektar 25, Hasselblad 501CM, 250mm Sonnar lens)

To the east, Yazoo City (the "Gateway to the Delta") sits on the edge of the loess bluffs. But to the west lies the flat Mississippi Delta and the Yazoo River. The fields along Hwy 16 were inundated as of mid-March when I took these pictures with my Hasselblad camera.

This concludes a short look at the flooding in the Yazoo Backwater. As of mid-June, much of this area is still under water. Depending on water conditions, I may do some more exploring and photographing.

Click the link for Part 1 of this series.
Click the link for Part 2 of this series.

Mississippi Valley and Yazoo Railroad Depot, Vicksburg, Mississippi

First the flood came, then the media came, and they photographed the poor, forlorn Yazoo and Mississippi Valley RR Station with water up to the first floor windows. Possibly this scene will became symbolic of the great flood of 2011. Fortunately, the water is receding and workmen, who were restoring the depot, can dry out the first floor and clean out mud and muck and eject a few snakes.


The depot, completed in 1907, is a handsome brick building on Levee Street, located just north of the concrete floodwall at the base of Grove Street. It was designed by the Chicago architectural firm of Daniel Burnham & Co. (We are not sure if Burnham himself designed the building, but he was well-known for his seminal designs of the Chicago waterfront and parks and the monumental buildings of the World's Columbian Exposition). Because of its location, the Vicksburg depot was vulnerable to exceptionally high water, and the first floor was flooded in the great 1927 flood.

In the early 20th century, rail service ran north-south at least as far as Greenville and possibly to Memphis. I believe passengers along the east-west line (heading east to Jackson or west to Monroe, Dallas, etc) would have boarded trains at another depot just off the Cherry Street bridge. Passenger rail service in Vicksburg ended in 1959. I do not know who owned the Levee Street station over the decades. The ground floor had been used by various companies or activities but was also empty for years at a time. Remodeling removed almost all traces of authentic walls or features , so I did not take photographs in these areas. In the 1990s, a kidney dialysis company leased space here. But when remodeling began recently, a stationmaster's office or control room of some sort became exposed.

The second floor provided more of interest to an urban archaeologist. The stairs to the second floor were reasonably intact and still had their deep varnish. I have seen this time and time again: varnished wood has been painted, and after a few years, the paint looks nasty, but areas where the varnish was left original, it looks perfect.


At the top of the stairs, a long hall runs along the east side of the building. Turn left and it leads to a ladies' lavatory.


The lavatory retained some of its original features, including granite stall walls and handsome varnished stall doors.


Turn right, and the hall led to a office or work room with some of its original trim.

About 15 years ago, there were two apartments on the third floor. The tenants in one unit let me come up and access the flat part of the roof to take some photographs. Back then, it was still a bit odd to live downtown and must have been nice and quiet at night. The photograph above shows what is left of one of the attic apartments.

The window shows the view up Grove Street. I am not sure what will be done with the third floor in the current renovation. Fireproof steel stairs have been installed at both ends of the building to comply with fire codes. It is a lovely building, and I am glad it will be used as the Vicksburg Transportation Museum. Please come and visit.

Finally, this postcard from the Cooper collection at Mississippi Department of Archives and History, shows the view of the railroad depot and the Yazoo Canal from the roof of the First National Bank building.

Here is another postcard showing Washington Street with the depot to the left. Vicksburg was a bustling industrial and commercial city then. How did it decline so badly in the latter half of the 20th century?

The Afro-American Sons and Daughters Hospital, Yazoo City

The Afro-American Sons and Daughters Hospital was a pioneering medical institution and possibly the only health care resource for African Americans residents of west central Mississippi during the mid-20th century. According to Wikipedia, "The Afro-American Sons and Daughters was a fraternal organization in Mississippi and one of the leading black voluntary associations in the state. Organized in 1924, it had 35,000 members by the 1930s. The founder of the group was Thomas J. Huddleston, Sr., a prosperous black entrepreneur and advocate of Booker T. Washington's self-help philosophy." The hospital was built in 1928 and provided health care, including major surgery, until 1972, when it closed forever.


As you can see from these photographs, the hospital is in poor condition. Plants are taking over the site, parts of the roof have failed, and the floors are rotting. When I walked inside, I immediately smelled the odor of damp, decaying wood. A big tree in the back fell in a storm and crashed through the roof. That part of the building in imploding. The building, at 8th St. and Webster Ave. in Yazoo City, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2006. Sadly, that distinction does not retard decay from the elements.

On contemporary standards, the hallways and rooms were small and cramped. The paint was that infamous institutional green that you see in schools and older public buildings everywhere. The hospital had one floor on a design with three wings (like a letter "E"). Large louvered openings in the ceiling once held vent fans to provide air flow during hot summers. I hope the operating rooms were cooled, but I suspect not.


I read about this site in the Mississippi Heritage Trust 2007 list of 10 Most Endangered Historic Places. The article states that the building underwent a major change in 1935 when another wing was added. The hospital campus included a residence for its nurses.

The room above may have been a ward with several beds. It was so dark, I could barely see the outlines of the far wall. I am often amazed how effective digital cameras are in low light. Open the shutter and let the sensing elements continue to record light until they receive enough energy to form the image. In the film era, I would have used a Luna-Pro light meter to make an incident light measurement, then add two, three, or more f-stops to the measurement to allow for film reciprocity failure. And the colors would have shifted.

A interesting paper by David T. and Linda R. Beito (Social Science History. 2006; 30: 551-569) describes the history of the Afro-American hospital and outlines the grim reality of health care for poor Blacks in the 1920s in Mississippi.

Here is the abstract:

"Under the burden of Jim Crow, how did African Americans obtain health care? For nearly 40 years the Afro-American Hospital of Yazoo City, Mississippi, was a leading health care supplier for blacks in the Mississippi Delta. It was founded in 1928 by the Afro-American Sons and Daughters, a black fraternal society, and provided a wide range of medical services. The society, which eventually had 35,000 members, was led by Thomas J. Huddleston, a prosperous black entrepreneur and advocate of Booker T. Washington's self-help philosophy. The hospital had a low death rate compared to other hospitals that served blacks in the South during the period. It ceased operation in 1966 as a fraternal entity after years of increasingly burdensome regulation, competitive pressure from government and third-party health care alternatives, and the migration of younger dues-paying blacks to the North."

Please click the link for some views of the rest of Yazoo City. Thank you for reading.

Photographs taken with a Sony DSC-R1 digital camera, tripod-mounted.