How to develop old vintage expired analog film
Golden Rule: 1h @ Rodinal 1+100 + KBr 1g / 1 litre
If you never developed a film by yourself - please go to my Guide to dark room, but assuming developing films isn't a problem for you, developing old vintage expired analog film is easy as any other one.
First - developer. It should be strong to extract image from old vintage expired analog film, so Rodinal is the best choice. It should be slow to not cause grain to big, so proportion 1:100 will be good.
Then - potassium bromide, KBr. It's a magic trick that reducing smoke on films and papers. I don't know (yet) chemistry background "why" - but it works. Developer with 1g KBr per 1 litre of developer will significantly reduce "smoke" on old vintage expired analog film. You can collect it easily from any good chemistry store.
Then - time and agitation. All sources says 1 hour development and there is no discussion, 1h is good for vintage expired analog film and 1:100 Rodinal. Agitation is more tricky as different sources says differently - from "do not touch tank at all" to "agitate every 5 min". My opinion? Somewhere in between, I'm agitate very slowly every 15min of developing.
The rest of developing process is totally the same like any normal fresh new film.
So summary: 1 hour in Rodinal with proportion 1:100 and 1g of potassium bromide per 1 litre of developer, agitated slowly once per 15 minutes.
How to develop old vintage expired analog film - related content
Is there a sense to use old, expired films?
At the end: it is up to you, and how you thread analog photography and why you are doing it? Obviously, old expired film does not behave like ne...
What is a problem with expired analog film?
Old expired films indulge very often. How it will work depends on few aspects: Temperature. Humidity. Time.
How to expose old vintage expired analog film?
Golden Rule: +1eV per 10 years Each of film from my collection of vintage analog films have an information about suggested exposition adjustment. ...
How to test vintage analog film - by example ORWO MA 8
Step by step guide how I test analog vintage expired film (OWRO MA8 in this example). Every film in my collection is tested that way. check here for real life guide with examples.
Guide to expired films
Old analog film, expired years ago? Don't know how has been stored and where? What to do? How to expose it, how to develop it? READ MORE if you are you ready for unrepeatable experience and totally unknown results. Amazing lottery that can be predicted.
![]() |
How to get working vintage analog film? Visit analog film collection |