30 years back, in the ’80s, ORWO Color NC-19 was the affordable way to capture moments of your cat’s charming existence, summer vacation casual diversions or backyard la vida loca BBQs.
Never had it in my ammunition list ’til recently, when The Destiny threw me a bag full of 120 rolls of it, no message attached. Mmmmk.
No carton packaging to inform my curious soul re: expiration date (as it matters if the rolls are 25 or 30 years expired, huh). Irresistible it was to give them a try.
Tested two rolls, first came out pretty bad — looked like a bacteria’s 20 years long banquet.
But I got lucky with the second one — a good test strip that prooved remaining sensitivity of around 4 – 6 ISO plus uneven emulsion photon libido.
click to enlarge
A city legend spread on alternative photography forums, lomography groups and who-knows-what-else-graphy sites has it that ORWO Color NC-19 could, may and shall be developed under C-41 process. Well, if you google this you will find a fat pile of examples where NC-19 emulsion did die hard in 38º C. So there you better not strut.
Back when in its glory days of production, ORWO Color films were to be developed under ORWO process C-5168. A quick search gave me this post on www.apug.org. You may have a copy of its recipe in a PDF format here.
Life is full of inconveniences. Color developer C-14 uses 1.7 grams of CD1, a.k.a. N,N-diethyl p-phenylenediamine sulfate (guess someone has a tattoo with its formula) — that was the most difficult ingredient to procure. And also the most expensive.
The process itself takes about 40 minutes. If you are interested in its steps — here is a table to print out. The development shall be done with almost continuous agitation of the tank — turn the tank left-right jerkily for a few seconds, then leave it in rest for 15 sec. and repeat this till the end.
Later on I found on internet two sets of C-5168 chemicals for sale. The original leaflet you may find here, but unfortunately it is only in German and Russian. Note that this is a set for 0.5 l convenience set.
Examples of these rolls are below.
ORWO Color NC-19 // Pentacon Six // C-5168
15 Comments
Hey there, You’ve done an excellent job.
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I aam ure they’ll be benefited from this site.
Hi Vesselin, Back in the day, mid ’80s and ’90s in Belgrade, Serbia, was “normal” to have ORWO NC19 for processing in local photo shops and they developed it in C41. Nobody bothered with original ORWO processing kit. How they did it I have no idea? Most likely it had to be process on temperature closer to 20C than to 38C. Not sure do you still have any ORWO NC left but…..
Very interesting blog! Found the link in PHOTOTRIO. I’m currently running some test with ORWO MA-8. Did some a few years ago and posted on my FLICKR page. Will send you link
Goran (Guy who give you info on Agfa Gevaert Glass plates)
Hello Goran–
I remember your helpful comment on AGFA Glass plates!
Would be interested to see your results with MA-8 and, of course, processing details.
Best regards,
Vesselin
Lovely blog you have, great work!
hallo today I put in my lokal photo lab nc19 and ask them to develop it in C41. I hope it will no damage. at 23/10/19 i will got my film back In I will give you fedback. Igot 24 pc of NC19 . before I see some NC 19 old time develop and I eas amazing by nice colors and sharpnes. So I hope I get som usable results. at last I try cross proces in R09 or in excelent by Foma. thank you for this diskus line . Il come back 🙂
Thank you for your comment, Stipe! Hope to see your results!
[…] images under old photographic processes, like ORWO C-5168 (color negative process for films like ORWO NC-19) or ORWO C-9165 (reversal process for slides, like ORWO UT-18). If you are curious about these, […]
Hi Vesselin.
Recently I found in my granma’s attic a TLR camera (Flexaret), with a roll of exposed ORWO NC19 film reel inside. It has been sitting there for probably 50 years and I am super-curious what kind of gold might be hidden on the film.
Unfortunately, wherever I search here in Slovakia, whichever photolab or experts I contact, no one is processing the NC19 anymore and they are not even able to recommend anyone.
Would you, by any chance, be interested in developing the film? I am a total beginner in film/photo developing, therefore I wouldn’t dare to do it myself, even if I had the right chemicals…
Please, feel free to contact me.
Thanks in advance.
Hello Mike–
For this process I do not have all necessary chemicals. I do have few rolls of NC-19 that I plan to shoot, but am not sure when I would be able to.
Let’s keep in touch and if there are any developments I definitely let you know.
Best regards,
Vesselin
P.S. It would be a good idea to keep this roll in dark and cold place, to avoid further deterioration of it.
Hello Mr. Vesselin, have you tried the ORWO NC21. I have some of it, but I am not good at dealing with old film, so I would like to ask for some exprience.
Dear Thomas–
Please let me know what kind of help you need.
Best regards,
Vesselin
I would like to ask about which iso I should shoot for. It have been keeped in a fridge for 30 years. Thank you.
Hello Thomas–
As time passes, the film gets “exposed” to certain extend due to radiation, temperature or light, reaching the emulsion. This eats up from the sensitivity of the film, creating an “image” or “fog”. Now the question shall be how much sensitivity is gone. Also, I would consider the type of the film and its sensitivity wideness — there are certain color negatives that may be exposed +/-5 stops or even more, but color slides do not bear that much deviation from its original ISO.
On the other hand, you may suppress the fog by adding to the developer benzotriazole or other anti-fogging agent.
With all this in mind, if you have NC-19 (ISO 64), I would not go lower than 15 – 32 ISO (1 – 2 stops pull), would add benzotriazole and will adjust my development time to reflect the calculations. If you shoot at ISO 64, consider this as push and adjust again the development time/temp.
Hope this helps.
Best regards,
Vesselin
Hello Mr. Vesselin. Appreciate your reply. As a beginner, I can only search for store to develop my NC21. Therefore, if I choose to develop with C41, can I add benzotriazoles to it still? And how much should I add?
Hello Thomas, I would look for new chemicals online, the process is C-5168. It is not difficult, assuming you have proper equipment/place. Benzotriazole is added to the developer, if I remember correctly 0.002 g/L. I think I posted the formula here.
Best regards,
Vesselin