I have found a number of old rolls of film at my mother’s house and would like to look into getting it developed. The rolls all say 126 Color film, Process 22. I have tried the local Ritz Camera and they can not send it off to be developed. So I looked it up on-line and found this film hasn’t been made since 1977.
So I’d like to process the film, the problem is I found one place on the net so far, one says it’ll take six months to a year to get developed, cost $25 a roll even if they don’t get anything. Ritz will send away 110 film and if nothing comes out it’s free. I don’t know if there is any film in there as well, I’ve never seen such film before, but it looks like the canister hasn’t come apart so I’m guessing there is film there. But my mother was a packrat, so it’s very possible that there is no film at all, but I don’t know how to check for that.
I’m also looking for a good slide viewer for the computer. I’ve been told they make them, but Ritz didn’t sell them, only had them and it was too expensive to justify letting them do it. I’d much rather do it myself so I know what pictures I should keep and which ones I don’t really want.
I’m in the DC area if anyone knows of a place I can take my film, I just don’t want to pay $300+ for film that may or may not come out and wait a year for it. Would it be possible to do myself? I’ve done it with B&W 35mm film in school.
126 was packed in a plastic cartridge. The unexposed film was on one side and moved to the other as it was exposed. The complete cartridge was sent in to the processor. It was not returned with the prints, so the likelyhood of there being no film in there is remote.
Next is to spend about $25 per roll for Rocky Mountain to run it properly. The 6-12 months wait is because they gather up orders and run them all together. The price is because nobody else does this, and because there’s a fair bit of individual attention in trying to get good images out of 30+ year old film.
Another option is to drop it off at the drugstore and hope something, anything comes out. I don’t actually know the differences between C22 and C41 processes, but silver is silver. At best, you may get pale grayish black-and-white images. Sounds like you have about 10-12 rolls of the stuff - might be worth gambling with one.
Final option is to find someone that does black and white work and have them run the film in a standard “D-76” or high-contrast “D-19” developer and hold it a bit longer than usual as old film has a way of producing “thin” (low contrast) images. Remember how I said silver is silver? Odds are good that the color dyes in that film are shot, so even if the film’s run in it’s proper color process, you may only get black and white anyway.
FWIW, 126 film is essentially 35mm film, but in a fumble-finger-proof cartridge.
I had a couple rolls of 126 film I found after my grandma died.
One was C-41 and my local Ritz sent it off to be developed. The other was C-22 and Rocky Mountain handled it. After 6 months or so I got the negatives back, but they were almost solid black - nothing usable.
I don’t blame Rocky Mountain, the film was probably 35 years old.
The problem is that once the image is placed on the photographic emulsion, it begins to degrade. Time and temperature are natural enemies, and C-22 is an old process, as other dopers have indicated. Give one roll a shot and see if you obtain a result which is usable.