{"id":9293,"date":"2026-09-29T06:00:07","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T10:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.alexluyckx.com\/blog\/?p=9293"},"modified":"2026-09-29T06:53:42","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T10:53:42","slug":"classic-film-review-blog-kodak-dppf-5246","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.alexluyckx.com\/blog\/2026\/09\/29\/classic-film-review-blog-kodak-dppf-5246\/","title":{"rendered":"Classic Film Review Blog – Kodak Direct Positive Panchromatic Film 5246"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kodak Direct Positive Panchromatic Safety Film, or Kodak DPPSF, is probably the oldest film that I have ever taken in for review. Kodak DFFPSF is one of the many motion picture films Kodak produced, originally used for duplication or special effects. This stock expired in 1957. I initially didn’t plan to run it through a review, but I decided to. What makes this review different from others is that there is no real documentation on how to develop the film other than Kodak’s specific motion picture film processes. So I thought, what if I did my usual developers but used ‘universal’ techniques for each? Well, if you’re reading this, then the mission was a success, and I have some working images. While the original speed of the film is unknown, I shot two rolls at ASA 12 and two at ASA 6. Thanks to Mario Piper for supplying the film for this review.<\/p>\n

\"Classic<\/a><\/p>\n

Film Specs<\/strong>
\nManufacturer: Eastman-Kodak
\nName: Direct Positive Panchromatic Film 5246
\nType: Panchromatic B&W Positive Film
\nFilm Base: Acetate
\nFilm Speed: Originally: ASA-80
\nFormats Available: 135 (35mm)<\/p>\n

Roll 01 – FlicFilm Classic MQ<\/strong>
\nI decided to do things a little differently here. I exposed the roll at ASA-3 and then developed it in Classic MQ (a D-76 Clone) with a 1+1 dilution for 6 minutes flat in a cold developer. The idea was to cut through the base fog. I didn’t do anything to loosen the remjet for this roll, mainly because I wanted to keep things cold. When I pulled the film out of the tank, I quickly wiped off the remjet with a paper towel; it came off easily, although it left some scratches on the negatives. The cold developer and wash had helped keep the base fog down, and I could see some images, so the combination had worked this time. The real magic came when I scanned the negatives; they came out super clean, with only a bit of post-processing needed. The grain was nicely under control while retaining decent sharpness. I feel this is the best combination so far, and I can see something like D-96 working even better!<\/p>\n

\"Classic<\/a>
Nikon F5 – AF Nikkor 24mm 1:2.8 – Kodak Direct Positive Panchromatic 5246 @ ASA-3 – Flic Film Classic MQ (1+1) 6:00 @ 20C<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Classic<\/a>
Nikon F5 – AF Nikkor 24mm 1:2.8 – Kodak Direct Positive Panchromatic 5246 @ ASA-3 – Flic Film Classic MQ (1+1) 6:00 @ 20C<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Classic<\/a>
Nikon F5 – AF Nikkor 24mm 1:2.8 – Kodak Direct Positive Panchromatic 5246 @ ASA-3 – Flic Film Classic MQ (1+1) 6:00 @ 20C<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Classic<\/a>
Nikon F5 – AF Nikkor 24mm 1:2.8 – Kodak Direct Positive Panchromatic 5246 @ ASA-3 – Flic Film Classic MQ (1+1) 6:00 @ 20C<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Classic<\/a>
Nikon F5 – AF Nikkor 24mm 1:2.8 – Kodak Direct Positive Panchromatic 5246 @ ASA-3 – Flic Film Classic MQ (1+1) 6:00 @ 20C<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Roll 02 – Kodak HC-110<\/strong>
\nFor the HC-110 roll, I exposed it at ASA-12 and developed it in what I call the “Universal” dilution, or Dil. U, which is 1+90 from the concentrate. Then I developed for eighteen minutes, with an initial one-minute agitation and then five gentle inversions every three minutes. When I first pulled this roll out of the tank, I was a little disappointed; there appeared to be nothing but fog on the strip. After closer examination in daylight, I could see some faint images on the roll, so I knew I had some success. They scanned in, and after a bit of work, I got some decent images. If I were to do this again, I wouldn’t have used such a long development time and would have used a six-minute time with a 1+63 dilution.<\/p>\n

\"Classic<\/a>
Nikon F5 – AF Nikkor 20mm 1:2.8D – Kodak Direct Positive Panchromatic 5246 @ ASA-12 – Kodak HC-110 (1+90) 18:00 @ 20C<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\"Classic<\/a>
Nikon F5 – AF Nikkor 20mm 1:2.8D – Kodak Direct Positive Panchromatic 5246 @ ASA-12 – Kodak HC-110 (1+90) 18:00 @ 20C<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\"Classic<\/a>
Nikon F5 – AF Nikkor 20mm 1:2.8D – Kodak Direct Positive Panchromatic 5246 @ ASA-12 – Kodak HC-110 (1+90) 18:00 @ 20C<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\"Classic<\/a>
Nikon F5 – AF Nikkor 20mm 1:2.8D – Kodak Direct Positive Panchromatic 5246 @ ASA-12 – Kodak HC-110 (1+90) 18:00 @ 20C<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\"Classic<\/a>
Nikon F5 – AF Nikkor 20mm 1:2.8D – Kodak Direct Positive Panchromatic 5246 @ ASA-12 – Kodak HC-110 (1+90) 18:00 @ 20C<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n

Roll 03 – FlicFilm Elementary<\/strong>
\nThis was a long shot, but I tried it because Elementary is a true universal black-and-white developer, with a single set of times for all B&W films. So I figured, what could it hurt? I went and shot this roll at ASA-6. Then there was the matter of Remjet. With Elementary, you are not supposed to pre-wash your film, but since this was also the last roll through my Elementary kit, I didn’t worry too much and developed per the instructions. Three minutes in Bath A and then three minutes in Bath B. After it came out of the tank, the remjet wiped off easily with a vaatdoek. And what I saw was some of the cleanest negatives yet, no sign of base fog and some thin negatives. It took a bit of work to pull images from these, but I’m happy with the results. They’re dark, contrasty, and moody. Yeah, there’s plenty of grain, but the images are still sharp. Rating the film at ASA-3 would have yielded better results.<\/p>\n

\"Classic<\/a>
Nikon F5 – AF Nikkor 28mm 1:2.8 – Kodak Direct Positive Panchromatic 5246 @ ASA-6 – Flic Film Elementary Developer (Stock) 3:00 + 3:00 @ 20C (Constant Rotation)<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\"Classic<\/a>
Nikon F5 – AF Nikkor 28mm 1:2.8 – Kodak Direct Positive Panchromatic 5246 @ ASA-6 – Flic Film Elementary Developer (Stock) 3:00 + 3:00 @ 20C (Constant Rotation)<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\"Classic<\/a>
Nikon F5 – AF Nikkor 28mm 1:2.8 – Kodak Direct Positive Panchromatic 5246 @ ASA-6 – Flic Film Elementary Developer (Stock) 3:00 + 3:00 @ 20C (Constant Rotation)<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\"Classic<\/a>
Nikon F5 – AF Nikkor 28mm 1:2.8 – Kodak Direct Positive Panchromatic 5246 @ ASA-6 – Flic Film Elementary Developer (Stock) 3:00 + 3:00 @ 20C (Constant Rotation)<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\"Classic<\/a>
Nikon F5 – AF Nikkor 28mm 1:2.8 – Kodak Direct Positive Panchromatic 5246 @ ASA-6 – Flic Film Elementary Developer (Stock) 3:00 + 3:00 @ 20C (Constant Rotation)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n

Final Thoughts<\/strong>
\nOne thing to note about this particular film stock is that it has a remjet layer, so if you are developing it at home, you need to clear the remjet first. This is easily done with 500mL of warm water and a tablespoon of baking soda; gently agitate for 1-2 minutes, then pour out the mixture. Usually, the pre-wash comes out black; this one ran clear right away. So I thought maybe it didn’t have remjet. After finishing the development cycle, there was some remjet left on the negatives, but it easily wiped off with my fingers. Eventually I stopped doing to remjet removal and wiped it off after the developing session I should also note that the film dried with nasty cupping, but some back-rolling cleared it up for easier scanning. Also, for the sake of transparency, I did not shoot these rolls in a straight order; I shot these in the order of roll 2, 3 and 1, which is why my EI ratings were all over the place. If you are shooting film this old, you want to use cold, dilute, fast developers, this will help keep the fog down and allow for easier scanning. While I did plan on doing at least one roll stand-developed, after seeing the fog on that first roll in HC-110, I decided against it. And for HC-110, I would suggest a 1+63 dilution at a time of six minutes.<\/p>\n

Further Reading<\/strong>
\nDon’t just take my word for Kodak DPPSF; you can check out reviews from other awesome camera reviewers!
\nNo Other Reviews Found.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kodak Direct Positive Panchromatic Safety Film, or Kodak DPPSF, is probably the oldest film that I have ever taken in for review. Kodak DFFPSF is one of the many motion picture films Kodak produced, originally used for duplication or special effects. This stock expired in 1957. I initially didn’t plan to run it through a review, but I decided to. What makes this review different from others is that there is no real documentation on how to develop the film other than Kodak’s specific motion picture film processes. So I thought, what if I did my usual developers but used ‘universal’ techniques for each? Well,Read More →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[22,2111,2110,74,406,2081,132,57,82,20,29,75],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.alexluyckx.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9293"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.alexluyckx.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.alexluyckx.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.alexluyckx.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.alexluyckx.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9293"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"http:\/\/www.alexluyckx.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9293\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10168,"href":"http:\/\/www.alexluyckx.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9293\/revisions\/10168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.alexluyckx.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.alexluyckx.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.alexluyckx.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}