GAF 125

GAF 125 is the same emulsion as Ansco Versapan, rebadged after the 1967 name change when General Aniline & Film dropped the Ansco branding from its consumer line. Ansco itself dated to 1842, predating Kodak by nearly forty years. Versapan was one of its longest-running panchromatic B&W stocks. The 125-speed rating put it in the same league as Plus-X and FP4 of the same era, and the manufacturer's data sheet described a tight cubic grain pattern with contrast that climbed steadily with development time.

ASA 125/22 DIN was the practical sweet spot for general work in the 1960s and early 1970s. Photographers loaded it for portraits, landscapes, and press work in a pre-T-grain world. Compared with Plus-X of the same vintage, GAF 125 ran slightly contrastier and the highlight shoulder rolled off faster. Compared with Verichrome Pan it was sharper through the midtones.

The original box recommended Ansco-brand developers that have not been made for fifty years. Photographers running surviving expired rolls have settled on HC-110 dilution B, around 6 minutes at 20C, with exposure dropped to EI 80 or 64 to compensate for half a century of base fog. Rodinal 1:50 works too and gives a more acutance-driven result. Bracket aggressively.

GAF killed the consumer photo line in 1977 when sluggish sales convinced the company to exit film entirely. There has been no fresh GAF 125 since the early 1970s. What turns up now is estate-find cassettes, sometimes bulk loads, sometimes in boxes sealed in basements for decades. Storage history matters more than nominal expiration.

Format was 35mm and a limited bulk option. There was no 120 or sheet equivalent under the GAF name.

Reciprocity exponent is 1.31. Zone Light Meter applies the correction past one second. A metered 30-second exposure becomes about 90 seconds at the negative. For expired GAF 125 on a tripod in dim interior light at EI 64, that is the kind of correction that decides whether the shadows have any density when the negative comes out of the tank.