Film in Pocket All Day = Heat Damage?

D

DeanSilliman

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I'm wondering if keeping a roll or two of film in my pocket all day (or for a few days) causes damage. You hear a lot about keeping film in the freezer or fridge both before and after shooting (which I do). And I know better than to leave film in a hot car, etc. But there are a lot of days where I want a minimalist approach so I'll throw the M6 TTL over my shoulder and put a few rolls in my pocket. Sometimes a given roll will go out with me on a few different days before being used. And with Summer coming up, some of those days will be 100+ degrees.

Does the heat matter? Would the answer be different for C41 (Ektar or Reala) vs. B&W (Tri-X or Neopan 400)?? Surprisingly, searching on this site and generally around the web yielded no answers.

Dean
 
I cant imagine it being an issue. I wandered around last saturday with my M4-P and 2 rolls of expired Tri-x in my pocket in the canisters through Philly and they developed well with no issue. Ive also left film in a hot car with little noticeable effect to my eyes. I'm reasonably certain modern films can take their fair share of abuse and still be ok. I'd personally be more worried about moisture.
 
Maybe if you lit yourself on fire.

It would have to be Death Valley car trunk hot for a week to really shift the film enough to notice, especially print film. Humidity probably does more damage once the canister is opened.
 
Thanks for the quick and informative replies. It seems unanimous that there’s nothing to worry about. That makes sense, at least for B&W, in light of the decades of correspondents crawling around all kinds of forsaken places for months while yielding fantastic photos. It also supports a finding that color film can be mailed away for developing without problems.

And yes, thanks for avoiding the pocket and pants jokes. J

Dean
 
I traveled around Namibia for a month and the slide film got cooked in the heat - it was unavoidable - and perfect slides came back.
 
I had a trouble with film in a bag - it came back home unexposed because it slipped in secret compartment and I couldn't find it :eek:
 
I left some 45 rolls of exposed film (120 and 35, slide and print) in a hot tent in Holland for three very hot 14 hour days.

They were all fine.
 
DeanSilliman said:
I'm wondering if keeping a roll or t

Does the heat matter? Would the answer be different for C41 (Ektar or Reala) vs. B&W (Tri-X or Neopan 400)?? Surprisingly, searching on this site and generally around the web yielded no answers.

Dean
Click to expand...

If it's color film, you might experience a color shift from extended exposure to heat. This can happen before and after exposure. It's been my experience that post exposure damage is worse. I've never had any trouble with b+w film. Positive, color film, may be more of a problem than negative film.
 
Hi,
Well I live in Arizona and I say, well yes. But my experience is leaving my film in a camera in a car (140* all day) or in the drawer of my tech cart with similar temps will raise base fog a bit. I have heard film start to fog at 120* and that's child's play in AZ, but your pants ... Hmmm ....only you know for sure!! HAHAHA !!
 
Eh, steve, I'm with you. I've noticed some anomalous effects to the latent image in some instances, although minor, living in Phoenix all my life and now Tucson for the past couple of years. Film doesn't like ridiculous heat, but it likes it a lot better than lenses do.

-Aaron
 
I recall from one of my trips in the west African sahel zone that I had severe color shifts in some of my color slide films.

It's worth considering, however, that I made this trip under extremely difficult conditions: I travelled as a hitch-hiker on local lorries w/o air condition, accomodation was in the huts of local people, and daytime temperatures never were below 104 deg. F. I had color shifts on a number of films that I carried in my shirt pocket for a day.

Recently, I discovered that I had stored some Tmax P3200 in the trunk of my car on a hot and sunny weekend here in Germany. I'll report back on the quality of those negs once I've developed them.
 
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Reality check

Reality check

If your body ever gets hot enough to damage film you will have bigger problems.
Yes, more important even than photography. You will be dead.

Chris
 
ChrisPlatt said:
If your body ever gets hot enough to damage film you will have bigger problems.
Yes, more important even than photography. You will be dead.

Chris
Click to expand...

:D That is true!! I also have wondered from time to time if I was damaging my film by having it in my pocket all day. So far so good, no damage to report.
 
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