Freezing Exposed Film ?

[ruben]

By some happy or unhappy mistake, I thought one of our members use to freeze film after exposing it, in order to process at convenience.

I wrote him asking about his results, and he clarifyied that I misunderstood him and he was talking only about freezing film before use. He processes immediately after exposing, like most of us.

Nevertheless, since I find myself most of the times either without time or without will to process my exposed films, and throwing developer in scandalous pace, I would like to ask your opinions or experience as to how freezing exposed film may affect or not the images.

Thanks,
Ruben

 

[btgc]

Years ago at photolab I were advised to refrigerate exposed film if not planning to bring it soon for processing.
I think it's worth for couple of months, not a days or even week or two. Should help great in hot countries.

No side effects discovered so far from putting exposed film in cooler, but I'm not very purist in this aspect.

 

[mllanos1111]

I thought I read somewhere that Ansel Adams would do the same.
I'll have to look through the books again.

 

[Mackinaw]

......I would like to ask your opinions or experience as to how freezing exposed film may affect or not the images.

While I don't do this often, I have thrown a partially exposed roll of B&W film in the freezer for a few weeks before I get the chance to thaw it out and finish it. I haven't noticed any difference in the negatives.

Jim B.

 

[sanmich]

I wouldn't freeze them, but I do drop them in the fridge until processing.

 

[bmattock]

I sauté them with onions. Delicious.

 

[Benjamin Marks]

I wouldn't do it absent some emergency. Refrigerator freezers tend to be fairly high in humidity, unless they are _really_ cold (like a chest freezer). Now if you lived in Fiji, or some other tropical locale, I could see it. But in a zip-loc bag with some sort of desiccant. Non-superspeed B&W film doesn't "age" so rapidly that having a roll sitting on a shelf for a month is going to make a difference, in my opinion.

Ben

 

[navilluspm]

I read a few years ago (I think it was in Ansel Adams the Negative) that if you are not able to process the film within 48 hours, Kodak suggests cooling or freezing the film. The danger is condensation, of course, so a sealed bag with little air is appropriate. I did it once, and it turned out fine.

 

[sanmich]

I wouldn't do it absent some emergency. Refrigerator freezers tend to be fairly high in humidity, unless they are _really_ cold (like a chest freezer). Now if you lived in Fiji, or some other tropical locale, I could see it. But in a zip-loc bag with some sort of desiccant. Non-superspeed B&W film doesn't "age" so rapidly that having a roll sitting on a shelf for a month is going to make a difference, in my opinion.

Ben

The film aging is not the problem as I understand it from the OP question.
The issue is the deterioration of the latent image with time, which is quite fast. IIRC, under average condition, you could wait about one month between shooting and processing. considering some film waits in my camera for a couple of weeks, I tend to think that keepin processed film cold is a good idea.

 

[sienarot]

I'm inclined to think freezing or refridgerating exposed film is unnecessary for most cases.

Like many people here, the time span from the start of my roll to the end can be weeks, sometimes months, apart. I've yet to see any noticeable degradation in any of the film I've shot be it colour negative, slide, or black and white. I even had an exposed roll of Velvia sit in my camera for about 8 months before I had a chance to finish it. I started it at the end of a winter, left the camera on the shelf while spring and summer passed, and I eventually finished it in the middle of the following winter!

Even if cooling the film does prevent or slow the deterioration of the image, it would only be most affective on the latter part of the roll (assuming the roll in question took longer than a day or two to finish). If you're really that paranoid, you may as well be freezing/refridgerating your camera while the film is loaded after each use until you're finished the whole roll!

While I'm sure there is a bit of truth to the deterioration of exposed film, I would think it'd only be applicable for extreme cases when great periods of time elapse from the time it's exposed to when it's developed, such as several months to years. And it would probably affect certain kinds of films more than others, ie: high speed negative films would be more at risk than black and white.

Maybe the suggestion was more intended for older films and not so much for modern ones?