Out of Date film

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victor anthony

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I still have a load of Fuji NPS and NPH film left over in my fridge, all out of date, but I am slowly getting through it with no colour worries at all. It was bought as backup to my digital for weddigns I have done and I dearn't use it professionally just in case but...

The last roll I sent through was from 2005 and the colours were perfect to me.

Anyone else not bothered about film dates? or had bad experiences with colour shifts?
 
Dates? On film? I didn't know film had dates. Grining! I have a fridge full of old film. For my personal use only. Nothing commercial. Works for me.
 
It might be worth testing a roll now and then. I have 20 roll of Konica VX dated September 2006 that just arrived for a grand price of £3. I'll test one this weekend.
 
mike goldberg said:
I have used refrigerated film dated by several years...
both BW & colour, with no problems.
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Oldest ones I have used were Kodak Ektachrome Elite 100 & 400 slide films, dated 1995 and 1996. I used them this spring. No problems other than the pretty substantial grain on the ISO 400, which is normal for that film.

I also Polaroid High Resolution 100 color negative film, dated 1996. No problems other than slightly strange colors, which might just come from the fact that the modern digital minilabs do not have the right color profiles for such old and out of production films. They might also be "normal" for the film. I don't know, since I never tried Polaroid color negatives when you could still buy them as new.
 
I shot a roll of VPS dated 1975 last year. It was toast. But what do you expect from 32 year old film. Two weeks ago I shot some Kodak Elite Chrome 100 from 2003 and 2005. It was fine. I also recently shot some 1985 Plus-X in 4x5 that had a fair amount of base fog.

If the film was properly stored, dates in the 1990 are probably still good, especially B&W. Color film goes bad easier than B&W.
 
BSchall said:
If the film was properly stored, dates in the 1990 are probably still good, especially B&W. Color film goes bad easier than B&W.
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I once read a claim in a photography magazine, which said that every 4 degrees below 20 degrees Celsius down to about 8 degrees Celsius will double the shelf life of color film. Going lower than 8 degrees will give diminishing returns until the film is actually frozen. So if the normal shelf life at room temperature is three years, the shelf life at 8 degrees celsius should be about 24 years. That does not sound unreasonable to me at all.

The bad news is that going above 24-26 degrees celsius will also half the shelf life in a similar manner. So in tropical conditions without air conditioning films might actually go bad much before the date on the film and even in subtropical and temperate climates you really should keep your films refridgerated at least during the summer unless you have AC.

Sorry about the Celsius degrees only; I am too lazy to convert to Fahrenheit. But I might do Kelvins next time if you prefer 😀
 
I have a 100ft. roll of Kodak Panatomic-X in my basement, unrefridgerated from the 1970's. Anyone out there brave enough to give it a try?
 
I just finished a story in the latest LHSA Viewfinder on old Panatomic X. This was a can of 50 ft if Pan X, out of date 1981. I wish i could say that it had been stored in the fridge or freezer, but it had been stuck in a dark corner in my darkroom since 1987 (when I built my current darkroom). I souped it in Beutler and it came out fine - slight contrast drop but no fog. This encouraged me to use up a couple of cans of Pan F ilford, out of date 1978-9. Worked fine too.
The slower films fare better in this instance. medium speed film like Tri X will fog with time, usually after 8-10 years. A "pinch" of Benzotriazole will take care of it, though it does lower the speed substantially.
My current challenge is four rolls of Kodak Black White with an expiry date of June 1930! A "clip" test has shown it to be around 1 asa with heavy fog. I might end up using it at 0.5 asa (did someone say tripod?) and mix up some D23/D25 with a largish pinch of Benzo and live with the speed drop!
Films like SO 115 and Tech Pan survive well. The slight speed drop that is normal with age (and not only with film as i am reminded of every morning) just means a steadier hand and/or a better tripod!
I find that you are better off with "home brewed" developers than commercially available ones (exception would be Rodinal were you can test a couple of feet and modify dilution to suit for the rest). Steve Anchell's "The Filmdeveloping Cookbook" is essential night time reading if you are into this stuff.
 
Rhoyle said:
I have a 100ft. roll of Kodak Panatomic-X in my basement, unrefridgerated from the 1970's. Anyone out there brave enough to give it a try?
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I think you'll find freeloaders aplenty, myself included. 😀
 
Tom A said:
My current challenge is four rolls of Kodak Black White with an expiry date of June 1930!
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Wow, that would be astonishing if you could still get an image from the film ! Isn't the base-fog partly/largely due to the effects of cosmic-radiation ? Is that the colloquial name - I mean the sub-atomic particles that blast us all each day. I recall reading about people looking for lost cameras from an early Everest expedition, with Kodak saying that the roll-film would be totally fogged due to the effects of cosmic-radiation.

How does the benzo stuff reduce such pre-existing "exposure" ? Or perhaps the effect of the particles is only a part of the problem, and the benzo affects some other causes of fogging . . . I suspect I should Google this at lunchtime. I am curious to know the format of the old film too. Wasn't 1930 before the current format of 35mm cassette was standardised ?!

Good luck with that film Tom.
 
I suspect that a film stuck on Everest would be bombarded with gamma rays. our atmosphere envelope probably gives us some protection. These films are packaged in tin cans with a black paper wrapper on a wooden center spool. They were "preloads" and have a small envelope covering the first 4-5 frames. You could actually load them in Leica metal cassettes in daylight. Biggest problem with them is the tendency for the emulsion to come off the nitrite support. It is all in the pursuit of research of course!
The Swedish ill fated Andree baloon expidition to the North Pole in 1898/99 was lost and in 1930 the remnants were found on the Bear island. The film was a 41/2" wide roll film in a custom made camera. After 31 years in the arctic (extreme cold and also +C temperatures) it survived. The emulsion tended to stick to the roll backing, but Kodak managed to process several of the rolls and though heavily fogged, it printed well.
If you ever go through the small town of Granna, about 120 miles north of Malmo/Copenhagen, there is a museum with large, mural sized prints from these negs. You can also get Granna Polkagrisar there, large and extrmely sticky candy bars (red and white stripes). As you look at the prints you can chew on one of these and your dentist can then afford to fo on vacation!
 
I developed some 120 color Kodak film that had been exposed 30 ago. I used Rodinal. It worked great, but it was so brittle and wanted to curl so much that I ruined most of it trying to get in on the spool. That's the problem I have with film that has been spooled for a long time; it wants to curl so bad it's very hard to load, then is very annoying after it is developed. It still wants to curl.
 
I keep all my film in the freezer and don't worry about it. I have used color film up to 15 years old and B&W up to 25 years old. Both were fine.
If I have a paying job though, I'll buy new, both because it's fresh and more so, it's the latest technology so far as grain and color go. 😎
 
Tom A said:
[...] If you ever go through the small town of Granna, about 120 miles north of Malmo/Copenhagen, there is a museum with large, mural sized prints from these negs. You can also get Granna Polkagrisar there, large and extrmely sticky candy bars (red and white stripes). As you look at the prints you can chew on one of these and your dentist can then afford to fo on vacation!
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Mmm, "polkagrisar" 🙂

But, why "polka dot"? In Sweden, all polkagrisar are striped! 😱
 
Well, after reading Toms post, I thought of this.

Collectively, we should rent some space in Super-Kamiokande or any similar underground facility. We could store film minimizing particle bombardment. The only thing we would have to worry about is Neutrinos. If we get them...we can get published...and maybe a Nobel Prize. That is Win/Win in my book.
 
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