What do you do with lots of expired film?

[Ronald_H]

Never, ever throw away film. I have not found film I could not use so far.

My experiences:

Vanilla 35mm C41 (Kodakcolor Ultra & Fuji Superia) , 200, 400 and 800 up to 7 years expired. Substract a stop sensitivity for each 2 years outdated. Results are consistenly excellent, no color shift to worry about. I buy up all moderately expired film I can find. Been shooting C41 for 50 cents a roll for years now.

However, I once shot a roll of 6 years expired Superia 800 at box speed, thinking it was a fresh roll. Color cast was severe, grain quite evident. Normally the picture would be considered unacceptable. Postprocessing in Photoshop fixed it though.

35mm B/W can be much older still. I processed fresh and 5 year expired FP4+ in the same tank and couldn't see any dfference.

I never used expired C-41 120, but I am currently using a batch of Agfa APX-100 and 400 in 120 format that was 10+ years expired. For some reason this has lost a lot of speed and base fog is immense, especially for the 400. But if you compensate in exposure and development, again perfectly usable.

My oldest roll was a 19 years expired roll of Tri-X. Shot it a box speed and had it developed at a lab. This was before I did it myself. Definitely very grainy and a bit dark, but they made it to the website of the artist iI shot that night.

Here is an example of that really expired roll of Superia 800. Shot at box speed, drugstore development. Lots of PP, sure, but still looks nice.


Green rat look lowrider VW beetle - Beautiful Budel 2011 by Ronald_H, on Flickr

And severly expired AGFA APX-400. Shot at ISO100, developed normally (7min @ 20 degrees) in Kodak HC-110 solution 'B'.


East Anglian railway museum by Ronald_H, on Flickr

 

[pete hogan]

I voted "freeze" but actually I refrigerate at 40F. All B&W: Tri-X, a little Plus-X remaining, BW400CN, and FOMAPAN 400.

Trust that time refrigerated stops the B&W film decay profile for many years.

Don't trust that method for color film, though.

 

[BLKRCAT]

I venture on the side of depends also. I have a brick and a bit of agfa vista that seems to not be quite all its cracked up to be when shot at box speed. I running a roll through at 50iso hoping that will give better results. If not im selling the brick for some retarded price.

 

[jsrockit]

I just give it away to someone who will use it.

 

[gb hill]

Don't ever throw away expired film. Too many of us shoot it.😀 I've shot expired film over 10 years out of date & not even cold storage & it looked good with no color shift. Then again I've shot film less than 3 years out of date & I could see color shifts. From my experience Fuji & Kodak films are better than films like Ferrania.

2 weeekends ago while waiting on the Southern 630 steam train a lady was gracious to give me 2 full bricks of Kodak Gold 100, exp. 2006. I'm sure glad she didn't throw them away. I'm gonna have fun shooting all that film.🙂

 

[alienmeatsack]

I have to agree, never throw away expired film. It's almost always still good (slide film that's older and stored well not so much in my experience) and there are a TON of us who LOVE old film and will buy it, take it, and love it.

Throwing it away would be criminal. I see it to be no different then tossing out an old Leica because it needs a CLA.

Not all expired film has the "lomo" look. I've been shooting some 2007 Kodak Portra 160NC recently that is gorgeous when processed correctly.

 

[Roger Hicks]

When I was a college student I used lots of expired Kodak slide film from the General Services Administration, which had most likely been stored without refrigeration in an army warehouse, never had a problem with the color, looked normal enough for government work.

This reminds me:

In 1966 I started to learn photography with 800 feet (4x 200 foot tins) of what was, as far as I have been able to discover, FP3, expired (as far as I recall) in 1963. It had been stored, with no special precautions, in pussers' stores in Bermuda, presumably since it was new (?late 1950s). In other words, it had cycled from 'warm' to 'hot' for a good few years. Again as far as I am aware, there was a frost precisely once in Bermuda, in 1836.

My results were often awful, not least because to begin with I didn't even know which side was the emulsion side. But the film lasted until the end of the 60s, and I learned a great deal using it. And there are still a few pictures which, to this day, printed on good paper by a competent printer (not Government surplus by a 19-year-old me), are not too bad. I was helped by the fact that my Pentax SV meter (or possibly the camera shutter) habitually overexposed by about a stop.

Cheers,

R.

 

[pete hogan]

+1. Mighty sad to contemplate a world without Kodak.

 

[colyn]

I've shot film 10-15 years old with excellent quality. I have over 100 rolls still frozen dating from the 80's and 90's..

 

[Pablito]

give to photo students so they can practice loading reels.

 

[Greyscale]

Shoot it. Adjust in post-processing if needed. Not all age-related changes are bad, you might like the effect from some expired films.

 

[grapejohnson]

I've shot Tri-X expired in 1970 that wasn't stored in any special conditions. I rated it at ISO 50 and got some surprisingly sharp, decent-toned images from it. Just try it out. If it stinks, sell it.

 

[kossi008]

I would have voted "I avoid it", but that's not an option and besides the point.

I would still keep it frozen and use it up. Maybe not the 15-year old storage-history-completely-unknown stuff for the once-in-a-lifetime pictures, but other than that...

 

[Jockos]

Any of my film that expires and isn't cold stored, I donate to less fortunate photographers.

 

[btgc]

This thread made me loading expired Konica VX 200 to burn it at EI100 as base sensitivity.

 

[Rodchenko]

Since coming back to film photography (my Minox will tell you I've never realy been away, just resting), I've been given loads of expired film by various friends. I imagine the professional emulsions are OK, since they're only a bit over, and had been kept cool.

On the other hand, I've just developed a Kodak film which was a bit older. It was intensely grainy, and had faded colours. A bit disappointing, not least because, if I'd been smarter, I'd have used it for more 'arty' shots than the general photography it was put to.

 

[ChrisN]

In the past, and before digital adjustments by PS or similar software, I would throw away expired film. Now I have a large quantity of 120 and 35mm film that is expired. If I am not interested in weird looking colors ("Lomo") or stuff like that, what are your experiences with frozen outdated film? Also, is there a difference between 120 film and 135 film?

B&W film: what happens to it after being frozen, say, for 8-10 years beyond the expiration date? Does it lose its ability to capture details? Is there a lower ISO sensitivity? Will images look muddied up?

Color Film: Is there a chance to save such outdated film by removing the colors with PS or will there be an obvious loss of overall image quality for the same reasons I listed for the B&W film above?

B&W film is pretty forgiving. The attached sample is from a can marked Ilford HP5, Type 617, motion picture film. It's at least 12 years old, with a dubious storage history (last three years in my fridge). It is a little fogged, but still develops and scans OK.

As others have said - never throw film away!

 

[robert blu]

I have 12/15 delta 400 in 120 expire date is around 2005. Not sure what to do, but I think first I'll try them in my Rolleiflex, planning to increase development time (+50% ?) and check result.Of course not for an "unique" event! Or maybe I could try them for a sort of "playful experiment" in the Holga, maybe multiple exposure or light and shadows interplay and see what happens. Just for fun, maybe it becomes ART 😀
robert
PS: I doubt about the art thing...

 

[noisycheese]

I freeze my E-6 film before it reaches its expiration date. This stops the aging process.

As for B&W, I don't freeze it before use; I just make sure to use & process it way before the drop dead date. If I can't process my B&W relatively soon after exposing it, I will freeze it till I can develop it.

I tried to use expired color film given to me by an acquaintance once - it was worthless in terms of image quality and was a waste of time.

When in doubt, throw it out.

 

[Ronald_H]

I have 12/15 delta 400 in 120 expire date is around 2005. Not sure what to do, but I think first I'll try them in my Rolleiflex, planning to increase development time (+50% ?)

You can expect about this. Delta 400 about 6 years expired. Got it for free from the guy I bought my Hasselblad from. Didn't even compensate for anything. Shot in said Hasselblad, shot and developed normally, no compensation.


Lotte by Ronald_H, on Flickr