What do you do with lots of expired film?

[Ronald_H]

There seems to be a deep psychological need for having fresh film... Film will age and you will see it some day, in one way or another. But if you understand how it ages, and have zeroed in on how to treat it, it will save you a lot of money. More importantly, your pictures will still be as good as if they were taken with fresh film.

 

[nikon_sam]

Interesting thought...if I don't start using the film I have right now I will be in the same boat...a bunch of out dated film...although most is frozen it will become dated in a few years...
I should just start rolling & shooting...
I have plenty of cameras to choose from and some I haven't yet used like my re-skinned Argus C3...been wanting to see what that will produce...

 

[charjohncarter]

Kodak 400 max expired 2002 (it works)

 

[Highway 61]

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?

Nothing special if you allow it to come back to normal temperature before opening the box and using it ; no ; no ; no.

Color Film: Is there a chance to save such outdated film by removing the colors with PS or will there be an obvious loss of overall image quality for the same reasons I listed for the B&W film above?

Of course ; no.

Might I add that you speak of frozen films. My answers would be slightly different if not.

 

[sepiareverb]

There's a guy on apug who is recycling it. He develops it out, then bleaches it in the dark. Dries it up in the dark and respools it. It gets really slow, but has an interesting look.

 

[raid]

This guy seems to have plenty of time on his hands.

 

[meanstreetshooter]

Test...

Test...

I always save expired film to test cameras/lenses/magazines purchased from dealers or the bay. This also applies to repairs. I learned a good lesson using a Hassy magazine on a day shoot without prior testing: the seals were bad. The seller NEVER posted a feedback selection: I wonder why? Expertly repaired-at a good price-by our old friend Essex.

 

[clayne]

You pull by a stop for every 5-10 years of age. Throwing away film is completely idiotic given that the base fog of a typical film won't be overcoming it's image making facilities - even with a high speed film like TMZ.

I've given friends rolls of TMZ from the mid 90s that they exposed in 2010 with zero issues (they obviously pulled the EI down).

Never, ever throw away expired film.

 

[Ronald_H]

Maybe some recent results will convince the doubtful. If not please send all your expired film to me, but I can't promise I won't annoy you with the results 😉

Fuji Superia 400, expired in 2005. Bought at a fair for 30 cents a roll. Storage conditions unknown. Frozen since purchase, now two years ago. Shot last weekend (5th of May 2013) at ISO100 in a Nikon F90x. Developed by a generic lab (via a drugstore chain). Scanned with a Nikon Coolscan V.


Isabel's verjaardag/birthday by Ronald_H, on Flickr


Isabel's verjaardag by Ronald_H, on Flickr

Today I will be out a-shootin' a heritage railroad. Steam locomotives and such. Every roll of film in my bag is expired. The most challenging one is a roll of Ilford Delta 3200, with no date and no history. That will be fun 😉

 

[grapejohnson]

I just recently put a roll of Plus-X which expired in 1970 through a cheap Canon point-and-shoot, and developed it for 6 minutes longer to compensate for age. I also figured that the camera guessed it was ISO 400 since it obviously had no DX coding. The results were very stupid, but I've noticed that if focus is dead on with a flash, the image is very sharp. if it's out of focus it looks absolutely horrible.
http://25.media.tumblr.com/dce563f27ad9d8d18afa95dda4d1ea82/tumblr_mmirosdQ7M1r8fp8xo4_1280.jpg
http://24.media.tumblr.com/11c97f82573932463136322e4419ad2d/tumblr_mmirosdQ7M1r8fp8xo1_1280.jpg
I didn't take any precious pictures because I figured it would look pretty bad.

 

[MikeDimit]

Now I use ORWO NP22 exp. somewhere '91 and MA8 same age. Never smelled fridge. No problem at all with development. Use the films you have or donate.
Just yesterday I bought fuji superia 200 exp. 2008. for the price of 0.50 euro cents/roll of 12 frames. Perfect results.

 

[jammcat]

I'm shooting 4x5 Ektachrome right now that expired in 1995. Somebody gave me 200 sheets for free-- and the film works and shoots fine. Expired film is great.

 

[raid]

This is really good to know. I have plenty of expired frozen film.

 

[one90guy]

Use film and enjoy or sent to me.

 

[Cyriljay]

I am not afraid of them getting them expired. I compensate for colour if I'm am doubtful but they are ok. I already have some colour and B&W films 120 out of the fridge for about one and 1/2 years and planing to use them one of these days.

 

[Ron (Netherlands)]

I still use film from 2001 with one stop extra overexposure: results are excellent

 

[mdarnton]

I just used the last of some Tri-X that ran out in around 2001, been in the freezer all along. It's got quite a bit of background fog, but that doesn't really hurt the results. Still, I prefer the fresh stuff.

 

[raid]

I will use what I have. It can't be that bad if so many users still accept the results with very expired film.

 

[clayne]

I will use what I have. It can't be that bad if so many users still accept the results with very expired film.

That's because fundamentally it's just increasing in base fog and minutely affecting color shift for dye-based films. 10 year old film is easily usable.

 

[kuzano]

The primary reason to cold store or freeze film is to extend it's expiration date. If the storage has been continuous, I have repeatedly shot Color and particularly B/W films up to 15 years past expiry. The problem with color film that gets stored in the cupboard is that it gets color shift the further you go past the expiry date. Color shift does not happen on black/white film so it endures crappy closet or shelf storage out side cold storage much better than color.

But to be purposefully redundant, if you cold or freeze store either color or BW film AND keep humidity away from it, you may be able to get the same originally intended IQ for many years past the expiration date.

Frankly, except for 35mm, I don't think I have purchased any medium format or large format film that was not expired for a number of years.

I buy all my film except for 35mm on eBay as long as the seller states cold stored, seems to sell a lot of film and has mega amounts of positive feedback. My minimum feedback is that I do not buy anything from anyone on eBay unless their feedback exceeds 97.5% positive.

Have not been burned on this yet, and am happy with the results from the film. The last time I saw color shift on any color film, it was 110 cassettes, likely stored badly and 20 years old, or more. I got 100 cassettes with a camera I bought. Did shoot and process about ten rolls. One had bad color shift.

Now if someone leaves film in a car glove compartment, or on the package tray of a car and parks in the hot sun for three days, I'll show you color shift, even if the film is 3 years prior to expiration..... It's hot or humid storage that creates the problem.

So, I repeat, one cold stores or freezes film to delay or completely forestall the effects of expiration.

When I want color shift, I bake my film in an oven set at 250 to 275, for six hours, even if I just got it from Fujifilm or whoever. That's a guaranteed recipe for color shift and other anomalous processing behavior.

Another thing to note is that, (I have been told), film is chemically active and developing from the time it is rolled or packaged at the factory. Heat accelerates the minimal development that is taking place, while cold storing or freezing reduces/stops the chemical activity taking place.

So again, if you want weird.. bake it.