Expired film

[leewald]

Don't know if this has been discussed previously, but what is the general consensus of using film that has expired but has been stored in a freezer.

 

[Canon Fan]

Well I may sound like the village idiot here but I have used consumer grade film (stored on a shelf at room temp :shock: ) that was almost a full year expired and had good results. Although I shoot mostly digital so my opinion may not have much weight behind it :scratch:

 

[tr0gd0o0r]

From previous threads, the general consesnsus is that using expired film stored in a freezer should give good results, but if you're doing work for clients, I wouldn't recommend it just on good principle.

From personal experience, I've only shot one roll and it looked fine, I can let you know for sure soon though, I've got 13 rolls just waiting to be shot

 

[selmerdave]

Yes I posted before, I've had good results with frozen expired film. Like above I probably wouldn't use it for something critical, just in case. A few months ago I bought a lot of film from a pro that kept it frozen, and I've now shot quite a number of them and they have all come out perfectly. This included a variety of films, B&W and color slides from a few different manufacturers, and they were all expired between 1989 and 1994.

I guess the main issue would be how confident you are that they have been frozen since new.

Dave

 

[santino]

I shot 8 medium format rolls of Hp5 that had been stored in a fridge, expired 1989, it worked pretty good.

 

[leewald]

A friend gave me a bunch of rolls of various iso speeds so I just want to use the expired film to check how the different iso speeds respond to certain situations before I go out and "accumulate" to much of a certain iso without first knowing how they respond to what I want to do. So I have no intention of using them for "client" purposes. Thanks for the info. Off topic question: how do I change or edit my user info?

 

[DocFrankenstein]

A friend gave me a bunch of rolls of various iso speeds so I just want to use the expired film to check how the different iso speeds respond to certain situations before I go out and "accumulate" to much of a certain iso without first knowing how they respond to what I want to do. So I have no intention of using them for "client" purposes. Thanks for the info. Off topic question: how do I change or edit my user info?

Errr... it's hard to say, because they're expired the effect may not actually match what the actual film looks like.

But if it's been in the freezer, it's ok.

 

[EmergentFungus]

Hello there, I'm new. You speak of freezing film...What does that do?

 

[BernieSC]

I just used some a few weeks ago that was 10 years out of date that I had in the freezer and it worked fine. If you have it in the fridge or freezer I would bet it would be fine to use. Yes there is a chance but I have never used outdated film myself that was bad.

As far as the poster asking what does freezing do? Well film is a chemical base and at high temps it gradually starts degrading. Cold or freezing temps slows down or stops that degration. Just like having a steak out on the counter or freezing it, it will last only days outside of the freezer but it could last possibly years in a freezing temp.

 

[wharrison]

Our small, local camera shop had several dozens of rolls of color print film (ASA/ISO 200) that were going outdated. So I purchased nearly the entire group and placed them in the freezer. Shared a number of rolls with my daughter and her husband, they also placed them in the freezer.

I don't believe I'll have any problems within the next few years provided the rolls are allowed to thaw out - which they do rather quickly; shoot the thawed out rolls within a short period of time (a month or two) and have them processed as quickly as possible after the roll(s) is completed.

Hope this is useful.

Bill