Picked up an unopened 100 sheet box of Kodak Plus-X for what I thought was a reasonable price and here are the first two shots. At first, I thought my lens was either smudged or fungus-y but it was clean. Doesn't inspire much confidence in the rest of the box but I'm hopeful.Chamonix field camera, Nikkor-SW f4.5 75mm lens.
21-yr old Plus X: the perils of buying expired film by Kenny Johnson, on Flickr
21-yr old Plus X: the perils of buying expired film by Kenny Johnson, on Flickr
Kenny
Not seeing it. Can you be specific?
Expired film cannot make images out of focus. This is a different problem entirely. The grain appears to be out of focus in those areas, indicating a scanning issue. Also, the (underside ?) of the scanner glass seems to be showing marks/smudges, which indicates the focus may be shifting closer to the lens in spots. If I were to hazard a guess, I'd say the optical receptor is losing alignment in one corner. Try moving the film to the opposite corner and rescanning. Or, try rotating the film 180 degrees and rescanning. My supposition is the out-of-focus areas will move.
The only reason to buy 20 year old film is because it’s likely to have defects and anomalies.
Didn't think of that. Will try to do it and see what happens. Funny you mention it because I very recently took my Epson V700 'apart' and cleaned the glass surfaces, top and bottom.Originally Posted by consummate_fritterer
Dunno if you're saying that tongue-in-cheek but the lower left of both images is 'hinky', especially the second one.
NOT tongue-in-cheek. I do now see an odd texture in the second image, lower left. But didn't before and still don't see it in the first.
Expired film will commonly show increased base fog- resulting in a loss of emulsion speed and contrast. Which can be compensated for, up to a point. Where that point is located is up to you. That said, the problems you show are not ones commonly associated with old film. If you have darkroom access, make a 'proper proof' of your negs and any film-related issues should show up.
Good point, and scratches in the second negative should be visible just holding the neg up to a light, if you can't make contact proofs.
I do have a small light table and, normally, use it pre-scan to see what I can. Didn't do it last nite in my haste to scan. Holding the negs up to a light didn't seem to show what the scans do. I will check both negs on the light table with a loupe tonight. Alas, I have no darkroom access; everything gets scanned. Which is ironic when you think about it.
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