Film preservation: Deep freezing versus refrigerating?

[Paul Schilliger]

I have been shooting outdated film (Fujichrome) kept in a deep freezer for years. I have never noticed any aging or color cast. But I recently purchased some stock and my small deep freezer is already full! How does film keep at 10 degrees C (50 F)? I have access to a large refrigerator, but I'm not sure the temperature is cold enough to ensure a few years of good preservation. Also, is it better to keep the deep freezer at very low temperature or would, say: minus10C (12F) suffice? Any idea? Thanks!

Paul

[Rob Tucher]

Pro film is good until the posted date as long as it is refrigerated until then. Amateur film is good until its date on the shelf and somewhat longer refrigerated. Moving any film at the posted date to the freezer pretty much stops aging at that point, but not indefinitely. Refrigeration does not stop it but slows it. I've read that pro film is ripened to near its optimum and then sold, whereas amateur film ripens at room temperature and is best close to its date, and if you freeze either near its date they are the same thing from that point on. I'd refrigerate your newer stock and shoot the older stuff first, and then move the newer to the freezer as its date approaches and you make room.

[Ted Harris]

Freezing the film will virtually stop any color shift. It will not last forever though as gamma and other radiation will eventually lead to the deelopment of some base level fogging on the film. This takes years but it is hard to say how many. I am shooting Astia that is dated 1999 and has been frozen since 2001 and was refrigerated befroe that. There is no noticable fog or shift in this film. That is the oldest I have.

[QT Luong]

For me, the savings of buying a 15 boxes of 8x10 Astia at $60/box instead of $350/box justified getting a new freezer installed in the garage.

[Thilo Schmid]

Paul, If you consider the cost of a proper film stock, you might want to buy a second-hand-freezer.

[Julio Fernandez]

Hi Paul: the only thing aginst very long time freezing is cosmic rays. Evidently, your experience tells us that they have not had any effect. Deep freezers running at -10 to -15 Deg. C are much better than refrigerators running at 10 Deg. C for the simple reason that the rate of chemical reactions is cut in half for every 10 Deg. C drop in temperature. Over the short time that would not matter. Looking at your pictures, I would not mind using 50 year old film if that is what you use, though I might not get the same results even with new film.

[Paul Schilliger]

50 years old film? Maybe worth a try if you find some! That's what I thought when I saw Esser's images in an other thread the other day ;-) (I liked them!). My older films are maybe 3-4 years old and there is no way to detect their age. A friend uses frozen Fujichrome 50 that he bought in 1990 and it is still fine.

Swapping my small freezer for a larger one would probably be a worthwile investment as it seems that my taking off as a professional film waster is not yet about and my stock might last for a while... I just have to find a place. No garage and wife has already been sollicited beyond decency.

Julio, useful information about the chemical reactions being proportional to the temperature! Then of course a refrigerator is not the optimal solution.

Tuan, I hope you like your Astia, for you could bound to it for a little while! ;-) Nice film, and good deal.

[Jonathan Brewer]

A few months ago I was checking out e-bay and there was three boxes of 4x5 Kodak Hie infrared, and no takers, I took it and I've loaded 8 sheets and will be testing it in the next few days, the guy says it was refrigerated all the time he kept it, it's dated 1977, I'm going to shoot/bracket a couple of sheets with an R25, same thing with a R29, and an 89B, and will be taking it to David Wood/Dr5 who recommended I shoot it at 200 for his process, I'd love this stuff to still be good, I'll find out in a few days.

[Paul Schilliger]

27 years old film! That will be an interesting experiment. If it was refrigerated and not deep frozen, my guess is that there could be some uneveness within the film surface. Good luck!

[Jonathan Brewer]

It may well be wishfull thinking, but I rolled the dice for peanuts for the possibility of coming up with some interesting effect, we'll see.