Best practices for frozen sheet film

[Daniel.E]

I've been shooting either fresh film or film that I got in some film holders from who knows when. I have some boxes in the freezer that I'd like to shoot in the next few weeks and last night I started to wonder, how am I going to get the sheets I need from those frozen boxes? what's the best practice for frozen sheet film? my guess is to take the box out of the freezer, let the sheet get to room temperature, load the holders, and put back the box in the freezer.

Is there any other way?

[Peter Lewin]

take the box out of the freezer, let the sheet get to room temperature, load the holders, and put back the box in the freezer.


You got it! Simplest is often best. The only addition I suggest is to keep the boxes in ziplock bags while they are in the freezer, since the humidity in a freezer is high.

[jp]

I freeze film too. I wouldn't be in the habit of repeated thawing of film. In theory it's fine. In practice too much back and forth from the freezer could let repeated moisture accumulate if it's not perfectly sealed. (ziplock bags and their like are not perfect seals) When film comes out to be used, I keep it at room temp till it's gone. If it takes a few months to use the film, no big deal.

[Daniel.E]

Good, thank you! I like hearing what others do in that scenario.

[Drew Wiley]

Depends on the humidity. Unless you live in high desert conditions, any water vapor in the package itself can condense on your film when you re-freeze it and
potentially ruin it. A helpful gadget is those do-it-yourself freeze-dry food packaging gadgets. They suck the air our of the plastic bag at the same time they
heat seal the opening. About a hundred bucks. But I'd double-bag in any event, even if you using ordinary trashcan liners and simply squeezing the air out first.

[Alan9940]

For 35 years, I've pulled LF frozen film from the freezer, let it warm for about 24 hours, load holders, and then return film to the freezer. Knock wood, but I've never had any issue. I am careful to remove as much air as possible from the inner plastic bag, fold over the open end to ensure a somewhat good seal, and then put the box into a Ziplock freezer bag.

[Jim Noel]

You got it! Simplest is often best. The only addition I suggest is to keep the boxes in ziplock bags while they are in the freezer, since the humidity in a freezer is high.

I believe the humidity in a freezer is low,not high.
I keep mine in a zip lock bag,but never refreeze it.

[knjkrock]

So is film really frozen? Or stored in a freezer? Or is it already frozen, even at normal ambient temperature?

[koraks]

Frozen means below the freezing point of water. So at ambient temperatures, I wouldn't call it frozen, no. But obviously it is solid. I'm not sure what you mean by your question, as the only answer I can come up with is so obvious.

[goamules]

I can slide sheets out of the box/bag immediately after pulling from the freezer.

[LabRat]

The refrigerator section can be moist, but the freezer is dryer... As the doors are opened and closed in a damp environment, more frost builds up on the condenser... Be aware that auto de-frost units get very damp when they shut down for their cycle, and all of the frost melt has to go somewhere (stay somewhere in that sealed unit), so it can get very wet in there then...

I had a bunch of B/W film in the bottom of a deep freezer for awhile (that was rarely opened), and when used, it was very dried out and developed unevenly... A longer pre-wet bath helped very much...

Steve K

[Jac@stafford.net]

[...] The only addition I suggest is to keep the boxes in ziplock bags while they are in the freezer, since the humidity in a freezer is high.

Typo, I think. Freezers today are very dry. One small point - not all ziplock type bags are impermeable. IOW, some will allow air and water to penetrate, although slowly. In fact, freezer burn is caused when water passes from the product, through the bag, dehydrating it.

[Noah A]

When I buy my film I put the film box in a ziploc back and put it in the freezer. I try to get most of the extra air out of the ziplock.

When I'm ready to shoot it, I take it out and let it sit overnight before removing it from the ziploc, to avoid condensation.

I've never tried to re-freeze the film, but that's mostly because my film only comes in boxes of 10 sheets and I usually load the whole box into holders at one time. I've never had a problem using this method.

[Cor]

Probably over-kill, but works for me:

Have a lot of different film stocks frozen at -20degC, and the of the films I use the most I have a working stock of 10-20 sheets at +4degC, all in Zip-lock bags, when I need film I take it out of the +4degC koelkast and let it warm up for 2-4 hours.

This does means that the stock boxes get thawed 2-3 times and frozen again, never had a problem.

God luck,

Cor