15 year old Tri-X

[Zach In Israel]

My wife found a box of Tri-X pan from when she was in college about 15 years ago. Any idea on how much use it will be? I have some film holders that need testing for light leaks

[Jim MacKenzie]

Probably not much good... but it's worth playing with it anyway.

Fast film will gradually fog due to cosmic radiation, no matter how it's stored.

If the film was stored in a cool place (and particularly if frozen or refrigerated) it might be usable, but with some loss of speed.

I suspect it will be useful for light leak testing, though.

[Brad Rippe]

Don't use it for anything important, but definitely use it for interesting experiments!
Good Luck

[Pat Kearns]

Back in college (in my former life) I worked as a yearbook photographer and we received as a donation from the US Air Force a case of 35mm b&w recon film that was about 25 years out of date. These were like 10 inch rolls so there were miles of that stuff. Just for the heck of it I rolled a few cassettes and shot it. That film was sharp as a tack even being so old. You should be able to use the tri-x but like mentioned before I wouldn't use it for important projects.

[Jim Galli]

Cut a sheet in half, put one half in the fix and the other develop and fix. Tape them back together and tape it to the box. You'll be able to see exactly how much film base plus fog you have to "work though". I have several boxes of 25 yr old stuff in the freezer here and consider it too far gone to bother with. OTOH I live where the background radiation from ma earth is pretty scary. That could be the difference between useable and non useable film.

[John Bowen]

OTOH I live where the background radiation from ma earth is pretty scary.

Ah, THAT explains the little green men..:eek:

[Jim Graves]

I shot 4 sheets of 4x5 Tri-X this morning that had expired in 2000 ... (was checking out a new/old camera and th box came with it) ... no fog ... just nice contrasty negatives ... a nice surprise.

[j.e.simmons]

Last year I finished up a box of Tri-x that expired in 1992. I saw no problems with it, although for most of that time it was refrigerated. Try a sheet and see what you get.
juan