Expired Film, very expired...

[trink408]

What are your thoughts on buying expired slide film; worth a try or stay away??

I was looking at some velvia slide film for sale, but it expired 10 years ago. Was stored in a cool dry place until now.

Curious what your experiences have been with expired film.

Thanks

[D. Bryant]

What are your thoughts on buying expired slide film; worth a try or stay away??

I was looking at some velvia slide film for sale, but it expired 10 years ago. Was stored in a cool dry place until now.

Curious what your experiences have been with expired film.

Thanks
In your example only if it is very very very cheap. Chances are transparency film that old will be really off color and have lost speed.

Don Bryant

[trink408]

In your example only if it is very very very cheap. Chances are transparency film that old will be really off color and have lost speed.

Don Bryant

Thanks for the advice...

Is slide film more sensitive to time then color negative?

[Alan Davenport]

You're more likely to notice the changes in transparencies because there won't be any color correction like you'd get when printing negatives.

[eddie]

i use all kinds of film that is expired. i am using some C41 film that expired in 2004 with no problems. i use E6 film that is about that old with no problems.

i used 14 year old slide film that was stored in an attic that was no good.

i would say try it. can you buy a little and see how it goes? if it has been stored well it is probably good. obviously do not use it for anything important. i would think that 25-50 cents/sheet would be a reasonable amount to pay. keep us posted.

eddie

[Gene McCluney]

I have used ancient slide film (in medium format) that has shifted in its color balance, but if you scan, you can correct for this. Shifting in color does not mean absence of color, as would be the case of processed, faded slides.

[trink408]

Well this seller is asking 50.00 for 50 sheets and it actually expired in 1993, too much in my opinion...

I found some other 2 year expired provia slide film I'm going to try instead. Never shot on Provia, interested to see the results.



Thanks for all the tips guys!! Love this place.

[Gene McCluney]

Well this seller is asking 50.00 for 50 sheets and it actually expired in 1993, too much in my opinion...

I found some other 2 year expired provia slide film I'm going to try instead. Never shot on Provia, interested to see the results.



Thanks for all the tips guys!! Love this place.

Yes, that is too high a price for too old film. Another thing to consider..always be sure the "old" film you are interested in is still in sealed packages. Particularly the vapor-seal foil wrap that prevents the surrounding atmosphere from influencing the film.

I would never consider a partially used box of color sheet film, regardless of how well it was stored.

[trink408]

Yes, that is too high a price for too old film. Another thing to consider..always be sure the "old" film you are interested in is still in sealed packages. Particularly the vapor-seal foil wrap that prevents the surrounding atmosphere from influencing the film.

I would never consider a partially used box of color sheet film, regardless of how well it was stored.

Will definitely buy only sealed film, thanks for the tip!!

[anchored]

My personal take on buying outdated film: Consider the possibility that it may very well be good... but then again it may have degraded... one never can be sure and will take a gamble on. This applies also to films in sealed boxes. I've had two bad experiences shooting outdated film, both times medium format color negative films (Kodak NPC & Fuji Reala), both groups of film in sealed boxes reportedly kept refrigerated, and both outdated by approximately 3-4 years.

If I'm shooting locally or in a studio setting, I might consider using outdated film since reshoots can be done. But to me it's not worth taking that gamble when shooting "once in a lifetime" situations, or places I'm not likely to revisit. The cost of film when travel is involved is a drop-in-the-bucket when all things are considered, and something I personally won't take a chance with. For such trips only fresh film is used.

[roteague]

I don't understand why anyone would purchase film that is questionable. Buy fresh film and don't worry about it.

[Gene McCluney]

I don't understand why anyone would purchase film that is questionable. Buy fresh film and don't worry about it.

Why, because for some, Photography is a hobby, and old film can be very cheap. And..if you process yourself, then you can test a sheet (roll) or two and just find out very quickly how good it is.

I would never use "old" film on professional assignments, but I have used "short dated" film, after testing.

[roteague]

Why, because for some, Photography is a hobby,

It is for me too.... but I don't shortchange my work, and use sub-par materials.

[eddie]

It is for me too.... but I don't shortchange my work, and use sub-par materials.

it all comes down to money! maybe the OP can shoot 5 times the film if he buys it expired! i know i can. i buy expired medium format film for $1/roll. so that means i can shoot 4-7 times as much film as i could if i bought it new.

the best part of it is that of all the 100s and 100s of roll film i have shot that was expired....NONE of it gave me any bad results EXCEPT one roll. that roll was a roll of 800ASA that i carried around with me in SE Asia for 7 months before shooting it......so i take full responsibility for ruining that roll!

i buy expired film for my LF shoots also. no problems other than the stuff that was stored in the attic (another that i figured was bad). so taken the extreme stuff into account i have shot several hundred rolls of 120 film with a failure rate of about .05 percent. in LF i think i have shot almost 1000 sheets. again, with the failure rate very low.....and with my "properly stored" negs it has been zero %.

so as you can see i have saved $1000 of dollars shooting expired film. but as i stated earlier i use fresh films for paying jobs....cause i am not stupid! :) :)

OH! and the best part of all this is that the one roll of 800ASA film that did have a color shift.....i sold 3 prints out of the 10 shots that were on the roll! no shit! people loved the colors and have bought 3 different images off that roll! so i am winning!

eddie

[D. Bryant]

i would think that 25-50 cents/sheet would be a reasonable amount to pay. eddie
IMO, that's way to much for 10 year old transparency film, 50 sheets for about $5 is what I would be willing to spend.

Don Bryant

[Alan Davenport]

Well this seller is asking 50.00 for 50 sheets and it actually expired in 1993, too much in my opinion...

Your seller is not rational. I'll pay a dollar per sheet for transparency film that is recently expired (1 year or less) and has been cold-stored. For stuff that's 14+ years out of date, 20 cents per sheet is a fair price to both parties, IMO.

[Jim MacKenzie]

Old film can be a bargain and well worth using, but it is only likely to be usable if it is near its date or if it has been frozen (ideally in a chest freezer at temperatures near -18 C / 0 F). Velvia 50 stored this way can keep for years. There are still people with large caches of Ektar 25 and Kodachrome 25 that should be good for awhile with this sort of storage.

However, you should treat all sources of expired film as suspect unless you know them and trust them. There are some people that I know that if they asked if I wanted to buy some expired film that had been freezer-stored, I'd probably buy it (as long as it were no faster than ISO 400; faster film doesn't age that gracefully). However, I'm not so keen to buy expired film from eBay unless the price is very, very right. I'm far more likely to take a chance on slow black-and-white film than any other.

I bought a couple of hundred feet of recently-expired (February 2006) Pan-F Plus in fall of 2006 from Freestyle in Hollywood, California. I trusted that they wouldn't let their stocks of film get very hot, and with the low ISO, I figured the film would age gracefully. The film has been just fine and I've gotten a lot of good images out of it, and only paid about $12 per 100 feet.

Of course, test on appropriate subjects. A test roll on your niece that you can photograph at will is probably fine. A roll on a once-in-a-lifetime holiday is probably not so fine unless you have done prior tests first.

[scott russell]

I came across some "cold stored" but not refridgerated Provia that expired in 2004. I figure its worth it if its only .50 cents a sheet. Would it do it any better/worse to freeze it once i get it, after its been unfrozen for years? I doubt it makes any difference, but the lot of film will last me more than a few months and i could store 4/5ths of it in the freezer while i'm shooting the first box.

[mrladewig]

I think outdated by 10 years is just too much to ask of E-6, but others will obviously have a different opinion on this. Remember that the film was manufactured at least a couple years BEFORE that. As for myself I've been OK so far with outdated film, but haven't used anything that old. I've used a few different groups of outdated film. I have a couple hundred sheets of 2004 Provia sheets with a slight green shift and a tendency to curl a bit, but at $0.32 per sheet, I'll keep shooting it. I can work this out in scanning. I have a bunch of 2006 Provia and Astia quickloads and both have been totally fine. I don't have any current Astia to compare to, but it seems fine. I've shot quite a bit of fresh Provia and shot side by side tests with the fresh and outdated film, so I have a very good base line on the Provia.

I think you definitely need to run some tests on a batch of outdated film before you use it in the field. And, you need to use it in a timely fashion. Don't just let it accumulate in your own freezer.

[Aahx]

I found a couple of old boxs of Fuji Astia and Kodak Exkachrome 100 ready loads that had been sitting around the house for 10 years I am currently testing. This is non refrigerated... so I am not expecting much at all out of it. But it is still worth a test sheet to see. I will take them into the lab this week to see how "bad" they look. I am not expecting much though.. hehe.

[jnantz]

i use outdated film all the time.
i never have troubles.

i'm still eating my way through 20 100sheet boxes 5x7 of tri x
expired in the 90s that i got for 1 penny a sheet ...

it all depends what you are using the film for.
if it is for personal use and having fun, i wouldn't worry about expired film.

with everything though, test your film and realize that the final result
may not be what you expect

[George Stewart]

I think $50 for a 50-sheet box of out of date Velvia is a bit much. I'd go $35. That said, I've shot a lot of more than 10-year old Velvia (kept in my freezer) and it was more than fine! Unless one is doing commercial work, I think out of date film (unless it is high ISO - like 3200) at a good price is a great value! In my experience, out of date 3200 ISO should be tossed.

[butterflydream]

I would buy. If the unexpectedness is totally excluded what remains with photography?

[CG]

Badly expired slide film is good for heavily filtered work where dead on color balance is not a factor. Think very interepretive color and strong filters.

C

[Glenn Thoreson]

Four years out of date is not unreasonable. The only way to find out is shoot some and see. If it's still usable, it would be a good idea to freeze any excess to slow down deterioration. Good luck.