"Longevity" of Exposed C-41 Film

[vijaylff]

How long can I let freshly dated, exposed color negative film stay undeveloped (at room temperature) before I see any deterioration or change in the image (color shifts, darkening/lightening, etc). Thanks,

Vijay

[Nick_3536]

The latent image will keep quite a while. Just think of all those people who shoot Christmas,easter and Christmas again on the same roll.

Will there be a change? I think that's the wrong question. The question should be can the filter pack handle it?

[Dave Brown]

A couple of years ago I cleaned out the fridge, the desk drawers, the glove compartment, etc. and found 85 rolls of old, exposed C41 film. Most of this film was consumer grade film, witch I understand holds up better in long term storage under adverse conditions. I developed it all at home using Tetenal chemicals, and the bottom line: up to 20 years after exposure, no problems. No serious color shift, no excessive fog, no speed gain or loss. Beyond 20 years I started to see unacceptable color shift, thin negatives, and excessive grain.

[kay tokugo]

Last week I found about 20 sheets of Fuji 4x5 NPS that were exposed 5 months ago and had them processed at the local lab and they were all fine. I had the lab make contact sheets and the printer said they were all good, with no color shift.

[cotdt]

don't throw away the expired film. throw it in fixer and extract all the silver, and then send the "waste" to me.