How Long Does Film Last?

[ASRafferty]

If you have no patience with idiot spouses who have freezers full of film, no idea what it is, and the need to sort "the good" from "the bad" and "the ugly," please stop reading now... also, I'll ask the mods to put this where it belongs if not here.

I'm starting to sort through all Ted's film in preparation for selling it, and wonder if there is some "master" reference somewhere that can help me figure out expiration dates and whether the fact that all of this has been kept refrigerated (yes, he had an entire freezer and a refrigerator dedicated to film) somehow mitigates those dates, so that the film is still usable.

It's an eclectic collection of Kodak color rolls and sheets, Fuji color same thing, some "no-name" B&W sheets... names I recognize like Provia, Velvia, TMax100, sheets of 4x5, 5x7, 13x18, and expiration dates from as early as '01 all the way to next year! I haven't even finished going through the rolls yet.

So, I'm looking for "Film for Dummies," if such a thing exists. Anyone? Thanks for any help you can offer.

Amy

[David A. Goldfarb]

I'd imagine Ted was pretty careful about his film, putting it in the freezer as soon as he got it, and film stays pretty well in the freezer. In general slow films keep longer than fast films, B&W keeps longer than color, and negative film keeps longer than slide film, and all film keeps better frozen. Polaroid is very perishable and should be used by the expiration date, and may be refrigerated but not frozen.

So if he has slow B&W neg films like Pan-F, Tech Pan, and such that are 15 or 20 years out of date, they're probably in pretty good shape. Kodachrome 25 holds up pretty well, and sells for an absurd price on the internet (and so does APX 25 B&W neg).

Faster films like Tri-X or HP-5+ start to build up base fog more quickly. I've used Tri-X that was well stored and more than 10 years old, but I wouldn't use it for anything too important.

I've used well kept Vericolor II that was over 20 years old, and the negs had a strong magenta shift, but it was within the realm of correction.

With color slide film, the slide is the final product or the reference for the final product, so color shifts are less tolerable with slide film. More than 5-years out of date requires some testing to see if you can filter or process your way out of magenta shift.

If you're looking to sell it, post a list by film format, type, and expiration date in the classifieds and take the best offers. If you're looking to give it away, then the recipient can sort it out.

[ASRafferty]

If you're looking to sell it, post a list by film format, type, and expiration date in the classifieds and take the best offers. If you're looking to give it away, then the recipient can sort it out.

Thanks, David... it will go up for sale in the proper places when I have a better sense of what it all is, and whether the expiration date on the box means something, or not so much. I can't tie any of the names in your post to anything I see here, but as I continue to research this, I'm sure it will come together more for me.

[Brian Ellis]

Refrigerated b&w film in unopened protective packaging from '01 forward should be fine, maybe a slight loss of speed (half stop or so) for the earliest expiration dates. I rarely use color film so I don't know about it.

[ASRafferty]

Refrigerated b&w film in unopened protective packaging from '01 forward should be fine, maybe a slight loss of speed (half stop or so) for the earliest expiration dates. I rarely use color film so I don't know about it.

Thank you, Brian... actually, the B&W in the freezer is in white "jackets" or boxes, with no brand name on them that I can see, but they are marked "orthochromatic" and "panchromatic," 5x7, with exp dates of '08 and '09... so, short of knowing who made them, I think I'll be able to offer them without caveats about how old they are!

[CG]

I don't think you need to worry about the expiration date as much as a buyer needs to know what their needs are.

If you simply list things as follows:
Film name . . .. size . . . quantity . . expiration date . . opened or not

Like so:
Tri-X . . . . 8x10 . . . 2 boxes of 25 sheets . . . 12/2009 . . . unopened
Plus-X . .. . 4x5 . . . .1 box . . . . . . . . . . . . .04/1999 . . opened (10 sheets left)

Most of us here (or wherever you choose to list it)will be able to think out what we need.

C

[mdd99]

CG's advice is spot on. Buyers can then judge what the risk is when they make an offer. When listing the items, I also suggest adding a brief preface about the cirumstances, including that Ted took great care when selecting and packaging his film.

[ASRafferty]

Thanks, Mike... I did exactly that -- publishing a list with exp dates, etc., and asking for best offers -- and I had just as many people urging me to just "pick a number" instead, as I had folks making offers! However, it's all gone now, and I definitely appreciate the responses I got here.

I'm literally dreading the thought of publishing a list of all the other equipment, considering what an undertaking the film alone was! But I'm not ready to just sell the whole thing to a dealer, without making some effort to get it directly into hands that will love and use it like Ted did. Maybe I'll get there, though.

Next come the 13x18cm film holders -- another mystery when I try to figure out how much more prevalent they are in Europe, vs the impact of shipping and the value of the dollar, finding the US users, etc etc etc!

It's going to be a long year.