Practical or foolish risk? Using untested expired film (refrigerated) for a shoot.

[Certain Exposures]

Never mind! I got better search results after adjusting terms.

Update on 5/18/23:

I removed the original text just a few minutes after posting this on May 13, 2023 because I saw a few good threads. You all responded anyway - thanks! I read everything. Here's what my original post said before I replaced it:

I have a shoot coming up. I'm spending money on it. Would you buy some fresh film or use refrigerated but expired film that you bought new?

A few years ago, I purchased several boxes of 4x5 film. I've had all of them in the fridge since then. The ones I plan to use on this shoot:

Ilford HP5. No expiration date on the box (bought new).
Ektachrome 100G. It expired in 2022.

I did a shoot in April this year. The HP5 still looks good. I shot at box speed and made a few prints. Unfortunately, the box doesn't have an expiration date.

I haven't tested the Ektachrome. However, I recently finished a box of Provia 100f I bought around the same time. It expired in 2021, but the slides looked great.

[Tin Can]

Some of us only use old film, not me, I use all film

I like to process 130 year old glass plates

Just for fun

Here in my backyard

120 year old glass plate by TIN CAN COLLEGE, on Flickr

[Certain Exposures]

Cool! I want to try that process out at some point.

[LabRat]

Testing/shooting/developing a few sheets in your yard some afternoon will answer 'yer question...

Probably ok, if stored reasonably...

Steve K

[jnantz]

if it is plain black and white film that is over 10. years old, some people say over expose it by 1 stop for every 10 years I always do that and I use either d72 or ansco 130 print developer diluted 1:6 and develop your film for about 8 1/2 mins. Ansco has glycin in it so use it about 70-72F. you basically want a strong developer and not much time in it. I currently don't shoot much color as color ( I develop it in b/w chemistry and contact print the film as b/w negatives ) but when I did I under exposed it a little bit and and just gave it to the lab and didn't say anything. if it is your film purchased new and you put it in your own freezer ( and you aren't going by what somebody on the internet you bought the film from or at some swap meet, yard sale, flea market, photographica show, or shop going out of busyness said, you know, it was stored it in a meat locker in 200 feet underground or at McMurdo) I wouldn't worry at all about it. the problem isn't the way you are storing your new film, but it is people on eBay &c sometimes lie their @$$es off cause they want to make the sale .. and the film was stored on an unprotected porch in southern FLA with no AC being eaten alive by heat and humidity ...

[John Layton]

Question: is this a paid shoot? If so, then please...don't even think about using untested film!

[Mark Sampson]

Not many people are shooting film professionally these days- but I admit that was my first thought upon reading.
My own recent experience with old film was with some 4x5 Tri-X (TXP523) filmpack that expired in 1976. Turns out that its effective film speed is about EI 40, so it takes four extra stops of exposure to get past the fog. But the images looked surprisingly good!
Your results will vary of course...

[Tin Can]

8 years ago when I was still inside Chicago, a member here gave me pienty, about 100lbs of NOT OUT OF DATE film and paper, even a case of Rodinol, my favorite

I towed it in my bicycle trailer as I huffed and puffed

Cars stopped for me to cross the longest Chicago street, they could tell I was struggling to cross the 4 lanes

His DR and home was very professional

as was he

He was about to go to on a PRO shoot in South America

He said it was not worth any chance of gear or film failure, far cheaper to eliminate ANY possible problems


I love shooting old film

and new

Just got some new ancient Dry Plates which I highly value and shoot it all slowly, carefully, one at a time

Rarely!

I have about 120 NOS unused plates

add the same amount of store bought from both suppliers of Dry Plates

of course I shoot with old Plate cameras

I posted my 5X7 this morning



sometimes I cheat and use newer shutters

[Certain Exposures]

I re-added the original post text with an explanation. I'll be back later to comment. Or maybe I'll just share the results when I get them!

[Certain Exposures]

I re-added the original post text with an explanation. I'll be back later to comment. Or maybe I'll just share the results when I get them!

Guess who's back! I used 4 sheets of expired (but refrigerated) 4x5 E100 and home developed them in the Cinestill CS6 kit. They came out ok. I still have more testing to do with the Cinestill kit. I'm going to run through the posts here on it.

I did a video recap of the photoshoot and you can see some closeups of the slides on a light table if you skip to the end.