5x7 TMY - Great Holiday Deal at B+H!

[John Layton]

...just sayin'!

[Kiwi7475]

That is a really good deal… making me wish I shot 5x7….

[Sal Santamaura]

Did you order any, John? If so, what was the expiration date on the film you received?

[John Layton]

Ha! As I suspected - not out of date...but getting close at 5/24. In fact, its from the same batch as I'd purchased last year and am now almost through with...which I'd never frozen but have stored where it almost never gets above 20C (68F), and its been great!

So I'll load a couple of holders with this new film and use it alongside my "old" film on my next outing...and if the "new" film looks wonky I'll complain to B+H.

In the meantime, my gut says that all will be well...as I've never had anything but the best service from B+H...and I have a good inkling that they know a thing or two about storing film!

[Mark J]

I still wish it was a bit cheaper to get to the UK, but might buy some once i've tried the 120 pack I bought.

[Serge S]

I ordered a pro pack of Tmax 100 in November
& when I received it & looked at the expiration date it was for November - not technically expired, but it now
I was a bit surprised.

[Rayt]

Didn’t see this until this morning. Bought two boxes. Whew!

[paulbarden]

I ordered a pro pack of Tmax 100 in November
& when I received it & looked at the expiration date it was for November - not technically expired, but it now
I was a bit surprised.

When B&H is selling TMX pro packs for $39.95, I have to assume it's approaching it's expiration date. I considered buying some anyway, but decided against it. Apparently my intuition served me well.

PS: I did recently buy a few pro packs of both TMY and Tri-X, and both are dated late 2025.

[John Layton]

At the end of the day...with respect to "short dated" (within date, but close to "expiration") films...I've always found them to still provide me with the specific properties and advantages over other films which drew me to them initially, so long as I am able to compensate for any perceptible "losses" in performance due to age. The only exceptions to this would pertain to short or outdated films which had also been subject to inappropriate storage conditions. Then again, even films used well within their "use by" dates can, if subject to adverse storage conditions, fall far short of what I would consider acceptable performance.

[paulbarden]

At the end of the day...with respect to "short dated" (within date, but close to "expiration") films...I've always found them to still provide me with the specific properties and advantages over other films which drew me to them initially, so long as I am able to compensate for any perceptible "losses" in performance due to age. The only exceptions to this would pertain to short or outdated films which had also been subject to inappropriate storage conditions. Then again, even films used well within their "use by" dates can, if subject to adverse storage conditions, fall far short of what I would consider acceptable performance.

The real problem is with modern backing papers on 120 format films: they do not age well and I've found that most films are subject to "backing paper marks" as they exceed their best-before date. Sheet films I do not worry about, but with 120 films, I do not keep more on hand than I expect to use before they start developing backing paper flaws. Refrigeration helps, of course, but it doesn't eliminate the problem entirely.