10 Year Past Expired Dated Astia "Experiement": Storage Conditions Matter

[Andre Noble]

Hello,

I bought ~ 200 sheets of expired 2003 dated 4x5 Fuji Astia transparency film sitting in bin at Calumet back in 2003. Took it home and refridgerated/froze ithem. In 2009 loaded some of these sheets in film holder, but never got round to them and left the film holders at room temp in hot S. Caifornia apt witout air cond for another 3 years. I finally shot those "room temp" sheets last year: they showed serious fogging/heat damage.

Meanwhile from same 2003 expiry batch that I kept mostly frozen but sometimes refridgerated, loaded 8 fresh sheets from freezer and sealed metal foil Fuji packaging this weekend: They showed no ill effects - colors came out great. So this gives me confidence on the other expired color film and the color films I stockpiled.

Apologies for not having the scans... Have to get and Epson V700 one of these days.

 

[Steve Goldstein]

I just had a similar experience with 2001-2003 Provia in 120 and 220. It's been deep-frozen since it arrived at my house, and the guy I got it from claimed it had been cold-stored. The colors were spot on.

 

[Doug Smith]

I still have a bunch of Astia in 120 dated 2003 in the freezer. The colors are still just fine. I will be using the until it's gone, given the Fuji E6 price increases.

 

[DREW WILEY]

One thing you're likely to discover is that, once thawed, older film goes bad faster than fresh film, even if it initially seems fine. In other words,
shoot it reasonably soon. In the case of Astia, when it does start going bad you might see some highlight crossover and a slight overall decrease in saturation. I wonder about my own stockpile of outdated 8x10 Astia. But I bought it for next to nothing, so whatever ... The 100F
is my more serious concern, but it's obviously not as old.

 

[Andre Noble]

I've heard that said before. It makes sense. It fits with my observation in the above Astia. They key point is the film is still good 10 years out, but YES, once take old film out of freezer shoot and get it processed ASAP.