35mm Fuji Astia - kept in fridge but Use By is March 2010

ted_smith · Jul 5, 2011

Hi

I bought some Fuji Astia 35mm transparancy film about 3 years ago. I used one film and the results were great. The other film I have still not used though, for various reasons. It has never been frozen but has been in my fridge ever since, for about the last 3 years. The only exception has been the occasional day when I took it out with me but came back with it, having not used it.

The "Use By" date is March 2010.

My questions is : is it likely to still be OK now, or am I best off throwing it away? I ask because I am going on holiday and intend to use it for some landscape scenes, but I won't if it is likely to be of poor quality.

Ted

Steve Smith · Jul 5, 2011

I'm sure it will be fine, but if you want to dispose of it, I run a special film disposal unit. As a special introductory offer, All it will cost you is the price of postage to me!

Steve.

Steve Roberts · Jul 5, 2011

It will be totally useless. I'll go one better than the offer above, though, and will cover the cost of postage to me so that I can dispose of it for you. That's the generous sort of chap I am!

Steve

Rick A · Jul 5, 2011

Both of you run fraudulent film disposal units. I am the only internationally recognized film disposal company in the world by law you must surrender any and all expired film to me for proper disposal.

Bob Carnie · Jul 5, 2011

Hi Ted

This question is very close to the bone for me as a Lab Owner that processes film, not E6 but C41 and BW.

The short answer to your question the film will be fine, do a clip test and make your adjustments with the balance.

The long answer , is that Our Lab is deciding to no longer run colour film or for that matter single run black & White for clients that we have not historically run film for.
We will still run Black and White for clients we know are buying fresh film, and we will only run our personal colour film .* we do a lot of this*

Over the last five years , our technicians and myself have found the film being supplied to us is in some cases, rolled so tight , curly and long expired.
This film requires longer times to load, more handling problems and now we are seeing cross curves or imperfections in the film that we never would of experienced in the not so long ago film days.
No matter what we do or say, we are open to problems and like many other E6 labs and C41 labs we are deciding to stop processing suspect film.
There are labs that recover old film, but they specialize in old film and there is no question of the film being old, so both parties are aware of the potential problems.
I use single shot Jobo's and basically each run is the same as what we did 15 years ago, but what is changing is photographers are buying outdated film for a buck or two and then exposing it,, who knows what storage conditions, but you can bet , if there are problems the first finger points to the Lab.

This may seem silly on us to take this position, but we have built a reputation on good process, and are not willing to wreck havoc on our past good work.
We do make mistakes , but with film its not fixable, like redoing a print or re mount a print.

There are threads popping up on the different forums where photographers are complaining about bad process of labs.. I think we will not try to be in this mix.

ath · Jul 5, 2011

I've used Astia (120), Provia (135) and Kodak slide film several years after expiry date without problems. They were kept cool or even frozen though.

railwayman3 · Jul 5, 2011

@ted_smith - The film should be absolutely fine....I'm currently using Astia expired 2007 and 2008 which was bought by me as "short-dated" around the time it expired. It has been frozen since for most of the time, then moved into the fridge for up to two-or-three months until needed.

@bobcarnie - My first reaction was surprise that old films were causing you so many lab problems, given that the expiry dates allow so much latitude, and that most analogue photographers are aware of the need to use fresh film for important work. But I guess that are always a few people who want to save a few $$, then need to blame someone else when things go wrong! (My old boss used to say "customers who want a cheap job won't later admit that they wanted a cheap job when it doesn't work out"!)

Diapositivo · Jul 5, 2011

I just finished this year the last roll of Astia from my previous bulk-purchase, it would expire in 2008 IIRC, maybe even in 2007. If you keep rolls in the fridge, and you bought them from a reputable shop, there should be no problem at all.

Jeff Kubach · Jul 5, 2011

As in previous posts, I wouldn't worry about it.

Jeff

PhotoJim · Jul 5, 2011

Freezing is better than refrigerating, but it ought to be fine. Shoot a roll to see first before you commit it to something important.

It's not too late to freeze it by the way. Degradation occurs much more slowly to frozen film than to refrigerated film, although refrigerating does help.

ted_smith · Jul 5, 2011

Thanks everyone - I'll give it a try then if I see a scene worthy of it's use

Bob Carnie · Jul 5, 2011

We are more concerned about the incredible curl we are seeing with old film, once on the reels and processed not seeing much problem other than with old colour negative rolls.

I am loading a 150 roll job of old black and white now and it really is a PIA.

I use jobo systems and hand rolling onto plastic reels, We are not running dip and dunk where you could easily clip the top and weight the bottom and you are good to go.
I may feel different if I was using a big boy Refrema but those beasts need lots of film or their plots are hard to maintain.

railwayman3 said:
@ted_smith - The film should be absolutely fine....I'm currently using Astia expired 2007 and 2008 which was bought by me as "short-dated" around the time it expired. It has been frozen since for most of the time, then moved into the fridge for up to two-or-three months until needed.

@bobcarnie - My first reaction was surprise that old films were causing you so many lab problems, given that the expiry dates allow so much latitude, and that most analogue photographers are aware of the need to use fresh film for important work. But I guess that are always a few people who want to save a few $$, then need to blame someone else when things go wrong! (My old boss used to say "customers who want a cheap job won't later admit that they wanted a cheap job when it doesn't work out"!)

markbarendt · Jul 5, 2011

Bob Carnie said:
We are more concerned about the incredible curl we are seeing with old film,

This is one of the reasons I like my FM2 so much.

Diapositivo · Jul 5, 2011

markbarendt said:
This is one of the reasons I like my FM2 so much.

Mark, what do you mean? Don't all cameras curl film the same way?

markbarendt · Jul 5, 2011

Diapositivo said:
Mark, what do you mean? Don't all cameras curl film the same way?

Nope.

lxdude · Jul 5, 2011

Diapositivo said:
Mark, what do you mean? Don't all cameras curl film the same way?

No. Many 35mm cameras reverse curl it, with the emulsion side out. The "auto-load" cameras I've seen do not reverse curl it.

railwayman3 · Jul 6, 2011

lxdude said:
No. Many 35mm cameras reverse curl it, with the emulsion side out.

My Pentaxes reverse-wind the film. If a film has been in the camera a while, I leave it in the cassette after rewinding, for a day or so before processing, just to get the curl back the normal way for easier loading into the tank spiral.

Diapositivo · Jul 6, 2011

Oh, I see what you mean.

I checked my lot:
Minolta Srt-100x, Srt-101, XM, X-700: reverse curl;
Nikon FE2: reverse curl;
Voigtländer Bessa-L: reverse curl;
Voigtländer Vito CLR: straight curl;
Canon Canonet (quick load): straight curl;
Yashica T-3: I suppose straight curl (automatic load).

I usually don't process my films immediately after having extracted the cartridge from the camera. I've never seen a film with a reverse curl so far.

I didn't understand this reverse curl thing. I thought that if you open the back of the camera by mistake, it's better if the back of the film faces light.

markbarendt · Jul 6, 2011

Diapositivo said:
I usually don't process my films immediately after having extracted the cartridge from the camera. I've never seen a film with a reverse curl so far.

I didn't understand this reverse curl thing. I thought that if you open the back of the camera by mistake, it's better if the back of the film faces light.

It is better not to open the back until rewound.

It's not that the film actually takes on a reverse curve permanently, but the inside out winding can open up the curve and that can make loading the reels easier.

35mm Fuji Astia - kept in fridge but Use By is March 2010

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