Beginner question about developing expired film

Wescustogo · Sep 11, 2023

Hello,

New to the forum and to photography in general. I have been given access to a dark room and have been given a large amount of expired (10-20 year) film to practice with. I've recently been shooting a roll of delta 100 and adjusted it to 50 iso to compensate for the expiration date. Now that I'm done with the film I am wondering how I should go about adjusting the development time and maybe even the dilution (using either rodinal or xtol) to compensate again for my change in speed.

Any thoughts to this? I also have microphen I can use too.

grain elevator · Sep 11, 2023

No need to adjust, go by the times and temperatures given by the manufacturer.

Wescustogo · Sep 11, 2023

grain elevator said:
No need to adjust, go by the times and temperatures given by the manufacturer.

So I should develop for box speed instead of adding or subtracting time for shooting it at 50iso?

KitosLAB · Sep 11, 2023

This is Svema-64 with an expiration date of 1992. I always develop expired film using the “3.14” method (I opened a separate topic on the forum on this method) and it has never let me down. The only time in my life when the method did not work was a few days ago when I started developing a modern one. fresh Svema 200

grain elevator · Sep 11, 2023

Wescustogo said:
So I should develop for box speed instead of adding or subtracting time for shooting it at 50iso?

Yes, you exposed more to compensate for speed the film may have lost. Developed as normal for normal contrast range, develop a bit longer if contrast of what you photographed was low, a bit shorter if it was high.

Sirius Glass · Sep 11, 2023

grain elevator said:
No need to adjust, go by the times and temperatures given by the manufacturer.

Correct

Welcome to ~~APUG~~ Photrio!!

MattKing · Sep 11, 2023

Welcome to Photrio.
"Expired" film can describe a lot of different things - everything from film that had a develop before date in the 1970s to something much closer to fresh. The advice may vary a bit with the age, type and film format.
But generally, I would suggest giving it a bit more exposure: metering at an EI = to 1/2 the ISO speed would be a good start. Develop the film normally, and then evaluate the results with respect to shadow detail, highlight density/detail and contrast.
Exposure has the most effect on the shadow detail. More exposure = more shadow detail.
Development has the most effect on contrast and highlight density/detail. More development gives more contrast, but too much development can lead to blocked highlights.
A fairly wide range of results will probably give you very usable end product. Most of the adjustments available are more fine tuning than works/doesn't work.

Wescustogo · Sep 12, 2023

KitosLAB said:
This is Svema-64 with an expiration date of 1992. I always develop expired film using the “3.14” method (I opened a separate topic on the forum on this method) and it has never let me down. The only time in my life when the method did not work was a few days ago when I started developing a modern one. fresh Svema 200View attachment 348765

I looked it up and that film test is very interesting! It makes sense to me the way you described it in the other thread, so I may try that out.

Wescustogo · Sep 12, 2023

grain elevator said:
Yes, you exposed more to compensate for speed the film may have lost. Developed as normal for normal contrast range, develop a bit longer if contrast of what you photographed was low, a bit shorter if it was high.

Thanks, it will be the first roll of expired film and second roll I've ever developed so it'll be interesting to compare it to the first roll of delta 100 I developed. First roll was developed in microphen but I am not sure what the dilution or times were as I was working with someone else who guided me.

Wescustogo · Sep 12, 2023

MattKing said:
Welcome to Photrio.
"Expired" film can describe a lot of different things - everything from film that had a develop before date in the 1970s to something much closer to fresh. The advice may vary a bit with the age, type and film format.
But generally, I would suggest giving it a bit more exposure: metering at an EI = to 1/2 the ISO speed would be a good start. Develop the film normally, and then evaluate the results with respect to shadow detail, highlight density/detail and contrast.
Exposure has the most effect on the shadow detail. More exposure = more shadow detail.
Development has the most effect on contrast and highlight density/detail. More development gives more contrast, but too much development can lead to blocked highlights.
A fairly wide range of results will probably give you very usable end product. Most of the adjustments available are more fine tuning than works/doesn't work.

This is all very interesting to learn. I will post results in this thread when I get around to developing the roll, hopefully next week. Thank you for the info!

KitosLAB · Sep 12, 2023

Wescustogo said:
Thanks, it will be the first roll of expired film and second roll I've ever developed so it'll be interesting to compare it to the first roll of delta 100 I developed. First roll was developed in microphen but I am not sure what the dilution or times were as I was working with someone else who guided me.

Yes, when developing expired films, I add a little, a few drops, to the developer. up to 0.5 ml benzotriazole. It was a very cloudy winter day. The developer is a microfen diluted 1:1 plus a little benzotriazole. Development time was about 20 minutes. I can’t even say approximately the temperature of the solution, it’s between +14+16C. I still can’t find the time to shoot the ORWO Chrome slide, but I hope I’ll find the time before winter. I will be very interested to see your results.

Sirius Glass · Sep 12, 2023

Wescustogo said:
I looked it up and that film test is very interesting! It makes sense to me the way you described it in the other thread, so I may try that out.

Welcome to ~~APUG~~ Photrio!!

Beginner question about developing expired film

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