Best way to process expired film?

[grainyvision]

Just curious what everyone considers to be the best way to hand-process any expired film stored in less than ideal conditions. Especially wondering how best to process C-41 and E-6 color stocks, but also black and white. I know for C-41 you typically over expose, but is it also useful to push in the development process?

 

[Sirius Glass]

One could use expired chemical for symmetry, I suppose.

 

[mnemosyne]

Just curious what everyone considers to be the best way to hand-process any expired film stored in less than ideal conditions. Especially wondering how best to process C-41 and E-6 color stocks, but also black and white. I know for C-41 you typically over expose, but is it also useful to push in the development process?

How expired is "expired"? Weeks, months, years, decades? Properly stored material with the exception of high speed film will be good for a couple of years after expiry and doesn't need any special treatment.

If we are talking "decades", all bets are off. IMO the best way to handle such material is not to bother with it. Don't waste your time and energy (and don't waste ours by asking for assistance in troubleshooting ...). Such materials, especially color materials, are unpredictable. It will be hit and miss for every single roll and any experience or data points you gather for one roll may not work for another roll that was stored in the same drawer next to it.

If you feel the desperate need to develop a seriously expired roll of film, the basic procedure would be: add development time, add restrainer to suppress fog and ... pray.

Apart from that AFAIK there is no "gold standard" or rule for developing expired materials.

 

[MattKing]

Do you have lots of the film, or just a roll or two?
If you have lots, you can expose and develop test rolls normally, and then adjust your exposure and development to compensate for observed problems.

 

[Sirius Glass]

Expired film not properly stored is not work the effort. Not only will the results very likely will be poor, but the website bandwidth will be sucked up with threads about what went wrong when the problem was that the film was not properly stored and expired.

 

[bdial]

I have a bunch of expired C-41 I was given a few years ago, mostly I use it for testing cameras, and I expose it at box speed and take it to the local min-lab, that's been working out fine.

 

[Marcelo Paniagua]

For b/w, I usually go with Rodinal at 20C/68F 1/100 dilution for 1 hours semi stand (inversion at midroad).

I usually get good enough result for most films.

Whenever I get a bunch of rolls that Im not sure what they are about, usually throw all of them together in a big tankj and process at the same time.



Regards

Marcelo

 

[pentaxpete]

I give extra exposure for C41 and B&W films , say downrate I stop - for E6 SLIDE film sometimes 'box speed' is still OK but I have a lot of 2002 dated Fuji RMS E6 film that I rate down to 80 ASA and it comes out well. HOWEVER -- I have been trying some 01/1991 dated AGFAPAN 25 in Home-Made ID11 and RODINAL 1+50 and it is still good at 25ASA!

 

[removed account4]

hi earlz
i can speak about b/w cause that is what i shoot mostly expired..
not sure how you are processing it, hopefully not box speed cause
sometimes that isnt' even the right speed for new film ..
some suggest a good starting point for exposure is about 1 f-stop extra light
for every decade. if it is stuff that has been super heated in a hot trunk for 10 years
and a high iso its probably not worth wasting your time / effort but if it is stored in a place
that doesnt' get superhumid and hot you are probably alright. i regulary shoot 10-30 year old film that hasnt' been
refrigerated or stored anywhere but on a shelf or in a drawer.
ive shot stuff from 35mm to 8x10 and tend to process it the same way. i use ansco 130 ( formulary 130 ) print developer
or dektol, whichever i have lying around and mixed. i dilute it 1:6 and process / agitate normally for about 6-7 minutes
ansco130 likes about 72ºF dektol likes 68...
the color film that i shoot these days i just develop in b/w chemistry ..
contrary to popular believe expired film can give pretty good results...
or if you are looking for something that looks like it just rolled off the film-line it
has the potential of being a waste of time and money and effort ..

good luck !
john

 

[mjork]

I just shot some 34-year expired C-41 film (Kodacolor II in 116 format). Overexposed by >= 4 stops and standard C-41 development. I did some test shots with another roll from the same batch and saw that 4 stops overexposure was needed.

 

[grainyvision]

I have various stocks. I have some ancient and poorly cared for stuff from the 70s and 80s like Vericolor (both slide and negative types), Fujichrome 64T, Ektachrome, etc. I've used this once to test a camera, but been sitting on the rest of it waiting to figure out some kind of experiment. I of course don't expect things to be normal with this kind of expired film. Slide film especially I'd like to avoid C-41 cross processing if possible, I can live with color casts etc since I'm just scanning, but unsure how to expose it since over exposure on slide film makes it go clear.

I also have 15 rolls of Kodak Gold that expired in 2002. It seems 1 or 2 stops over exposed makes it look pretty well, and I did a test roll with color charts etc. Definitely some color crossing and other expired film artifacts though. Curious if over development might let me use it at box speed. For other expired film, I only have frozen stock that I shoot at box speed and develop normally. That of course works really well as if the film was manufactured yesterday.

Edit: I also have some processing-included Agfachrome, but from my research on that it looks like the process is completely dead and can only be processsed in B/W these days, about like Kodachrome