I have Tri-X ortho from around 1970 that has very little fog but is now around iso25. My experience is faster films slow down faster even if the base fog doesn't come up that high.
The fog, however, affects the effective speed; it limits how far down in the shadows you can see details. That's the real cause (IMO) of the speed loss we see in very old unexposed film, too -- just takes more light to get above the base + fog.
Tri-X ortho from around 1970 that has very little fog but is now around iso25.
Outside of Pan F+, I would say that unless you were thinking about interplanetary travel, I wouldn't be overly concerned about the time frames involved.
Damage due to storage and handling issues are of much greater concern.
...unless you were thinking about interplanetary travel, I wouldn't be overly concerned about the time frames involved.
Now you're making me think about cosmic rays....
Hmm, but if you were traveling near the speed of light and took your film with you, it would age much slower relative to film on earth.
I knew that the special theory of relativity would finally come in handy one day
I always enjoy adding Michelson-Morley into a discussion, just to see what happens.
I always enjoy adding Michelson-Morley into a discussion, just to see what happens.
Loss of speed from age doesn't impact an image that's already been captured on the film. Fog, however, does. The main reason to process the film as soon as possible is because it's no longer in its factory-sealed container, may have been exposed to moisture or other conditions that are bad for the film. The film can only possibly degrade from that point on (as in, it can't get better) so there's no point waiting to develop it.
This roll of film was in a bunch of stuff I bought. It was Tri-X 35mm, shot who-knows-when. I developed it - but the problem was it was likely pushed and the negatives ended up very thin. If I'd developed it a few minutes longer, it would have been much better.
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I also developed a film pack that was shot in the mid 50s. The images were on there fine but the emulsion suffered from exposure to the paper and age fog.
Hmm. Good to know, I've got an unopened box of that (4x5). Still likely to be fun...
I'm sure that where you hang out, there are lots of places to get tinfoil hats
I shot some rolls of Efke 25 over a month ago and another 1 over 1 week ago. I haven't gotten around to getting them developed yet. Last week, I just mixed up a new batch of Xtol, so maybe Sunday I'll get to it. I don't imagine the Efke rolls will be bad in any way.
Apart from PanF+, underexposed film (for pushing) should be developed within days too, for best results.
What is it about underexposed film that means it should be developed within days and how far does this extend into the realms of underexposure i.e. in terms of stops?
Thanks for the link, albada.
Juan can you recall the test you saw and provide the link and was there any mention in the test you saw as to how the extent of underexposure affected the shadows ?
Thanks
pentaxuser
Depends...
With PanF+, the notorious film when it comes to latent image (in)stability, the advice is to process ASAP, as in within a few days or so. Don't let it sit for weeks. A film like Kodak TMAX100 I think you can pretty safely store away exposed for a month or two and not notice the difference unless you do critical analysis on it. With color film, there's generally slightly less slack, but even that is mostly designed to work well if you take it on a really long holiday and only develop it after weeks. I never really encountered problems even with the occasional roll that was stuck in a camera somewhere for a couple of months.
The image just fades; overall loss of density, the shadows going first. Color film will shift.
I guess we all know those examples of the roll of film forgotten inside a camera and developed after 10/20/30 years exhibiting serious problems. But apart from this, I never experienced latent image stability as a problem.
Here's an example of Kodak Verichrome type 127 with the process-before date of November 1946. Developed in April 2022 in HC-110 dilution B at 7 degrees Celsius for 10 minutes. I did a strip test and aimed for lower density but the negatives are still pretty dense due to fog.
I would not recommend storing unprocessed film for more than 50 years.
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