Does film need to be kept in the freezer?

jphendren · Oct 30, 2009

Or is a refrigerator good enough? I've been keeping mine in the refrigerator.

Jared

RGS122 · Oct 30, 2009

Ya it's good enough, but if it's expired, you should put it in the freezer.

Q.G. · Oct 30, 2009

You should put it in the freezer well before it has expired.

If it has expired, it has expired. Too late.

Steve Smith · Oct 30, 2009

Depends on how long you want to keep it for. I have never refrigerated film but I tend to use it within a few weeks of buying it.

I have successfully used Kodachrome 23 years past its use by date which has never seen the inside of a fridge.

Steve.

Steve Smith · Oct 30, 2009

Q.G. said:
If it has expired, it has expired. Too late.

Well, It doesn't suddenly go bad at midnight on the expiry date. It's a slow deterioration.

Steve.

Q.G. · Oct 30, 2009

Of course it is a slow deterioration.
The people who put a date on the box know that too.

When it's expired, it's expired.

Put it in the freezer well before that.

Svitantti · Oct 30, 2009

The people put a date there that really means "Before this date it should be good in any case" (if not for example overheated in a cars window on summer etc..). Of course they dont put a date there so that theres a big risk that the film will be bad already a couple months before that (normally stored).

If you are going to shoot it before expiry date, you shouldnt need to put it in the freezer.

Jeff Kubach · Oct 30, 2009

It's ok to put film in the refrigerator, but I put in the freezer just in case.

Jeff

bdial · Oct 30, 2009

Both freezing and refrigeration slow down the film's normal deterioration, freezing just slows it down more.
In an ideal world, I would put stuff I intended to use x number years in the future in the freezer, otherwise the fridge is fine.

verney · Oct 30, 2009

Expiration date is calculated for certain storage conditions. For b&w and amateur color films this usually means room temperature. Professional color films are expected to be stored in refrigerator. If you store your films in lower temperature it will last longer than manufacturer's expiration date. It will not last forever though.

mablo · Oct 30, 2009

My wife would whack me blue if I'd try to store film rolls in the fridge.

Lanline · Oct 30, 2009

Freezer is the only way to go. I am shooting color film that expired in 1979 with no issues. I regularly shoot a roll or two of Panatomic-X that is just fantastic.

perkeleellinen · Oct 30, 2009

I keep mine in a shoebox under the stairs.

dentkimterry · Oct 30, 2009

I put my film in the freezer as soon as I buy it. It is then good for years past the expiration date on the box.

Existing Light · Oct 30, 2009

I have a small square fridge/freezer I used when I lived in a college dorm. It has a small cube in the top corner that's a freezer. I keep my film in there. At most, I could probably keep 35 or 40 35mm rolls (But I'd have to stack them from the front of the cube to the back and two rolls high), and maybe half that many 120 rolls.

I keep the paper in the fridge part because I go through paper waaaay faster than i go through film, so the slightly faster deterioration in the fridge isnt a problem. I also keep exposed rolls of film in the fridge, mainly so I wont lose them by keeping them somewhere else. I do make sure to let them warm up for a few hours before developing

Prest_400 · Oct 30, 2009

I keep it on the fridge. Never put it on the freezer.
I use consumer grade film (Fujichrome RA, Superia, Kodachrome 64) and keep them on the refrigerator. After exposing, I refrigerate the film if developing will take more than a week (most of the times).

Pro film should be refrigerated, but if it isn't refrigerated, nothing bad happens. As far I know, it's color balance changes a bit, thus ending with a consumer film. Pro film has been frozen/refrigerated since it came out of the factory, just for consistency.

michaelbsc · Oct 30, 2009

Steve Smith said:
Well, It doesn't suddenly go bad at midnight on the expiry date. It's a slow deterioration.QUOTE]

No WAY! Do milk and eggs work this way too? Can you explain this to my wife?

Fotoguy20d · Oct 30, 2009

Expiration date? Why worry? Buy film, load it into cameras, use it as quickly as possible, and buy more. Support Ilford and Kodak.

Seriously though, I keep mine in a fridge. Just loaded up a 124G with a roll of XP2 that expired in late 2008. The one I used a couple of weeks ago was fine (enough for my needs). Admittedly, for critical work I use fresh film.

Steve Smith · Oct 30, 2009

michaelbsc said:
No WAY! Do milk and eggs work this way too? Can you explain this to my wife?

Sorry. Women don't understand this.

Fotoguy20d said:
Expiration date? Why worry? Buy film, load it into cameras, use it as quickly as possible, and buy more. Support Ilford and Kodak.

That's my method. Just buy it and use it.

Steve.

jphendren · Oct 30, 2009

I usually buy 2-5 rolls (35mm) at a time of Velvia 50 from my local camera shop, shoot the film within a month or two, and after it is exposed I put it back into the refrigerator until it is time to send it to the lab. I never have enough film on hand for it to sit for years. If I travel with my camera, I usually keep my film in an ice pack thing that my wife used for breast milk. It keeps the film cold for about 24 hours before needing to be refrozen. So it sounds like what I have been doing is adequate?

"Support Ilford and Kodak."

I would if Kodak still made Kodachrome 25, 64, and 200.

Jared

mablo · Oct 30, 2009

Don't know if I'm some kind of a slacker but I usually buy film enough for the coming two-four months. I store my film in a dark, dry place like in a drawer in my study and that's it. I definitely don't want to create a large film repository in my freezer like pro photogs do.

Steve Smith · Oct 30, 2009

mablo said:
Don't know if I'm some kind of a slacker but I usually buy film enough for the coming two-four months.

If you are some kind of a slacker, then so am I!

Steve.

hrst · Oct 30, 2009

jphendren said:
If I travel with my camera, I usually keep my film in an ice pack thing that my wife used for breast milk.

This is really not necessary at all. All you do is slow down the deterioration for a while, but it is of no significance because the time is this short. If you store it in warm place for a day, it can be same as storing in refrigerator for a week -- it does no real difference because film keeps perfectly good for months in room temperature.

This is very different than with food; much more simple. It's all about time x temperature with film.

Sirius Glass · Oct 31, 2009

I have been storing it in the freezer for years.

Steve

jphendren · Nov 2, 2009

hrst said:
This is really not necessary at all. All you do is slow down the deterioration for a while, but it is of no significance because the time is this short. If you store it in warm place for a day, it can be same as storing in refrigerator for a week -- it does no real difference because film keeps perfectly good for months in room temperature.

I did not know this. I always thought that if the film were allowed to get warm, that the colors would shift and bad things could happen LOL. I guess that makes sense though; film stays warm the entire time it is in the camera body, which in my case can be weeks/months sometimes.

Jared

Does film need to be kept in the freezer?

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