Expired Film

[MikeK]

just did a deep dive into my fridger freezer and pulled a couple of large freezer bags containing a bunch of old film:

4x5 Sheet Film
--------------
Agfapan 25 2 boxes 07/1989
Agfapan 100 2 boxes 07/1990
Agfapan 200 1 box 07/1989
Agfapan 400 2 boxes 01/1985
Kodak TechPan 2 boxes 03/1985 & 02/1988

120 Roll-Film
------------
Agfapan 25 2 rolls 01/1987
Agfa Ortho 25 5 rolls 01/1984
Agfapan 100 Matt (Portrait Film) 8 rolls 01/1980
Efke R14 15 rolls 03/1990
Efke R17 5 rolls 03/1990

Any other film pack rat'ers like me?

Mike

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

I've got 300-odd feet of Double-X 35mm cine stock that I'm guessing must date from the 1970s. It's kind of interesting for grainy effects. Lots of other outdated stuff in there too.

 

[rbarker]

Too bad you didn't hoard more APX25 and TechPan, Mike. You could make a fortune on eBay.

 

[Paul Sorensen]

Unfortunately I am not, but if you would like to seed my collection with some of the Agfa 100 sheets, that might just do the trick.

I have been back in photography for only a couple of years, I imagine that after another 10 or so years, I will have some oldies in my fridge too!

 

[Donald Qualls]

I'm not really a pack rat, more of a bottom feeder. I've got a bulk roll of Tri-X in the freezer that expired in 2001. Its twin, rolled into cassettes last summer, has been going along very well without excessive fog or any notable loss of speed, so I'm happy with getting the two rolls for less than a single new bulk roll would have cost. Likewise, I have two boxes (50 sheets each) of TXT 9x12 cm that I got from J&C Photo, expired in mid-2004 (clearly labeled expired, discounted -- J&C are honest folks). I paid a bit less than half retail for them, and I'm very, very happy. One box is in the freezer, the other with my plate cameras.

And I've got some Kirkland Signature ISO 400 C-41 that I bought more than ten years ago, and was stored at room temp most of the time -- still works just fine (processed a couple rolls last week, satisfying myself that the Vivitar P&S I just appropriated was worth feeding).

No big quantities of anything, though -- I can't spend $200 to $500 or even more on a single film order like some folks do, I pretty much buy it as I use it.

 

[colrehogan]

Some 4x5 Kodak HIE, 3 boxes dated 3/1977 and 3 more dated 9/2001.
I also have a 120 or 620 (not sure off the top of my head) roll of Verichrome Pan dated Sept. 1959.

 

[modafoto]

I only got some slighty old colour film (c41) and some really old slide film (some Kodak ISO 64).

Morten

 

[colrehogan]

I forgot, I have 5 rolls of Kodachrome 25 in my refrigerator which expired in 1/2003 (I think).

 

[joeyk49]

I'm with Donald...more of a bottom feeder. I think that I've only bought four or five rolls of unexpired bw film in the past 2-3 years. I just bought some TMax that expired three or four years ago...seems fine. I'm just finishing up the last of ten rolls of FP5+ that expired about a year ago and I've got about 18 rolls of FP3200 that went out this past February. 40 rolls of 120 Fugi NC 400 (06/04) and forty rolls of Konica 160 220 that might be 18 months past fresh. I even picked up a roll of 100 feet of Portra 160 (VC?) that expired last year (haven't shot any of that yet).

I don't have paying clients, so I'm the only one that gets excited if something gets fogged. And I'm just too damned cheap to pay retail for the stuff.

 

[Thomas Bertilsson]

If there are bottom feeders out there, then I must join the ranks. I have some 50 year old Kodak 4x5 Super Panchro Press 125 (2boxes), and Kodak 4x5 Panatomic-X (1 box) equally old, and a box or two of Plus-X 4x5 from the early 1970s.
It's fun and adds an unexpected element to the chemical procedure. I have some paying customers, but they are not exposed to that element of surprise, since all I ever use for those purposes are FP4+, and Agfa APX-100/400, fresh as can be. Whenever I can, though, I'm cheap, but like Joey, it's only to my own detrement.

 

[jim appleyard]

Kodak says that the film that Mallory and Irvine had on Everest in 1924 might still have printable images on it; that's if the camera were to be found. If 1924 film might still have images, then the '70's should be lookin' *DYNOMITE*!

 

[Donald Qualls]

Jim, given that film has probably seldom if ever been above freezing in the intervening 80 years, I wouldn't be surprised at all if the images were still recoverable. In fact, the only special precaution I'd take is to clip a few frames from the beginning of the roll to test before committing the rest, and to use a low-fog developer with a high tolerance like my usual high dilution HC-110 (yeah, I know, even D-76 wasn't around yet in 1924, but HC-110 will work on any silver halide material, except possibly collodion wet plates). I'd also be very tempted to develop by inspection under a red safelight, since their film was most likely orthochromatic...

I've developed a couple rolls of my own film, recently, that were shot around 1980, and a roll of Kodacolor II from the same time frame, with generally good results.