Expired Provia 100F (120 format, 2012/2013) - worth it?

patashnik · Jul 22, 2021

I recently bought a camera, and the seller was kind enough to include around 15 rolls of film. All was expired, stored cold (not frozen). The B/W doesn't worry me at all, I have dealt with older films than this.

However, I am not familiar with Provia 100F, and was wondering if it would be worth shooting? I don't develop this myself, so any compensation would have to be on my side when shooting it.

I will try it, but looking for advice on what to expect.

cmacd123 · Jul 22, 2021

how old? and willyou be using it for direct project or for (ahum) further electronic processing.

patashnik · Jul 22, 2021

Expired in 2012/2013. And I assume that electronics would be involved in the post processing.

cmacd123 · Jul 22, 2021

the variables are that film loses speed -but that loss occurs faster with faster film.
with slide film, the build up of fog will appear as a degradation of D-MAX.
3 layers means that they all can change differently

you are coming up on 9 years out of date, so expect some "issues" but not insurmountable if the image can be colour corrected in some way.

Disconnekt · Jul 22, 2021

If all the rolls of film have been stored cold the entire time, they'll be fine to shoot, you'll end up having color shifts witj the slide film.

Tom Kershaw · Jul 23, 2021

patashnik said:
However, I am not familiar with Provia 100F, and was wondering if it would be worth shooting? I don't develop this myself, so any compensation would have to be on my side when shooting it.

I've used cold stored Provia at a similar age of expiry successfully, no problems with backing paper interaction etc. I was just careful to gradually warm the film up to room temperature before use / opening the foil package.

Alan Edward Klein · Jul 23, 2021

You deserve new film with your new camera. Why take a chance one of the shots would have been one of your best if not for the damn color shift that occurred because it has expired?

TheGreatGasMaskMan · Jul 23, 2021

Cold stored color film will hold up pretty well. I'd say shoot the provia at iso 80 and it should still look pretty good.

destroya · Jul 23, 2021

i still have many rolls of original velvia with dates around 2006. all shoot fine at box speed (I shoot original velvia 50 at 40 as many did). so i would say shoot it at 100. maybe shoot a test roll at 64, 80 and 100 for a few bracketed shots to see what you think looks best

wahiba · Jul 23, 2021

I followed some on line advice of one stop for every 10 years. The Provia I had was over twenty years old. Two stops down worked, but: it comes back basically blue. On interesting blue. If as you say it has been kept in a fridge and is not yet 10 years old I would give one roll a go and test the same shot at 100, 80 and 64. Personally I reckon 80 will be fine and if well store 100 will be OK. Expect a slight blue tinge. Worth trying out one roll. You might be surprised and like the results,

The blue was taken with a Balda 120, the lens is good. It was over 20 years old and storage unknown. the red end of last year with in date Lomo Redscale. Cannot say I am a big fan of redscale but it is interesting to give it a try.

TheGreatGasMaskMan · Jul 23, 2021

here's a sample from (albeit 35mm) expired Provia I shot in 2018, it was assumed to have expired in 2006 and I metered it at 80.

I'd actually say for expired e6, you should over expose one stop per fifteen years.

patashnik · Jul 24, 2021

Thanks all, looks like I'l give it a try.

lantau · Jul 24, 2021

In 2016 I bought lots of Provia 400X, which expired in 2017. It is working fine. It is 4-5 years younger than yours, but it is 400 speed. And I expect I will still a few more years to use it all up. By then it will be as old as yours is now. I may have a bit too greedy when I purchased that much.

I froze mine when I bought it, though. The 35mm rolls are older and last time I used one it worked. I'm not using that as often as roll film.

Helge · Jul 24, 2021

Frozen or chilled? If frozen, how frozen?
Provia has powerful latent image keeping which is a double edged sword.

I’ve shot Ektachrome 100 expired in 05 that was indistinguishable from new stuff to me. It had been deep frozen in a bio lab freezer.
But then I’m not a colour balance nazi.

13 is very new if frozen. In human terms it’s yesterday, so you should bet that the film was just forgotten for a few years and continually frozen.
You should be able to get good results.
Test a single roll (the oldest) and then bet that the rest will be like it.
But of course don’t bet on it for important stuff.

TheGreatGasMaskMan · Jul 24, 2021

So long as it’s well kept, slide film will hold up really well in the short term (my estimate is within 20)

Kyon Thinh · Jul 24, 2021

Cold stored or not, with slide film you expose at box speed.
I have RDP II that expired in 2000, box speed and came out great. I also shot RDP III that expired in 2004, also came out great. Both were not cold stored.

Tom Kershaw · Jul 24, 2021

I have always achieved better results with E6 film exposed at box speed and not over.

removed account4 · Jul 24, 2021

Kyon Thinh said:
Cold stored or not, with slide film you expose at box speed.
I have RDP II that expired in 2000, box speed and came out great. I also shot RDP III that expired in 2004, also came out great. Both were not cold stored.
View attachment 280985 View attachment 280986

+1
there's a lot of hype about film storage.. I believe very little of it, but you are welcome to believe it if it makes you feel more secure about your materials ...
I've spent years shooting expired stuff that isn't and has never been frozen or friged or cold stored
as löng as it was over-heated for extended lengths of time you will be ok.. there's even a lot of yammering on about
"cosmic rays". if you talk to an astro physicist tor physicist you will learn here are very few cosmic rays that bombard the earth, muons sure, cosmic rays not so many...
have fun with your new camera and film !
john

OrientPoint · Jul 24, 2021

I shoot lots of expired color and black and white film. For color, and especially E-6, the "lose X stops per decade" rule is nonsense. How a given film will react to aging depends upon how it was stored and the emulsion. Frozen E-6 from the past 10 years of any type has always worked for me as indistinguishable from fresh. Older stuff will start shifting colors in different ways, and display increasingly noticeable fog and grain. In my experience, over exposure is rarely, if ever, required. Sometimes the results are nice, sometimes not so nice, but the vast majority of well-expired E-6 I've shot has returned usable results, with anything well-stored and up to 10 years expired not meriting any worrying (or special treatment).

The bottom line is that only way to know how well or not your expired film is going to work, and how to best expose it, is to obtain batches and shoot test rolls first.

Slixtiesix · Jul 31, 2021

Just recently I had a roll of Velvia 100F developed that had expired in 2011. Almost half of the decade after its expiry, the film had spent in a drawer at room temperature, the other half of this time in the fridge. At the end, the film spend another two years in may camera at room temperature. I regarded this as an experiment, but was quite astounded that the film came back very pleasing from the lab. Colours may have been a bit more muted compared to a fresh film but there was no noticeable colour shift. I would not recommend that for your wedding or other once-in-a-lifetime-shots, but actually slide film that has been expired for 10 years is not bad at all.

Tom Kershaw · Jul 31, 2021

Slixtiesix said:
but actually slide film that has been expired for 10 years is not bad at all.

I suspect E-6 may hold up better than C-41.

TheGreatGasMaskMan · Jul 31, 2021

Tom Kershaw said:
I suspect E-6 may hold up better than C-41.

Expired C41 film is more likely to have been abused

Slixtiesix · Jul 31, 2021

I was especially amazed since I always was told that the slide films you can buy today (Provia, Velvia particularly) were "professional" material that needed to be kept at low temperatures, then shot and developed quickly. I expected that the film came back useless from the lab, but it was perfectly fine. That for a film that had been expired a decade, half of which stored in a drawer, and with at the least the first shots having been latent on the film for almost 2 years!

Alan Edward Klein · Jul 31, 2021

Well, if you don't mine reduced saturation. But then why shoot Velvia?

Regarding Pro films, part of what makes them pro is that if you buy them from the same batch, then you can expect equal results from one roll to the next, very important if you're shooting for advertising or a specific essay when you want all the shots to look similar

TheGreatGasMaskMan · Jul 31, 2021

One of my friends has said that slide film holds up really well, and then it doesn’t; it’ll go off like a switch.
30+ year old slides really drop their density. However I’ve used 04/05 expired Velvia 50 that turned out fine

Expired Provia 100F (120 format, 2012/2013) - worth it?

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