Found Trix400 120 expiration 2015 ideas how to shoot it?

Radost · Mar 6, 2024

Cleaning my room today I found a whole pack of TRIX 400 120 from 12 years ago.
Stayed in dry but warm 73-74F room.
Any ideas how to shoot it? Iso rating and development?

ant! · Mar 6, 2024

I'd try something in the 300-400 ISO range, develop as ISO 400. It's black and white, not crazy warm stored, and not crazy old (but not an ISO 20 film neither).

If it is just one roll, of course you have no room to play much around and adjust...

Rick A · Mar 6, 2024

Load in camera, expose for box speed, develop. Load another roll of film into camera, expose, develop. And so on and so forth.

Radost · Mar 6, 2024

Rick A said:
Load in camera, expose for box speed, develop. Load another roll of film into camera, expose, develop. And so on and so forth.

Don’t want to waist film. I was hoping to get an advice from people who has experience shooting old TriX.

Truzi · Mar 6, 2024

There are a few times I've used 10-year old Tri X normally with no issues.
Others I'm sure have more experience, but it's fairly robust.

Radost · Mar 6, 2024

Just got a new camera. A good way to test the camera and the film

Dan Daniel · Mar 6, 2024

Add 1 stop for the first roll and see what happens. Although that isn't a long expiration, the 70+ storage is not good. There are anti-fog agents that can be added to the developer- postassium bromide?

There must be a forum out there for expired B&W. I always figured that about all you'd get with it is fog and lower contrast, unlike color film that at least ha ssome color shifts and such, so I never bothered with B&W if over maybe 2-4 years expired. And storage is part of this.

eli griggs · Mar 6, 2024

Radost said:
Don’t want to waist film. I was hoping to get an advice from people who has experience shooting old TriX.

I shoot old Tri-X, and rate it at 200 most of the time but, 400, 800, 1600 are no issues, but first check, The Massive Film Development Chart.

In most cases, I over expose film by a stop, so there's some quirks involved, but generally, its good if stored cool, cold, frozen.

Warm rooms films need more attention

Load your roll, expose it for three shots at 200, 400, 800,1600.

I use to use HC-110, dilution H, when the old stuff was available, but that's the past and I've not tried the 'new' stuff.

D-76 is my go to developer for me at films now, but pyro is a sometimes choice, for non Tri-X films.

I have encountered some too old/badly stored Tri-X and have had rotten results, and have had Kodak product failures, bad reticulation of two rolls in a five roll tank, with three perfect results but that's a once in a decade sor of result, so don't worry about it.

Good luck.

Rick A · Mar 6, 2024

Radost said:
Don’t want to waist film. I was hoping to get an advice from people who has experience shooting old TriX.

I've shot 35 year old TriX both 120 and 4x5, yours isn't old enough to worry about.

darkroommike · Mar 7, 2024

Radost said:
Don’t want to waist film. I was hoping to get an advice from people who has experience shooting old TriX.

The problem is, with old film, or film sourced off Ebay or swap meets is that you don't really know how the film will respond until you actually try a roll. Example, I just bought ten rolls HP-5+ from Ebay and shot the first at box speed and processed in the Thornton version of Split MQ developer. No anti-foggants or restrainers and it looks fine. So I'll mark that group "EI400 process normal". I also shot a roll of TMax 100 I have had in the fridge for 20 years, also fine. If your film hasn't had it's tenth birthday shoot a roll at your usual EI and process for your normal time.

VinceInMT · Mar 7, 2024

I very recently shot a roll of Tri-X 120 that expired in 2004. It's been in my basement darkroom since then with an average temperature of around 68 degrees F. I shot it at box speed a developed in Xtol stock, 8 minutes 30 seconds at 68°. There was some base fog but the negatives turned out well enough. I made prints of a couple and used 10Y 150M on Ilford MGRC. A scan of an 8x10 print is in the gallery:

https://www.photrio.com/forum/media/play-me.70345/

Sirius Glass · Mar 7, 2024

I would use box speed.

Disconnekt · Mar 7, 2024

I say shoot at box speed, there shouldnt be any issues since it wasnt stored in too hot conditions

blee1996 · Mar 8, 2024

12 year old b&w film is more like toddlers in the expired film world, and you have high probability to get excellent results. Of course it all depends on the storage condition and particular film emulsion.

I got very good results from 1985 expired Kodak Plus-X film, with a bit of fog and lower contrast that can be mostly corrected after scanning. I shot it at iso 25 instead of 125.

The oldest film I used recently was Agfapan from 1954, an 127 roll film. Massive fog and backing paper numbers imprinted, but shot at iso 25 the daylight landscape photos still come out ok. I thought of it as miracle.

itsdoable · Mar 8, 2024

The rule of thumb I've used is to expose +1-stop for every 10 years after the best before date. Shooting a few test exposures on the 1st roll will help tweak the other rolls. Temperature typically affects base fog, not sensitivity.

TheGreatGasMaskMan · Mar 8, 2024

Honestly, Kodak bw film holds up exceptionally well- I'd only recommend shooting at iso 320. if it were 2005 expired, you'd only need to expose it at 200

Bill Burk · Mar 8, 2024

By “whole pack” you mean 5 rolls? If you would like me to do a sensitometry test run you could send me a roll that you have shot but leave the first or last few frames unexposed. (Tell me of course so I know where to expose the step wedge).

For safety margin you could shoot it at 250. I’ll develop it in D-76 1:1 for 13:30 and read the speed as it would test for ISO. If you like I could make a print from one of your shots just to show “how good” the results are.

I haven’t been in the darkroom for a year because I was repairing meters but I am starting back up and could use an excuse.

Found Trix400 120 expiration 2015 ideas how to shoot it?

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