Fuji Provia 100 35mm Bulk Rolls question . .

[Locutus of Borg]

Hello all. I recently found 4 or 5 factory sealed bulk rolls of Provia 100 I forgot about in the freezer. These were given to me 5 years ago from the original owner with an expire date in 1998, 27 years ago. She took them out of her freezer and assured me they had been frozen since purchased new. I have also kept them in the freezer since then. Are they any good after 27 years? T

Thanks in advance for your replies.

 

[John Salim]

Difficult to say exactly what they'll come out like, but in time the colour will turn ( reddish / magenta ), the contrast will drop, the black level ( D-max ) will get lighter until ultimately the film turns almost clear !
Shoot a few frames of a greyscale on a short piece, and process it to find out.

John S

 

[loccdor]

It's likely that they will still be pretty good, if they truly have been frozen the whole time, but impossible to say for sure without a test.

Factors working in your favor: Slow film (less fogging during storage from cosmic rays), 35mm (no backing paper to cause issues), sealed (better humidity control), frozen
Factors working against your favor: Pro film (designed to be used fresher and quicker than consumer grade)

Try loading up one roll into a cassette and doing a controlled test in stable lighting with a known-good camera, with 1/3 stop bracketing of exposure.

 

[Taylor K Nankervis]

That 27 years is a lot of time; I would be wary and do a test (bottom paragraph). There is the possibility of mottling of the emulsion from long-term cold storage; this has been seen in 120 and also 35mm film.

Post-testing (next paragraph), add 1.0 to 1.5 stops for every decade that has passed since expiry. It is E6 film and will lose speed over time. Very old Provia can shift to purple, rather like what one normally sees with this film in long-exposure star trails (a heavy purple cast). Incidentally, there are 14 rolls of RDPIII in my freezer, all expired in 2015 so they will need to be re-indexed at eventual loading/exposure. But in your case, almost 30 years... that does require a planned approach!

If you want peace of mind, grab one roll of the film and expose at box speed. Process normally (no push, no pull). If that single roll is one of all in a batch, good to go from there with the same rating.

Critically examine the positives on a lightbox for anomalies and go from there. Watch for anomalies in shadows (but not totally black) and highlights (but not spectrals) and mid-tones. A colour cast, as mentioned above, may be evident.

I would strongly recommend you expose the film in diffuse/hazy/overcast light so the film is not influenced by unduly very strong or point light; E6 film presents excellent results in diffuse light — leave bright light stuff to negative film.

 

[YoIaMoNwater]

I would not add 1.0 to 1.5 stops unless you are going to do pull processing with the first developer. People here have processed super expired E6 slides with modification to it: https://www.photrio.com/forum/threads/dealing-with-fogged-e-6-film.112027/?amp=1 and https://www.photrio.com/forum/threads/e6-homebrew-chromebrew-warnig-longer-than-assumend.32721/

I have recently been able to get some decent results on 40 year old expired Agafachrome by adding 9 mg/L potassium iodide to the first developer (Bellini E6 kit) while doing pull process for the first development.

Do what others have suggested here by rolling a short roll and shoot it and develop at box speed to get a good idea on the film condition. Good luck!