Fujicolor superia x-tra 100, expired in 2006

[zanxion72]

I have been given a few rolls of Fujicolor superia x-tra 100 expired in 2006. Is it worth trying it? How should I rate it? Any experience with a decade or more rolls of it?

 

[M-88]

If it's "a few rolls", then shoot one roll for test purposes. Personally I have negative experience with expired colour film which has NOT been stored in fridge/freezer. Although low sensitivity films lose their characteristics slower, compared to high sensitivity ones... I'd rate it at 50 (not that it helps a lot, but still). If you develop your colour film it at home, you can also try to increase processing time.

 

[koraks]

Depends a lot on how it was stored. If stored cool, there will likely be higher fog, but color rendition may still be quite alright. If it was stored at room temperature or even warmer, then it won't be a good performer.
You could overexpose by a stop or so to make up for aging, but it's not going to work miracles (it won't hurt either).

 

[zanxion72]

Thank you @M-88 , @koraks ,
I shoot quite a lot expired BW, but never had in my hands expired color and expired by that much. As you suggested I will rate it a stop slower at EI 50 and see what comes with it. I have 20 rolls with it. Don't laugh Got them for free.

 

[Agulliver]

Colour film doesn't generally do as well as B&W but C41 does better than E6 film. However I've found Fuji to be less forgiving than Kodak and Ferrania C41 film....but being the slower 100 film will help compared to if it were 400 or faster.

I would go with exposing at 50, it can take over-exposure so if the film hasn't lost any sensitivity it won't hurt. Shoot one roll at 50 and see what you get. A couple of years ago I shot some Superia 400 that was about 25 years old and got acceptable images from it, but it benefitted from a stop or two over exposure and did exhibit high base fog.

 

[M-88]

Thank you @M-88 , @koraks ,
I shoot quite a lot expired BW, but never had in my hands expired color and expired by that much

The thing is, colour films have inherently more coats of dye when compared to BW and they all deteriorate in different way over time. But twenty rolls are more than enough to see how this particular batch of films will behave. Best of luck to you.

 

[Wallendo]

I would shoot a test roll (or at least a partial roll) shooting the same scenes at ISO 12, 25, 50 and 100. Shoot several images this way. If you can develop at home, you can cut the film and develop what you have shot and save the rest, if not, you can either shoot the whole roll with heavy bracketing or just guess and shoot the remaining portion of the film at 50 and send it to a lab. You can then pick which EI works best when viewing scans or prints. If none of them look good, consider developing them as B&W or tossing in the trash