How long will color film last in the freezer

[mark]

I am thinking about buying som 8x10 velvia and storing it in the freezer for later use--never know when things will disappear. How long can I expect it to last.

From reading here, I would say a couple years past expiration at least right?

 

[mrred]

My fujichrome lasted 10 years before I shot it. My guess it would have lasted longer if I left it there!

 

[Venchka]

A friend just had a roll of 1991 120 Reala developed and printed. Everything looked fine. I'm slowly working my way through 2001-2002-2003-2004-2005-2006 120 E-6 & C-41 film. No worries. Similar vintage B&W is fine too. All of this film has been stored cold for most of it's life.

 

[Sirius Glass]

Ten years for most emulsions is not unreasonable. Buy the film now and keep it from the hoarders!

Steve

 

[Heinz_Anderle]

The higher the speed, the shorter the useful shelf life of frozen film: Kodachrome 25 Professional, exp. 10/1993, virtually unaffected; Kodachrome 200 Professional, exp. 11/1992, fogged with very reduced maximum density; Fujichrome RFP 50, exp. 05/1991, still usable, but quite cool; Ektachrome 400, exp. 08/1992, blue D-max, pale, washed-out colors - I would recommend to store 400 ASA slide film at most for five years after expiration, 100 ASA film for 10 years, and to finish all Kodachrome, irrespective of speed, before the end of 2010

 

[Jeff Kubach]

I didn't realize that you can keep film up to 10 years in a freezer. Good to know! (I keep my film in the freezer, but didn't know I keep it that long!)

Jeff

 

[mattmoy_2000]

I've shot (B/w obviously) nitrate film that expired in 1946 and still got decent results. Quite liked it actually. Used it at ISO 6 though, so all shots had to be wide open!

 

[StorminMatt]

Kodachrome 25 Professional, exp. 10/1993, virtually unaffected

I've actually gotten good results from frozen K25 that expired in 11/1989.

 

[nickrapak]

I used K25 from 1981, frozen since purchase, last month. The results were ever so slightly magenta, but not disturbingly so. The Dmax looks fine as well.

 

[alexmacphee]

I wouldn't want to keep burgers in the freezer as long as I keep film there. You're talking decades. My last roll of K25 is still at the bottom, and I'm going to set it free next year.

 

[Athiril]

I developed some 20+ year old HP5 which came out great! Except part of the roll had been used before I shot it 20 years ago xD... 20 years diff between the pics.. so I have 90 ft giant cat on my wide angle street photos! lol

 

[Sirius Glass]

I developed some 20+ year old HP5 which came out great! Except part of the roll had been used before I shot it 20 years ago xD... 20 years diff between the pics.. so I have 90 ft giant cat on my wide angle street photos! lol

The OP asked about color film, so what kind of color can you get from HP5?

Steve

 

[mattmoy_2000]

so what kind of color can you get from HP5?

This kind: http://www.flickr.com/photos/msmoynihan/3732842227/

 

[2F/2F]

I have had good (meaning totally usable) results from E-6 film as many as 15 years old. Usually there is a slight color shift, which is fine because I usually get expired film in large emulsion-matching batches that have been similarly stored, so I can test some first. I usually have E-6 films go a little tiny bit magenta. Based on expiration dates, it seems like the shift usually happens after about 10 years on refrigerated film. All of my post-2000 film looks like new. It is the early and late 1990s stuff that starts shifting a little. The older stuff, or stuff that has been questionably stored, goes even more magenta and starts to lack punch in the low tones.

With b/w films, I have not had a ton of luck, as I rarely use low speed film in b/w.

With C-41, I have also had good luck, even with high speed films (Fuji Press 400 and 800) about 10 years old that were not refrigerated for at least a few years before I got them. I have good luck with my late 1990s (if I remember correctly) Ektar 25, and it is not supposed to keep well at all. Old C-41 films seem particularly resilient in my experience. I would say that this is in no small part due to the latitude and ease of color balancing of color negative materials. They may actually keep no better than E-6 films, but making adjustments and compensations is easier and more reliable.

 

[alexmacphee]

The OP asked about color film, so what kind of color can you get from HP5?

Have you ever held your hand up in front of the TV screen and waved it from side to side? If you have, you will have noticed a kind of stroboscopic effect due to the interlacing of lines as the picture is built up (I'm talking old technology here). Keep that thought in mind. This is entirely tangential to the thread, but it sure caused this recollection to pop back into my mind with a small fanfare.

Many years ago, when I was what's called a mature student at university, we lived very frugally, and had an old black & white TV set. The British among us may remember that old 'new technology' programme the BBC used to broadcast, called 'Tomorrow's World'. I was watching it one evening when one item on it caught my attention, introduced as a new cheap way of bringing colour images to monochrome TV sets with no modification, due to an effect that had been discovered, to do with strobes at different frequencies causing different colour responses to be stimulated in the cells in the human retina. The idea, the programme said, was that some limited colour effect could be produced by 'strobing' the broadcast image at different frequencies in different parts of the image, or some such. The design engineers were nowhere near ready for broadcast, but it was hoped to demonstrate the effect during the studio transmission of this edition, and have viewers respond to say what colours they were able to see in the stroboscopically enhanced image. The presenter continued by saying that in order to simulated the effect of strobing, the viewer simply had to make use of the known effect you get from interlacing, as I've mentioned earlier. All the viewer need do for the purposes of this test was to sit close to his monochrome set (the test was pointless for viewers with colour sets, it said), and when the test image appeared on screen, hold up an outstretched hand with the fingers straight and far apart, and move the hand from side to side in front of your eyes. Then, with luck, colour patches would appear in the test image.

Excited by the experiment, I sat cross-legged in front of our little monochrome set. The test image then appeared, and I held up my hand in front of my face, waving it from side to side and peering through the shadowy strobes of the fingers, anxiously looking for flashes of retinally stimulated colour.

As I sat there on the carpet twelve inches from the TV screen, waving my hands in front of my eyes, I slowly began to realise that the date was the 1st of April.

 

[Sirius Glass]

The OP asked about color film, so what kind of color can you get from HP5?

Steve

Next time I will leave the sarcasm flag up. I posted that because HP5 is a black & white film.

Steve

 

[mark]

That was funny Alex. Sounds like 8x10 should last a good long while.

 

[alexmacphee]

Next time I will leave the sarcasm flag up. I posted that because HP5 is a black & white film.

I know. I use more HP5 than any other black & white film. Your comment just reminded me of the time I was taken in hook line and sinker by a clever BBC hoax about getting colour from a black & white TV screen.

 

[Steve Smith]

I've actually gotten good results from frozen K25 that expired in 11/1989.

I got good results from some last year which was dated 1986 and had never seen the inside of a fridge or a freezer.


Steve.

 

[mattmoy_2000]

Next time I will leave the sarcasm flag up. I posted that because HP5 is a black & white film.

Steve

You were being sarcastic?!
(I jest).

 

[Q.G.]

You jest?!

 

[Sirius Glass]

You were being sarcastic?!
(I jest).

You jest what? :confused:

Steve

 

[EASmithV]

You all are jest a bunch of 'foos!

 

[mattmoy_2000]

Jest, v: to be playful in speech and actions; joke.

 

[JBoontje]

I knew that you could store film in a fridge/freezer.. but this question came to mind when I loaded a roll of film yesterday (my third, to be exact)

Should I cool it down before I put it in the camera, or should I keep it at fridge/freezer temperature? Will I notice any difference at all?