Ilford paper expiration date

Pieter12 · Jul 4, 2023

The title kind of says it all. Is there an expiration date somewhere on the label or box for Ilford MGFB glossy paper? If not, what is the useable age and how would using old paper affect the print and the printing process?

Sirius Glass · Jul 4, 2023

Expiration dates except for things like milk are to encourage people to through out good and useful products so that the manufactures and supply chain make more money.

Pieter12 · Jul 4, 2023

I generally pay attention to expiration dates on medication and color film. But then, I don’t shoot color film anymore.

pentaxuser · Jul 4, 2023

There has been at least one thread on this somewhere on Photrio and I have a copy of the pdf from that thread on Ilford batch numbers but I need to know how to copy this to Photrio. This is not an Ilford doc but one devised by someone who has looked into how the batch numbers system allegedly works

pentaxuser

Pieter12 · Jul 4, 2023

Sirius Glass said:
Expiration dates except for things like milk are to encourage people to through out good and useful products so that the manufactures and supply chain make more money.

I once worked on a Supermarket account. Milk is usually good for 2 weeks beyond the expiration date.

Pieter12 · Jul 4, 2023

pentaxuser said:
There has been at least one thread on this somewhere on Photrio and I have a copy of the pdf from that thread on Ilford batch numbers but I need to know how to copy this to Photrio. This is not an Ilford doc but one devised by someone who has looked into how the batch numbers system allegedly works

pentaxuser

Thanks. Ilford claims no expiration date, but to test the paper. I am just not sure how old it is. I have had it at least 2 years and it may have been expired when I got it.

Todd Barlow · Jul 4, 2023

How to read new Ilford date codes?

1) which is the date code? 2) how to read? 3) when did they start with the new format? On attached photo of some paper: PF536? D19?

www.photrio.com

Here is the thread I started and that Harmen responded to. Bottom line is to drop them a note with the code on your product and they will advise. They have done it for me on 2 or 3 occasions.
All the best
Todd

cmacd123 · Jul 4, 2023

Basicaly they don't assign a date as they would have dealers returning paper that was still good. They do have a code that their sales reps can use to check if the material is moving.

Sirius Glass · Jul 4, 2023

Pieter12 said:
I once worked on a Supermarket account. Milk is usually good for 2 weeks beyond the expiration date.

They call that a sell by date, but on occasion I have gotten milk before the sell by date and it was bad. Returned it to the store to exchange. Did it get too warm during transportation? Did bacteria get in it? Who knows?

Pieter12 · Jul 4, 2023

Sirius Glass said:
They call that a sell by date, but on occasion I have gotten milk before the sell by date and it was bad. Returned it to the store to exchange. Did it get too warm during transportation? Did bacteria get in it? Who knows?

There are best by, use by, sell by and use before dates on many packaged foods. None is required by law except for baby food.

MattKing · Jul 5, 2023

Be sure that the label has reference to Harman Technology.
If the reference is to Ilford Imaging, it is really, really old.
And as for dates, they usually aren't expiration dates, but rather dates which are likely to coincide with changes in performance/behavior/ or in the case of foodstuffs, freshness.
"Best before", not "do not use after".
Prescription and OTC Drugs have "do not use after" dates.

otto.f · Jul 5, 2023

Pieter12 said:
I generally pay attention to expiration dates on medication and color film. But then, I don’t shoot color film anymore.

And bacon for my eggs

Don_ih · Jul 5, 2023

Pieter12 said:
If not, what is the useable age and how would using old paper affect the print and the printing process?

Assuming great storage conditions, I think their recent paper (MGIV and later) will last a very, very long time. However, there will be a drop in contrast. It won't respond as reliably to MG filters. Where you would normally use a 3, expect to use a 3.5 or 4.
And the older the paper gets, the more it wants to curl. And the more it wants to curl, the more easily the emulsion cracks.
Enlarging times tend to get a bit longer, too.

MGIII and MGII are only fit for fixing out, lumen prints, or starting fires.

Buzz-01 · Jul 5, 2023

Don_ih said:
Assuming great storage conditions, I think their recent paper (MGIV and later) will last a very, very long time. However, there will be a drop in contrast. It won't respond as reliably to MG filters. Where you would normally use a 3, expect to use a 3.5 or 4.
And the older the paper gets, the more it wants to curl. And the more it wants to curl, the more easily the emulsion cracks.
Enlarging times tend to get a bit longer, too.

MGIII and MGII are only fit for fixing out, lumen prints, or starting fires.

Exactly my experience. I've had some 20+ years old MGIV RC and FB paper printing very nicely, some even as if it were new, and also had multiple boxes of MGIII RC which were all totally useless.

Pieter12 · Jul 5, 2023

Well, it definitely says Harman Technology on the label, but the design is different from the current one. Here is the old paper label:

Here is ta lebel from some paper I bought a few months ago:

Don_ih · Jul 5, 2023

How old can it be? it has the ilford instagram account on it.
According to Instagram, Ilford joined in 2016.

Pieter12 · Jul 5, 2023

Don_ih said:
How old can it be? it has the ilford instagram account on it.
According to Instagram, Ilford joined in 2016.

The new one does. Not the other.

Don_ih · Jul 5, 2023

Pieter12 said:
The new one does. Not the other.

Ah. Well, since you have new paper, you can test the new and old at the same time, same exposure, same developer.

Pieter12 · Jul 5, 2023

Sort of. The old paper is 20x24. I guess I could cut a sheet down to 8x10 for comparison purposes, or at least to get a ballpark idea of how it performs.

Ilford paper expiration date

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