Kodak BW400CN and Ilford XP2 - Invulnerable to damage?

Vonder · Jun 28, 2013

I was thinking (a dangerous process for me) and I like to keep a film camera in my car. It gets very hot and very cold here. The film may sit there a year or two before getting developed. I Typically use Kodak Tri-X but I got to thinking, since the chromogenic B&W films don't have color dyes, are they better able to withstand extreme heat and cold than either color or traditional B&W film?

markbarendt · Jun 28, 2013

Chromogenics DO have dyes, traditional films like Tri-x don't.

Vonder · Jun 28, 2013

markbarendt said:
Chromogenics DO have dyes, traditional films like Tri-x don't.

Aye, but, they aren't color dyes. The thing about overheated color film is color shifting, so, since color is not relevant with these films, are they better?

AgX · Jun 28, 2013

They are colour dyes, mixed in a way to form a neutral hue.

But one does not need three different colour forming layers. (Layers that can get astray in relation to each other in colour photography due to environmental effect.)
In this respect chromogenic b&w film is advantageous on colour film. But one yields a monochrome image, thus one is comparing apples to oranges.

Compared to classic b&w films I see neither advantage nor disadvantage concerning storing temperatures.

But as chromogenic films are more complicatd, from a theoretic point of view the classic film would be the better one...

Gerald C Koch · Jun 28, 2013

It is a very bad idea to keep a camera loaded or otherwise in a car. During the summer the temperature in a closed car can easily reach 140F or higher. Unless you keep the windows fully open not merely cracked not only can film be damaged but also the camera itself. Heat causes plastics to deform and lubricants to migrate.

AgX · Jun 28, 2013

A black camera in direct sun will also get hot.

Being stored in a car coverd from direct sunlight the cabin of the car not only produces heat (body and interior) but also
isolate the interior from the surrounding, cooler air.

I'm not sure which of these two scenarios would be worse.

tim elder · Jun 29, 2013

It's not a good idea to keep film in a hot car, any way you slice it.

polyglot · Jun 29, 2013

Sure, B&W films won't get colour-shift, but the film will fog anyway. I see no benefit to XP2 over a classic B&W; they're both sensitised silver halides, the only difference being that the XP2 has dye couplers in there to form black dye during development in C41. It's simpler than a colour C41 film by having just one sensitive layer instead of 3+ but it will suffer the same degradations as both B&W and C41 films. All films are sensitised silver halide at the root.

If the temps are bad enough to damage a roll of film during the span in which it might be loaded, it will be really bad for the camera+lens too.

Vonder · Jun 29, 2013

Thanks guys, for all the responses. The points are well taken. I will continue with the use of Tri-X then, and as far as the camera itself, it's a beater Canon F-1 and still works like a champ.

polyglot · Jun 29, 2013

A slower film would probably suffer less, though not Pan-F as it seems to have poor latent-image stability.

Kodak BW400CN and Ilford XP2 - Invulnerable to damage?

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