Length of expiry date for films?

[railwayman3]

(Might be a query for Simon? )

Does anyone know the typical length of time between the date of manufacture of a film and the expiry date put on the packaging?

And is this longer for modern films than in the past?

(I'm trying to date some photos taken by my late mother...the film packet (1960's) has, for some reason, been kept with the negs, maybe as a reminder of the film used. Obviously, the film could have been used after expiry, but at that time she would likely have bought films one-by-one and used them right away.)

 

[Aurum]

The other question to ask is wether or not your mother was the sort of person who bought a film, say for a holiday trip, and shot the lot then got it developed, or wether she took the odd photo now and then, and the film was in the camera for a long period of time

 

[Ian Grant]

The expiry dates seem to be much shorter now than a few years ago, so Ilford Delta 400 film I bought in the spring of this year has a Nov 09 date. My order was delayed because the Delta 100 was in transit from Mobberley that has an expiry date of Sept 10. My guess is it's now around 3 years from the date of manufacture, in Ilfords case. This is probably a tightening of parameters to ensure high quality, Simon can obviously give us details.

Ian

 

[railwayman3]

The other question to ask is wether or not your mother was the sort of person who bought a film, say for a holiday trip, and shot the lot then got it developed, or wether she took the odd photo now and then, and the film was in the camera for a long period of time

Good point, thanks.
My Father was the keen amateur photographer in the family, and my Mother would usually only buy a film for her camera to use for a specific occasion, like a holiday or wedding. She wasn't interested in using her camera at other times at all, so I think I can assume that the film was bought, used and processed, probably within a few days.