Old E-6 film

[StepheKoontz]

I have a bunch of 20 year old E-6 film. Today I did my first batch of home E-6 with a fresh roll and a roll I'm not sure the history of that was shot 20 years ago. The fresh roll came out perfect, the old roll came out what looks like under-developed, the edges weren't even fully developed/black. Would leaving it in the first developer longer possibly help? I'm going to shoot one of the old rolls I know have been in the fridge the whole 20 years and see how it turns out before I start experimenting. If it's really junk, I might try cross processing it.

 

[John Salim]

I get many out of date slide films in for processing, and sadly slide film seems to go off quicker than others.
Most tend to go a bit magenta or red ( or any other colour ), and lose contrast and D-max ( blacks turning light blue ).
The very worst I've seen are almost clear rolls with 'trace images' on them.

Obviously it depends on their storage conditions.
I wouldn't recommend you use those rolls for anything serious. You can try under developing slightly ( make them darker ) but you'll be swimming against the tide unfortunately.
Quality drops quickly with outdated colour reversal films.

I'd use them either for testing or cross-processing for SFX photography.

John S

 

[StepheKoontz]

I get many out of date slide films in for processing, and sadly slide film seems to go off quicker than others.

I'd use them either for testing or cross-processing for SFX photography.

John S

If I go with cross processing, anything I should do there special given they are out of date? I guess I should be glad someone gave me most of this film back then, which is why I ended up with it And thanks for reminding me to underdevelope to make them darker...

 

[John Salim]

With cross processing ( E-6 through C-41 ) I'd suggest you bracket a stop either way.
Unfortunately no two film types react the same going through an alien process !

John S

 

[IzzyCat]

Up to now I've been quite lucky with my use of old, expired E-6 film.

I'm not into cross processing at all. This is a very personal opinion : I feel that good results are "happy accidents" mostly. I -may- try this one day but only with "available new" film.
I prefer to bath "unavailable new" positive film in E-6 chemistry.

So I had the opportunity to have a sizeable collection of old stocks for cheap and here's how it went :

- Fujichrome Sensia (exp 2003) : Nice colors and contrast, a bit dim (1/4 of a stop lower) some rolls have a tiiiiny bit of a green cast.
- Kodak Ektachrome E100VS (exp 2011) : In your face colours... And contrast : No color casts but my first roll was 1 stop under, rated the next ones at 50 ISO, looked brilliant then.
- Fujichrome Velvia 50 (exp 2004, old recipe) : Colors are wonderful -but- a tad of a green cast in shadow, beneficiates of +1/4 stop to give them a punch.
- Fujichrome Velvia 100 (exp 2005) : All over okay. No casts but dim sometimes. +1/4 on darker scenes.

To conclude : I'm glad I've been given that opportunity to test my skils at shooting and developing slide film using old stocks. That is an interesting challenge and made me better at using fresh slide film.

Example with Sensia :

 

[StepheKoontz]

Well good news, that one roll of 35mm that turned out bad must have been one that wasn't cold stored (I remember I found a few various exposed rolls in a drawer). I went out and shot a roll of 1998 E100S, I have about 60 rolls of 120 of that stored since fresh in a fridge, and it looks perfect! I also have about 20 rolls of the same in 220 + about 200 sheets of the old velvia in 4X5. Looks like it might all be useable