Outdated colour film

cliveh · Jul 7, 2015

Would you buy outdated colour film on EBAY that the seller says has been kept in the freezer?

480sparky · Jul 7, 2015

I wouldn't. But there are those that revel in expired film.

OptiKen · Jul 7, 2015

I've pretty much had my fill of out of date film. I have enough problems without having to put the age and/or long term storage into the equation of 'what went wrong with this picture?"

DREW WILEY · Jul 7, 2015

Depends on the specific film, just how far out of date it is, and of course, on the specific seller. Just randomly? Never.

cliveh · Jul 7, 2015

DREW WILEY said:
Depends on the specific film, just how far out of date it is, and of course, on the specific seller. Just randomly? Never.

Fujichrome 50 ISO 2014.

DREW WILEY · Jul 7, 2015

It's probably just fine. I've shot Fujichromes in 8x10 sheets fifteen years out of date, frozen. When things get that old they are sometimes fine
if you use up the film reasonably promptly, but dop tend to go blaah or risk highlight crossover faster than thawed fresh film. But 2014? No big deal. High-speed films are another thing. They go bad way faster.

Mainecoonmaniac · Jul 7, 2015

Some do revel in it

480sparky said:
I wouldn't. But there are those that revel in expired film.

I remember reading in PDN years ago about a photographer that shot interiors shoots with expired film because the colors are mellower. Don't know how it looks like. With chrome film, I think the colors shift to magenta. With color neg film, you can change the filter pack when you print. Since most film is scanned anyway, it probably doesn't matter unless something weird like if color crossovers happen.

DREW WILEY · Jul 7, 2015

Scanning sure can't cure everything. I wouldn't ever shoot anything seriously outdated unless I was willing to live with the "creative" side of
that experience. The nice thing about chromes is that you can just slap em on a light box and see what's happening. A person can go crazy
trying to balance a bad color neg without really understanding what went wrong in the first place. Likewise when some chrome films were
heavily pull-processed - you could get some strange crossover effects, which I sometimes deliberately aimed for. When I did a lot of Cibachrome printing I'd sequence the images for the "ripeness" of the batch. Over about a six-month window, the highlights would gradually
shift toward magenta inflection, something which could be quite beautiful if you knew precisely what to do with it. But after six months or
so, you couldn't tame it and the paper was essentially kaput. Short shelf life. I love the way some old school cheapo color snapshot films
would spoil and render unusual hues. Or course all this was fugitive; but still it's fun to look at aging amateur prints for that one in a thousand example that makes you think, what if?

j-dogg · Jul 7, 2015

You should be fine with 2014 Velveeta 50

I've shot 20-year-old expired Ektar 25, acquired on APUG and it came out fine.

removed account4 · Jul 7, 2015

depends on hte price clive.
some sellers are FOS, say things
are frozen when they aren't .. just to sell it
if it is cheap and you don't mind surprises
buy it and enjoy it ... but if you don't like
surprises and it is expensive i'd buy something
that is a sure-thing ...

YMMV

good luck !
john

railwayman3 · Jul 8, 2015

DREW WILEY said:
Depends on the specific film, just how far out of date it is, and of course, on the specific seller. Just randomly? Never.

Agreed....I've bought outdated film when it's a discontinued kind that I want to experiment with, and I accept the risks.

OTOH, for "important" pictures, it's always fresh film, or film which I've frozen myself from new.

Ko.Fe. · Jul 8, 2015

I do. On ebay and here.
I wouldn't afraid of exp. 2014 film.

Terry Christian · Jul 8, 2015

Color negative film within the last ten-fifteen years or so, yes. I'd be doubtful of film older than that.

GarageBoy · Jul 8, 2015

I should really burn through or sell off all this E100VS I've been saving for a rainy day...
Well past their 2013 expiration dates

mklw1954 · Jul 11, 2015

No, unless you don't care about what results you might get (color shifts, etc.) because you don't know how the film was really stored. And most of the expired color film on ebay appears to be around $3-4 a roll or more while you can buy fresh Fuji Superia 400-36 or Kodak Ultramax 400-36 for $4 a roll.

Alan Klein · Jul 11, 2015

Would you buy outdated colour film on EBAY that the seller says has been kept in the freezer?

Would you eat his food if he said he had it frozen the whole time?

cliveh · Jul 11, 2015

So the general consensus is to disbelieve the seller that it has been kept in a freezer?

Joel_L · Jul 12, 2015

I have bought several long rolls of expired slide film and have been very happy with the results, can't really tell a difference. My concern would be has it really been cold stored all its life. I just the other day processed a roll of many many year old Optima 100 film, came out fine.

Joel

Sirius Glass · Jul 12, 2015

I will only buy out dated film from known sources because my photographs are important.

newcan1 · Jul 13, 2015

I buy when the price is right and the quantity is sufficient that I can run a few test rolls to establish ISO, condition, etc. I have rarely encountered film with color crossover; typically, speed loss and base fog are the principal issues. There have been some exceptions. But a lot of what I have acquired is very useable, even for critical work.

Much of what I acquired I did a couple of years ago when prices were better. I have over 21 cubic feet of freezer space dedicated to film.

kxjiru · Jul 13, 2015

It's hit or miss. I "lost" with some rolls of Astia 100 because it has a slight color shift but "won" with Ektachrome 64 which didn't have an expiration date but was perfect. That's part of the fun with expired film. Just don't use it for critical things if you can't test it before.

Sirius Glass · Jul 13, 2015

kxjiru said:
It's hit or miss. I "lost" with some rolls of Astia 100 because it has a slight color shift but "won" with Ektachrome 64 which didn't have an expiration date but was perfect. That's part of the fun with expired film. Just don't use it for critical things if you can't test it before.

If you include the costs of the "lost" rolls with the "won" it would be much cheaper to buy fresh film.

kxjiru · Sep 17, 2015

Sirius Glass said:
If you include the costs of the "lost" rolls with the "won" it would be much cheaper to buy fresh film.

Yeah I've learned that the hard way. Still haven't stopped buying expired film; but now I make sure it's been stored well. I got 26 rolls astia 100f that's pristine and I'm overjoyed! But my EPP 100 is color shifted cold blue. Part of the game. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

alanrockwood · Sep 17, 2015

Check the seller's rating. It's no guarantee, but it is an indicator that the goods are good.

blockend · Sep 23, 2015

I just did a stock check on my film freezer while it de-frosts, 207 rolls of film, about 150 of them 35mm colour negative. There are a few outliers with 2012 and 2013 dates, most are 2014 or later. No problem using any of them and colours are as you'd expect. I freeze them as I receive them in double sealed bags, and apart from gamma rays they're as fresh as film is likely to be.

The only film I should use soon, or sell, are 20 rolls of 120 Velvia 50, dated 2012. These were purchased direct from Fuji when they discontinued the film, and frozen from new except for postage time. If I bought any outdated stock, I would hope it had been treated the same way.

Outdated colour film

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