Procedure used to determine “expiration” date for B&W film / paper?

[brianmquinn]

To start I would like to say I use expired film and paper often and usually it works fine even years past the date on the box if it is stored well. I feel “expiration date” should be replaced with “best before”.
Anyway here is my observation for super speed film. I just go some Kodak Tmax P3200 TMZ purchased from Freestyle photo. As far as I can tell Kodak coated it at the end of April 2010 and it has a date stamp of 10/2011 #5681. That would give it a shelf life of 18 months. I also have in my freezer some Ilford Delta 3200 with a date of AUG 2011. I purchased this from B&H in November 2009. I do not know when it was coated I will assume it was just off the line when I got it. That would give it a shelf life of 21 months or more if it was coated before November 2009. Can the Ilford Delta 3200 keep better and last longer than the Kodak TMZ or does Ilford just have different testing procedures to determine what is an in date film?

 

[5stringdeath]

I was going to start a thread called something like "I love the lifespan of B&W film!" recently because I came upon a stash of various, outdated 120 B&W film ... started shooting it, the first rolls were APX 25 and they came out fine. And by outdated I mean 198x. I have some Tri-X and various Ilfords to go through as well. Its great fun!

Also in the stash were some 120 Ektachrome 64 (same relative date) that I have less hope for, so I'm going to run it through my Holga.

I've had less luck with outdated papers ... various results, sometimes fogged, edge fogged, or just plain bad .... but again, I'm talking really old stuff that I have no idea how it was stored. But any paper I bought and stored in freezer sure is fine.

Black and White film is pretty resilient.

 

[clayne]

To start I would like to say I use expired film and paper often and usually it works fine even years past the date on the box if it is stored well. I feel “expiration date” should be replaced with “best before”.
Anyway here is my observation for super speed film. I just go some Kodak Tmax P3200 TMZ purchased from Freestyle photo. As far as I can tell Kodak coated it at the end of April 2010 and it has a date stamp of 10/2011 #5681. That would give it a shelf life of 18 months. I also have in my freezer some Ilford Delta 3200 with a date of AUG 2011. I purchased this from B&H in November 2009. I do not know when it was coated I will assume it was just off the line when I got it. That would give it a shelf life of 21 months or more if it was coated before November 2009. Can the Ilford Delta 3200 keep better and last longer than the Kodak TMZ or does Ilford just have different testing procedures to determine what is an in date film?

18 months? Try more like 30-60 before you notice anything. Freeze the film and stop worrying about it. You're not going to notice the degradation unless you go looking for it. If you suspect the film is older than you feel comfortable with, pull the exposure.