Push or Pull film?

[Samuel Woods]

I recently shot some color positive film that is box rated at 200 ISO. It expired in 2005, and I forgot to account for that. If my research is correct, you adjust your ISO by decreasing it one stop for every decade, so I would have adjusted the ISO down 1.5 stops, for 15 years, which would put the ISO at 75 ISO? Although I have heard that it is wise to round the stop number down instead of up to have an actual integer of what to push and pull at, so I would end up stopping down 1, putting the film at 100 ISO. At this point, do I push or pull the film?

 

[koraks]

I assume this is C41 film? I would process it normally. I've shot hundreds of rolls of superia 200 that were expired by 15 years. Exposed at box speed and processed normally. There is considerable fog, but the images are just fine, also when printed onto ra4 paper.

If the results of your roll are not satisfactory, you could try overexposing the next one. Overdeveloping would not bring back shadow detail that was not recorded in the first place.

 

[Samuel Woods]

This is E-6 color positive. I was going to just cross process since I already have my own chemicals to experiment. The roll was only $2.50, so it'll be fun.

 

[mshchem]

I recently shot some color positive film that is box rated at 200 ISO. It expired in 2005, and I forgot to account for that. If my research is correct, you adjust your ISO by decreasing it one stop for every decade, so I would have adjusted the ISO down 1.5 stops, for 15 years, which would put the ISO at 75 ISO? Although I have heard that it is wise to round the stop number down instead of up to have an actual integer of what to push and pull at, so I would end up stopping down 1, putting the film at 100 ISO. At this point, do I push or pull the film?

If you shot "positive film" i.e. slide film? E6? I wouldn't expect much. If the film was kept frozen or refrigerated no matter what type I would shoot box speed, normal processing.
Old color film, that old, is going to be unreliable.

 

[koraks]

I was going to just cross process

Then I wouldn't wreck my brains about development at all since the results will be quite unpredictable anyway!

 

[Donald Qualls]

Process it in standard C-41.

Testing I've seen has shown most E-6 films lose little if any speed if stored at room temperature (for as long as there's been E-6).

It's been my understanding that most of the need for extra exposure with B&W films past expiration is due to fog -- and C-41 chemistry has very strong anti-fog properties, in my experience, while in actual E-6, all fog will do is lighten the final slide, meaning if you compensate at all, you'd want to expose a little less to get back to normal appearance.

 

[DREW WILEY]

Cross processing will not yield a usable normal image, but something psychedelic, for lack of a better expression; in other words, weird; or fun if you prefer that notion. But as for the alternative, adjusting E6 development itself to allegedly compensate for aging properties, sounds like a disaster to me. If going the E6 route, just dev it normally. Whatever you heard or read sounds like nonsense to me.