Shooting vintage, expired film

[keenmaster486]

I hope this is the correct place to post this thread - if not, mods please move it! I'm just an inexperienced newbie

Has anyone any experience in shooting old, expired film? I have some old color film from the 60's and the 80's; I shot one of the 1980 Ektachrome rolls and it actually came out just fine, except with a purple hue throughout that actually looks kind of neat. (I'll post scans later, don't have them with me right now)

I want to shoot one of the other rolls - I have an Ektachrome 64 from 1980, an Ektachrome from 1962, and a Kodacolor II from 1980, all 120 format.

I've also shot some B&W expired film due to finding old film in vintage cameras, shooting the rest of the roll, and getting it developed, and that has worked just fine except for looking a little grainy. Those were from the 40's to the 60's.

So does anyone have advice for me? I don't suppose I can expect, for instance, the other Ektachromes to turn out the same and have that same purple hue - or can I?

 

[Sirius Glass]

The slides may show varying amount of color shift or fog depending on how the film was stored. Black & white will not have a color shift, but may have fog and loss of contrast again depending on how the film was stored.

 

[keenmaster486]

Well yes... but how would you shoot that film? Would you treat it as new film or, for instance, increase the exposure a stop or two?

 

[darkroommike]

Well yes... but how would you shoot that film? Would you treat it as new film or, for instance, increase the exposure a stop or two?

If you ask ten guys here, you'll get 20 answers. Too many variable to count. Moderating factors include how the film has been stored, formulation of the film (film makers tinker with their emulsion recipes all the time), brand of film and speed. Fast films, as a rule, change faster than slow films, all other factors being equal, panchromatic films age faster than orthochromatic films and blue sensitive films age slower than ortho' films. VERY general rule. So if you had some really slow, blue sensitive microfilm stored next to some Kodak 2475 High Speeding Recording Film my money is on the microfilm.

One rule of thumb that some repeat as Gospel is that for every tens years divide the ASA by two. I other words a 400 speed film from 1976 would get rated at EI 25 ( that's 400 ÷ 2 ÷ 2 ÷ 2 ÷ 2 ) somehow they assume that they will get enough usable density to "punch through" the base fog. I have some 120 FP-4+ from 1997 that's just fine with out any exposure shenanigans. I have some TMax 400 from the same era that has picked up quite a bit of fog, not so much that it's not usable but a lot more fog than the FP-4+. The Tmax was given to me from my old paper when they went first 100% color film and then a little later 100% D-word, stored at room temp the whole time until I got it into my fridge. The FP-r+ was a gift from an old buddy and had been stored in a chicken coop in South Dakota for 20 years.

 

[removed account4]

add 1 fstop of exposure / 10 years
and if you process it yourself
use a hard and fast developer and develop it for
as little time as you can.
i use ansco 130 or dektol
1:4 for about 5 minutes. maybe more
maybe less, it depends....
or you process it and use the fog( i do and i use caffneol with said
dektol or ansco 130 mixed in, or as a side car split chemistry processing )
as part of what you are shooting it for.
i exposed a ton of expired royal pan ( some crazy high iso )
exposed it and processed the heck of it and got fantastic negatives
also used expired 100E processed in dektol and contact printed the films
and can't complain ...
sometimes you have to have a plan ...
set the bar LOW and enjoy the results**

ps don't listen the the nay sayers or the by the book'ers they
look for perfection ( which doesn't exist ) and want to discourage experimentation

** added later : i don't typically shoot expired color that isn't e6 or c41, but when i do
i still process it in dektol/ ansco 130 and just process it as b/w film. works well if you don't
want to deal with searching for a way to develop it as color...

 

[pdeeh]

ps don't listen the the nay sayers

john don't you know by now that we are all doomed?

 

[removed account4]

yeah i know pdeeh, its crazy ..

 

[GregW]

On those color films be sure to check which chemicals it requires, the stuff from 1962 can't be processed by most modern retail labs. You should also check out processing slide film in print chemicals (E-6 to C-41) I have some very old Ektachrome slide duping film from the 70s that looks wonderful in C-41, super saturated colors including the bluest skies ever. Can be a fun route to some interesting images.
again re the 1962 stuff, you can process it at home with a C-41 kit using parameters this guy has come up with to get some fairly wild colors and results.
https://expiredfilmphotographer.wordpress.com/

 

[keenmaster486]

OK, thanks for all the info!

So the 1962 Ektachrome uses the E-2 process, but if I process it as E-6 what do you suppose would happen? After all, if processing as C-41 which is undoubtedly wrong produces usable images, I don't suppose E-6 is that much different from E-2.

The 1979 64 ISO Ektachrome I just shot with a Brownie #2 (with 3 aperture options), and just took intuitive guesses at the exposure, which actually turned out perfectly.

Right now I'm shooting the 1980 Kodacolor II roll, increasing the exposure by two or three stops. Hopefully I'll get some good prints; I'll scan them in along with the other reversal roll.

 

[faberryman]

Film is not so expensive that if you want your photographs to turn out as expected, you should use fresh film. Do you want to use the film just out of curiosity?

 

[GregW]

"So the 1962 Ektachrome uses the E-2 process, but if I process it as E-6 what do you suppose would happen? After all, if processing as C-41 which is undoubtedly wrong produces usable images, I don't suppose E-6 is that much different from E-2."

It is very much different. Some google research( and searching APUG) will lead you down the whole rabbit hole of using expired color films. Congrats on the '79 Ektachrome 64. I'd simplify your experiments by sticking to E-6 films and C-41. Find some subjects that work well with off color etc and have a blast. Shoot a roll of fresh Velvia in there as well it might surprise you how wonderful it is.