Slide film / Pro Film conservation (bought and will be used in India, pics inside)

Hi guys,

I bought these rolls the other and I don't think they were kept in a fridge, they were not at least when I got there and in another store they pulled out similar ones from a box that was not in a fridge. I would like to know if I should keep them cool or if it doesn't matter. They are expired, I bought them like that on purpose for two reasons, the half price and also I hope it will give nice colours effects.

http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=2qvupea&s=5
http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=2rp4uag&s=5 (is this considered Ektachrome?)

Thanks a lot everyone !

Ben

How old are they? What are the dates on the boxes? I don't think Kodak has sold the Elite films for a long while.

Half price is expensive for films which past a decade of summers at 50 celcius degree. Buy half amount of film fridged and fresh to same Money.

Given that they're tragically expired, and you want funky color anyway, I wouldn't bother with chilling them now. I would however give at least a half-stop extra exposure if not a full stop given that they're in some cases a decade old.

Elite Chrome was the consumer packaging for Ektachrome. Extra Color was Ektachrome VS.

It was sold for as long as Ektachrome was, though it became very hard to find. It was a remarkable film and will be sorely missed.

Thanks a lot guys for your replies. Below are my replies to your queries.

The expiry dates are : 2002 for the provia, sensia is 2009 and the elite chrome is 2006. the 400tx is not expired and i opened a plastic can to see inside (was curious). Should i store the 400tx in a fridge ? the thing is that the fridge is pretty cool, almost freezing (sometimes freezes eggs), and the room and outside tempearture are around 20-22 degrees C here in Bangalore at the moment, and it's not so humid as it rains less than in other regions.

For the prices I got them at the following prices:
Sensia was 110 rupees / 1.4 euros / 1.83 USD / 1.21 GBP - per roll
Provia was 150 rupees / 1.90 euros / 2.50 USD / 1.65 GBP - per roll
Elite chrome was 175 rupees / 2.23 euros / 2.93 USD / 1.93 GBP - per roll

He still has a lot of sensia and a few provia, do you think it was a good deal and I should go there again a pickup all the other rolls ? I haven't found someone to do E6 process in Bangalore but I found someone recommend by many people offline and online in Ahmedabad that can process E6 for 200 rupees per roll and great quality processing, would you think it is crazy if I get 10 more slide rolls ? 200 rupees is like 2.5 euros per roll ! In europe it would be like 20 euros per roll to develop it.

Can you get prints from slide films like with negative films ?

@thuggins : you think I should keep those two rolls in the fridge then ? It's just that its a very very cool fridge, I wouldn't want to brutalize the film or something (it sometimes freezes eggs ...).

@TheFlyingCamera: what do you mean with a half stop or full stop, i'm still struggling with that definition. My camera is all manual. I have a shutter speed wheel with 1,2,4,8,15,30,60,125,250,500,1000,2000 on it. You recommend overexposing right ? Should I do it when taking the picture or with push or pull processing when I send it to the guy ?

Thanks again a lot guys ! Sorry for all the dumb questions it's just that I learning analog photography here in India and I'm lucky enough to be in a country where this hobby is much cheaper than in europe so I want to learn the most I can and shoot the most I can ^^

Yes, I recommend a slight over-exposure. You can set whole stops using your shutter (i.e. if the meter recommends 1/500th, set it to 1/250th), but your lens should be able to set in-between stops (i.e. you should be able to set the lens aperture halfway between f8 and f11). Given how cheap these films are, and the fact that you don't know how badly affected they are from their storage conditions, I would shoot a couple of test rolls, bracketing exposures (take one frame at the metered exposure, another 1/2 stop over, another 1 stop over, of the exact same scene) and then get it processed and see what turns out best. If these were negative films I would recommend bracketing in larger increments (1 stop, 2 stops over), but slide film is much more sensitive to over-exposure in a bad way.

I would store the tri-x in the fridge only if you are not planning on using it soon (in the next few months). Given that you said these films have not been refrigerated for what may have been an extended period of time already, another few days/weeks won't hurt it any (unless those days/weeks are going to be spent in the boot of an un-airconditioned car parked in the sun). If your fridge is freezing your eggs, then A: it's too cold in general, and B: if you store film in it, to avoid freezer burn/frost damage, you should seal the film inside a ziploc bag with the air evacuated as much as possible, and then that bag inside another ziploc bag. This will help prevent condensation from forming when you defrost the film. You will need to take the bagged film out of the refrigeration several hours before you plan to use it and allow the sealed bags to come to room temperature before opening.

Another note: given that you are still learning, my recommendation would be to buy fresh film and learn with that so that you see what your results SHOULD look like. Don't be economical to the point of compromising your knowledge and results just for the sake of saving a few pence/cents/rupees.

Thanks ! Still don't get the stop technique. So it should go in conjunction between the shutter speed and the aperture ? On my kit lens (a zoom lens) i only have 3.5 5.6 8 11 16 22 as apertures so I guess I can't set it half way right ?

Regarding your recommendation as to what film to purchase: it is not easy to find regular non outdated film already in the areas I know in Bangalore, so I first started looking for films just to find film ! Since these are not so expensive I thought why not try and see. But you are right I should maybe use a roll to see how it turns out. To overexpose them correctly you think it is possible to do it handheld or I would need longer exposure times and therefore a tripod (I plan on shooting them during day time but in the jungles of Kerala and the dry rocky region of Hampi).

He still has a lot of sensia and a few provia, do you think it was a good deal and I should go there again a pickup all the other rolls ?

Click to expand...

I don´t think that half price is a good deal on 10+ years expired Provia. The 2009 Sensia might still be good on the other hand. I would shoot the films you already bought and make a decision based on the results you´ll get from these. If the Sensia is okay (which I assume), half price is a decent deal, even more so since this nice film is not produced anymore.

Kruger said:

Thanks ! Still don't get the stop technique. So it should go in conjunction between the shutter speed and the aperture ? On my kit lens (a zoom lens) i only have 3.5 5.6 8 11 16 22 as apertures so I guess I can't set it half way right ?

Regarding your recommendation as to what film to purchase: it is not easy to find regular non outdated film already in the areas I know in Bangalore, so I first started looking for films just to find film ! Since these are not so expensive I thought why not try and see. But you are right I should maybe use a roll to see how it turns out. To overexpose them correctly you think it is possible to do it handheld or I would need longer exposure times and therefore a tripod (I plan on shooting them during day time but in the jungles of Kerala and the dry rocky region of Hampi).

Click to expand...

You should be able to shoot hand-held, although in the jungle I think it might be iffy with most of those films you have, as they're rather slow films. The Tri-X will be the most successful for hand-held exposures in the jungle.

Pick up your camera and play with the lens. Although half-stops are not marked on the lens, slowly rotate the aperture ring. You should feel a click in-between each of the marked stops. You won't get half-stop settings on your shutter, but with the lens you will.

Kerala is at southwestern coast of India and one of the most beatiful places on Earth. And its one of the two Hippie Centers of the India other is at Chennai at southeastern coast of India , heavily damaged with tsunami and typhoon. There is a big Hippie center at the east called Auroville and all the hotel and food cost is less than 9 dollars per day.

You must see the Kerala pictures on Google , There are billion of Coconut trees placed there and denser than your hair.

Many people eat from garbage and sex with american hippies.

I would document these people with my camera. They are one of the most interesting people on earth and they have such interesting ideas.

There are video documents with these people on youtube and girls were crying because of their sex adventours there.

I asked to a group about snake danger at kerala and they prefer to escape at first 15 seconds and than attack !!!

All I know about there.