Tri X Story!

[snegron]

I thought I'd share an interesting story about a roll of Tri X I just had developed this week. Turns out that about 3 years ago I used a Nikon FM2 as a spare camera during a wedding. I had loaded it with a roll of Tri X and took several shots of the bride, bridesmaids, etc. I had only shot about 15 pictures when I put the camera away and continued shooting color film with another camera.

A couple of weeks after the wedding the hotshoe became loose on the FM2. Since I had only shot half the roll of Tri X I thought I would shoot the rest in available light. I put the loaded FM2 away in a drawer and forgot all about it until last week. I went out and shot the rest of the roll just for fun and had it developed. I was expecting the lab tech to tell me how the images had faded, etc.

To my surprise all the images were perfect (by that I mean well exposed, no signs of over/under exposure, no fading)! In other words, it took me 3 years to finish a roll of Tri X and the images on frame 1 were consitant with frame 36! So much for the film expiration myth!

 

[BrianShaw]

After only three years I'd expect the result you got. For B&W film, three years past expiry isn't really that much. I once bought on old camera that had a roll of Verichrome in it that was so old that they film didn't fade, but it came out in sepia. I think that film might have been 40 years of more past expiry.

 

[snegron]

This has me thinking about a potential new project: load a roll of Tri X in a camera I never use (probaby that same FM2) and take one photograph per month of my kids in the same place/same position. Three years from now I can develop it and have an accurate visual account of their growth cycle! It would be cool to then do a contact print showing the continuous frame numbers.

 

[Shawn Dougherty]

This has me thinking about a potential new project: load a roll of Tri X in a camera I never use (probaby that same FM2) and take one photograph per month of my kids in the same place/same position. Three years from now I can develop it and have an accurate visual account of their growth cycle! It would be cool to then do a contact print showing the continuous frame numbers.

That's a great idea! I hope you do it, I'm sure your kids would treasure it when they are older. Best. Shawn

 

[Moopheus]

I recently had processed a roll of Tri-X that I shot almost 30 (yes, thirty, not three) years ago, and the pictures still came out fairly well. I sent in at the same time a roll of Kodacolor from c. 1995, and the pictures came out, but the colors were a bit faded and the shadows had clearly lost detail. While I wouldn't want to make a habit of it, the latent images would seem to be more robust than the dating would lead you to believe.

 

[Magnus W]

A few months ago I developed a bunch of films that had been stashed away for 20-25 years. It was a mixed selection, but this is how they came out.
Tri-X ~15 rolls: OK. a slight base fog fairly easy to print.
Agfapan 100 ~20 rolls: Excellent: very very slight fog on a couple of the rolls, but most of them looked like they were new.
Agfapan 400 ~10 rolls: Bad; Heavy base fog, will be a PITA to print, One roll probably unprintable
Kodak Tmy400: ~8 rolls: Not very good. Pronounced base fog, very grainy even on MF. Not very hard to print.
Kodak Tmy100: ~8 rolls: Like the 400 fogged and with pronounced grain.

The result within each group of film were very uniform, except for the odd film that were totally black (3 Trix, 2 AP100, 1 AP400) or unexposed (mea culpa).

For the TriX I used D76, for the Agfas; Rodinal, and for the Kodaks; T-max dev.

I still have a few rolls left to develope. Next in line: A bunch of Ilfords, some 3-4 PlusX and a single Panatomic X.

will report back -- MW

 

[rusty71]

I still have a few rolls left to develope. Next in line: A bunch of Ilfords, some 3-4 PlusX and a single Panatomic X.

will report back -- MW

I bet the Panatomic X will be fine. Last year I found a bulk roll of Pan X expired 1988! I loaded some and it works fine, almost like new. Still using that bulk roll today. Your experience mirrors mine with TMAX films-terrible past the expiration date. That's why I still shoot Tri-X. I recall an online article last year about a 50 year old roll of Ilford HP that someone found and developed. Images were fine.

 

[Amund]

This is from Verichrome Pan expired 1980.

 

[Thomas Bertilsson]

Currently I'm shooting 4x5 Tri-X 400 that expired in 1981. It has a tiny bit more base fog than a newer roll (no 400 sheets anymore), but that just means the image stain looks much nicer... Other than that, it prints perfectly fine.

I'm also using some Agfapan 25 4x5 sheet film that expired in 1987. It produces some really interesting results. I'll be posting some prints in the gallery tomorrow.

 

[rusty71]

Finally found the link to that story of 50+ year old Ilford HP-3 film.
http://www.photographyblog.com/inde...d_black_and_white_film_survives_for_50_years/
It also has a quote by our friend Simon Galley! Quite intriguing.

 

[singram]

About 10 years ago I received a camera from a friend. He knew that I collected old cameras so he picked up this Box Brownie for me at auction. Well the camera was still loaded with film (b&w Kodak I can't remember which kind). Out of curiosity I developed the film and there were pretty decent images on the negs. I worked for a small town newspaper so I posted the photos in the paper with a short story about the discovery.
It turns out that these photos were shot on a high school sponsored band trip out West in the 1960's. The owner of the camera shot the photos, put the camera on the shelf and forgot about it. Her mom passed away and the contents of the estate were settled at auction and that is how I got the camera. She lived out of the country, but flew back home and was reunited with her camera, the negs and some prints I made from the photos. It really was a fun story with a great ending.

steve

 

[Thomas Bertilsson]

Tri-X 400 Expired 1981

These two are 4x5 sheets of Tri-X 400 that expired in 1981. A little more fog, but it's very easy to just print through it.

Pyrocat-HD developer, printed on Perfecta paper from Fine Art Photo Supply, in Versaprint II glycin developer.

- Thom