Using really out of date Kodak Infra-red

I got a couple of rolls that are truly expired for a few years. Should I bother shooting them or dont they keep. What defects should I expect?

FWIW, infra-red is not the most stable of films, and the expiry dates seem to be about half those for regular films. The advice I've seen (and observed) is to keep it refrigerated (not frozen for some reason?), dont leave it partly exposed in the camera for any length of time and process it right away.

I wouldn't throw the films out myself (I hate waste)...particularly if you have more than one, try one out on some unimportant subject. All you can lose is a bit of time and a few pence worth of dev and fix.

Assuming the film is 36 exp, I obviously wouldn't spend time taking 36 different subjects! Maybe three or four different subjects maximum, bracket the exposures on each one and perhaps try different filters.

railwayman3 said:

The advice I've seen (and observed) is to keep it refrigerated (not frozen for some reason?),...

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Freezing (properly done) is the best way to keep the characteristics of (plain) film whether unexposed or exposed.

Infrared sensitization keeps the least. At the same time this means you still would have the other sensitizers used (if used at all...) .

If it is b/w film, then give it a try. The color IR is what needs to be stored frozen (even when new) and from what I've seen in books, the colors will shift towards cyan as it ages.

I had poor results from unrefrigerated HIE two years past its expiration date. Loss of sensitivity to IR was pretty severe, say two stops. (I've shot a lot of it in the past, and it just wasn't right!) You might be better off trying to use it as a regular film and exploit its inherent grain and lack of anti-halation dyes.

Peter Gomena

I have 51 rolls of HIE, and the expiration date is September 2008. I have kept them in the freezer...when should I use it by? Will it keep until say, September 2010 before it starts to deteriorate?

mario Ag+ said:

I got a couple of rolls that are truly expired for a few years. Should I bother shooting them or dont they keep. What defects should I expect?

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Use it or loose it. Shoot it and see what you get. More than likely if it's really old it's going to have a high level of fog.

I had a roll in an old camera bag for about 3 years, 2 years past expiry date. No problems with it when processed well in Kodak D76. I have a few out of date rolls in the fridge and am confident they will be fine also.

I have some older Kodak High Speed infrared that has been stored in freezer with no problems with fogging or loss of sensitivity. But seems to have an odd brownish cast when film is developed/fixed. This cast doesn't seem to affect the final print though, but it is still weird to see.