Whole negative surface very dark

[Antonio Marques]

Hi!

The other day I found two undeveloped rolls of Fujicolor C200 that I think were bought and exposed about 10 years ago. I took them for development. When I got the film home, I noticed it was incredibly dark, it was quite different to tell the leader from the rest. With the help of a loupe and sprocket hole counting, I was able to cut them correctly, even though the space between frames is almost as dark as the frames themselves. One can't even read the numbers on the edges. Luckily, it seems my scanner is able to extract reasonable images from them, though (apparently) grainier than they could have been.

By chance, I had asked the lab not to cut the film (I have no idea how labs usually do it).

What could have caused this? That same day that same lab developed other rolls for me, including a Kodak Gold 100 from the same era and storage, and they all turned out normal.

Cheers!

Edit: I forgot to indicate that the dark 'base colour' is uniform, it covers the whole negative without obvious patterning, waves or what not. It's as if the 'orange mask' were just quite dark brown instead of the usual light 'orange'.

 

[zanxion72]

This is an example of badly expired film, and this due to being badly stored.

 

[Antonio Marques]

But the Kodak was shot at the same time, stored with them in the same cool cupboard in a hallway that gets no sun, and came out normal... The Kodak was 100, not 200, but would that make such a difference?

Other long expired rolls that I've shot recently have come out normal, too. Some with more saturation than expected, but still normal.

I hear it may have to do with overdevelopment, but what could make a presumably automated lab overdevelop just those two?

 

[Wallendo]

But the Kodak was shot at the same time, stored with them in the same cool cupboard in a hallway that gets no sun, and came out normal... The Kodak was 100, not 200, but would that make such a difference?

Other long expired rolls that I've shot recently have come out normal, too. Some with more saturation than expected, but still normal.

I hear it may have to do with overdevelopment, but what could make a presumably automated lab overdevelop just those two?

Different films age differently. I have read anecdotal reports that old Kodak film does better than old Fuji. Slower films may age more slowly than faster film. Having old film developed leads to unpredictable results.

It is unlikely that an automated labs would overdevelop just two rolls.