Camera Talk

I recently made a move to a new home and have been reading some older magazines that floated to the top.
Today I came across an article on keeping film. It stated that freezing did not extend it's life, it may slow down aging some but it still ages.
I have some 120 film that has been in the freezer for 10 or 12 years now. I tried a roll or two a few years ago and it was still good.
Hope that I haven't wasted the rest.

Just like some of that stuff you sent me 7 years ago that you found in your basement. I still use it with no problems. I am pretty sure that they were payed for by Kodak to write that article.

I've had variable results with really old film. I recently shot an unused roll of old Plus-X, but the negative were horribly fogged. However, it was an unboxed roll, so I have no idea of how much time it spent in a basement, attic or garage.

With my own film, I keep tighter control, and I haven't had any issues with somee Agfapan APX 100 and 400 that I bought back when Agfa stopped making it.

In fact, I still have several 100-foot spools of each.

I also have some Kodak TechPan in a bulk loader and another 150-foot spool. And I have a lot of boxed 120 rolls. I've shot all of them and haven't had any problems.

So, yeah, I think it depends on how the film has been handled.

Color film is a different story. Or that's what I hear.

My own experience is with B&W film mostly.

400 ISO film will start to fog noticeably in about 10 years, just because of background radiation, I guess. I have used 100 ISO film that was 20 year outdated, no visible fog.

As said above, useful life of film depends a lot on handling, especially about the temperature history. Higher ISO films may be more sensitive.

This was 50+ year old Plus-X that expired in 1962. A friend found it in the basement of a house he moved into in the Washington D.C. area. He sent it to me. I said WTF and shot it at E.I. 80 then put it in some Rodinal 1-100 semistand for a little over an hour.

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Today I shot and developed FP4+ that had expired in 2001, it was just forgotten inside a closet, not chilled, not frozen, not a difference from fresh film, as far as I can tell.

This is encouraging, I have dozens of rolls of B&W that I "forgot" to refrigerate when I moved to Arizona four years ago.

I seem to recall reading somewhere recently that as long as the film is kept at a stable, cool temperature, that was good enough to keep it for a reasonably long time (at least for B+W). It did mention in the same article that freezing did not help.

P C Headland wrote:I seem to recall reading somewhere recently that as long as the film is kept at a stable, cool temperature, that was good enough to keep it for a reasonably long time (at least for B+W). It did mention in the same article that freezing did not help.

Well as long as freezing doesn't hurt it I guess I will be OK. If I would leave it in the refrigerator it would be molested, no one bothers it in the freezer I am sure there is meat in the freezer older than my film---- yukkkkk

Ron B

I think that ambient radiation, accumulated over time, will fog any film. That rate at which this happens may vary with film sensitivity (ISO), and storage location, but it will happen.