Using Expired Camera Film

MrUniveristy

Hi, I've recently bought a second hand Kodak camera from the 1980's which I'm going to use for holiday.

I've purchased 5 Fugifilm Superia 200 ISO rolls that expired in 2009 on ebay for £10.

Has anyone had experience using expired film?

Cheers

esuhl

I vaguely remember using expired film a long time ago, and the images weren't as sharp or clear, and the image looked overexposed and particularly "grainy". It probably depends on the film type and how it has been stored. But I don't think the film I used was any more than a couple of years out of date. Six years is probably pushing it. I wouldn't expect the images to be that great.

Is there any reason for using expired film? Can you no longer buy new reels?

Big_Graeme

Yes, its the unpredictable nature of the images that make using expired film interesting.

http://filmphotographyproject.com/content/howto/2013/09/why-shoot-expired-film-2013-update

MrUniveristy

Hi,

New film is still being produced, but it's so expensive, one decent roll, your looking at £5 mark.

paddyrg

Old stock can be foggy, maybe try just one roll first, just in case.

Have a look in poundland, they sometimes have more modern colour film than that. Processing is what costs!

esuhl

Would a cheap second-hand digital camera would work out cheaper and more reliable for holiday snaps...?

shaun_from_Africa

The biggest problem with old photographic film stock is how they were stored. A low temperature low humidity environment is the best way to keep them.
Putting them in a refrigerator extends their life a fair bit and a freezer even more so (just remember to take them out well in advance of the time you want to use them.

Unless the film you have purchased was stored in a freezer and enclosed in a lead lined bag or box (to stop any ambient gamma radiation from altering the film), you should expect the results to vary greatly from new stock and use it accordingly.
You may well be pleasantly surprised and find that the resulting pictures are perfect, but this isn't something that you can bank on and using it for holiday photo's certainly isn't something that I would recommend unless you don't mind losing some or all of the pictures.

paddyrg

esuhl wrote: »

Would a cheap second-hand digital camera would work out cheaper and more reliable for holiday snaps...?

Digital kit is ubiquitous and cheap as chips - it's the processing of the film that'll make shooting film costly - 5 rolls at £6 processing is £30, which is already half the cost of a pretty decent new pocket digital these days. The biggest saving though is being able to discard all the rubbish shots and only print the good ones

howdm

I have a photographer friend who buys expired film on purpose. It can actually produce some fairly beautiful effects:
https://www.flickr.com/groups/kodakexpiredfilm/pool/

Mr_Toad

You don't say if your intention is to try and reproduce old style pictures or if you just thought it was a good idea.

I have several 35mm cameras that were my fathers. Two of them were professional Nikon SLRs an F2 and an F3. I have put a couple of rolls of film through them and while with new film the pictures were fantastic they were expensive and you can get results as good with a decent modern camera.

Some of the old expired film gave interesting results but nothing you can't get with a cheap digital and a bit of image processing.

I'll never part with the cameras but I won't be putting any more film through them.

As an aside. I was at a wedding a couple of weeks ago and one of the guests had one of the new Fuji instant cameras, like the old Polaroid. I didn't realise anyone was making them again.

They had both colour and black & white film and I have to say it produced some very nice atmospheric pictures, particularly the B&W.

InsideInsurance

esuhl wrote: »

Would a cheap second-hand digital camera would work out cheaper and more reliable for holiday snaps...?

Depends what you are doing and why etc.

I've spent more money than I care to admit on digital cameras but still also use a film camera for some things. Thankfully as all are Canon EOS cameras they use EF lenses and so the lenses at least can be used on all my camera bodies.

That said, most my film use is B&W which is fairly easy to self develop -v- colour film which is more complex from what I have read (though never tried)

Some film has a certain characteristic that is very very difficult to recreate with digital. As others have said out of date film can certainly create interest effects but is also very random, one of the fun elements of non-digital.

If it is truly for just holiday snaps then I would second a digital camera, or even phone cam, but for more serious photography then film still very much has a place in the world.