I know a lot of people use expired film but I don’t usually. I have always thought it was a bit of a risk, what if it doesn’t work anymore? Will the colours be all wrong? Will it just be a waste of money?
A few months ago there was a person in my apartment block giving away some expired film for free so I thought I might as well grab it, it turned out to be 2 boxes of Kodak Colour and 2 of Kodak Ultra Max. They all expired around 2003-2005 so not super old but I had no idea how they have been kept. In a fridge? Under the bed?
Due to the fact that I recently had a bit of a buying spree with some cheap cameras, I thought I might as well whizz this free film through them.
Below are some of the results.
I’d like to know who else uses expired film and if you have any preference over the brand or amount of years expired?
Hello Karen, I use expired film a lot, all kept in the fridge. Slide film seems to go off more rapidly, but if cross processed can look really good. Used to get my colour film dev’d at a local photo store, but now send them off to a lab,(filmdev.co.uk) what a difference, really great results even on quite old film.
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Ahhh,, that is pretty interesting that you can get better results from an online developer. I use a shop, but it is a good one, not a snappy snaps or boots type shop. I am always a bit nervous sending film off in the mail, it would be sad if it got lost.
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I *have* used expired film but I don’t love it. I want to know what I’m getting when I shoot.
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That is often my issue with it too. I’ve used a few ‘alternative’ films, like redscale, and just hated the results. However, I would like to use redscale in a dessert for that off world alien look.
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I use expired film a lot, I like the risk factor! However, I’ve been lucky, I’ve only had a couple of rolls that I didn’t like: Tudor 100 and some random one called Super HD200 which might have been made by Konica?
Normally when I shoot expired film, if it’s slide film I will shoot at box speed, with colour negative and b&w it’s normally 1/2 to 1 stop overexposure. With slide film, I will sometimes get it cross processed; it depends how confident I am with how it was stored, and the subject matter. I mostly do flower photography, and I don’t like cross processing that because I want more natural colours.
I recently shot some expired Ektachrome 200 that came out really well, and I’ve never shot a roll of Velvia 50 that wasn’t already expired! I have a fresh roll I am saving 😀
My expired film photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/mellonicoley/tags/expiredfilm
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mellonicoley/tags/fujivelvia50
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Forgot to say I don’t really have any preferences over brand, and I’ve shot film that has been only a few years expired up to 17 years expired! AND I’ve just bought a roll of Sensia 400 that expired in 1999. Have no idea what I’m going to do with it yet
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Where do you get your expired film from?
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eBay most of the time. I’ve also swapped rolls with other photographers through twitter.
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I have heard people saying that they over expose expired film. I have shot my most recent lot at box speed with mixed results. There have only been a few that I think might have been better at a different exposure. But because I’ve been using it in some shitty little compact cameras there hasn’t been much option to play with exposures.
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