Expired film – How much is too much?
Who likes shooting expired film? I sure do. In fact I like it so much I have a whole fridge full of the stuff that I have accumulated over the years. And I encourage others to share their stashes of film on the site. In my opinion shooting expired film has always been a fun and cheap way of shooting different stocks. But it seems things have changed and shooting expired film is becoming increasingly expensive.
Holy smokes
Remember Provia 400x? Yeah that stuff was fantastic. When it was discontinued I made sure I kept a few special rolls in the fridge, and I am glad I did as the prices for it now are simply insane. But why? For sure it is a good film, but the prices online are simply not justifiable.
Look at this. That works out to be $69.89 per roll. Plus shipping. That is simply insane. Provia is a great film, but it is not worth shelling out $69 (nice) for it. This is less about supply and demand and more about unscrupulous sellers price gouging. If you want to pay this much for this film then more power to you I guess.
Or how about this? One single roll of Aerochrome, for $199! Oh and good luck finding somewhere that can develop it, if it is even viable as you have no idea how it was stored. And that is the thing about expired film, you have got absolutely no idea if it will work. That was always part of the appeal.
But this could be my favourite. I am not sure at this point if they are just taking the Michael.
Tradition
So this is what gets me. Shooting expired film has a long tradition of being a relatively inexpensive way of getting your hands on some old film and having a bit of a play around. But the prices are rising so much for some of these films that it becomes impossible for most people to use them. And when you shell out $70+ for a roll of film when are you going to shoot it, or will it just stay in your fridge forever?
Why has this happened?
Well, there is supply and demand, as these old films get older and rarer they become harder to find, which adds to the price. But there is also something new to contend with. The resurgence in popularity of film has brought a lot of new photographers to the fold, which is great. but it has also increased demand for the classic stocks that they may never have had the opportunity to shoot. So obviously over time those stocks are going to age and dwindle and as such the prices will rise. But there is also the fact that there will always be online sellers who will try to pull a fast one.
How can we shoot expired film?
There are still ways to find expired film. Ebay is a crap shoot and I generally go by the notion that they are talking cobblers when they say it has been freezer stored since purchase. Check the feedback and ratings, there are some serious film sellers out there. But there are other places too. Don’t bother with the forums, they are cesspits full of bitter old men and bile. But there are emerging facebook groups that often have swaps and sales (you will have to find them yourself lol). You should be able to find something special after a little bit of scouting. And the sellers on there are generally not looking to maximize profits but to share what they have. Etsy is also not half bad for finding something esoteric.
So, you can still shoot expired film, you just have to dig a bit to find the gold. But when you do it sure is worth it.
JCH
OMG Bellamy I know it’s for art’s sake but hope you really keep that Scotch Chrome 1000 I gave you in Ziploc bags?
By the way, back in the 80s it was pushed 4 stops to really enhance the grain. Sarah Moon shot the 1971 Pirelli calendar that way, here are the images …
https://www.pirelli.com/global/en-ww/life/1972-the-calendar-has-its-first-woman-photographer
Jody Dole also used the same technique to shoot the early Smirnoff vodka adverts.
The power of shooting expired films is in us!
Force on us is!
So do not worry. This is a surprising effect!
Important topic and well addressed – if you’re paying out the nose for expired film, it may be wiser to support film manufacturers and buy fresh. I find the best expired film deals come from friends and neighbors who don’t shoot film anymore, giving away their old stash or sites like UltrafineOnline, occasionally B&H, etc who have some out of date stock on hand for a discount. The nature of selling on eBay is to maximize profit, it’s become harder and harder to get a good deal there on many things.
I purchased a camera at a camera show that came with the original box. It included a roll of expired film – expiry date of 1973! (almost my age!)
i used it & got two out of 12 useable pictures. It was better than I was expecting.
(of course, I don’t know the film was stored but the seller told me he didn’t think it had been used so it may have sat at room temperature for over 40 years).
This is greed – and it’s not good. Money-grabby sellers (seem to congregate in great numbers on Ebay) go right for the jugular, and tend to prey on amateurs not really clue to the realities of the film world, to extract the highest prices, like gold fillings in old people’s teeth, for a product well past its use-by that may or may not be usable.
I heartily agree with Johnny Martyr (see his previous post) that if good prices cannot be obtained on Ebay, then go for new film. Before you buy, take the time to surf the internet a bit, check out what your local film retail sellers are asking for their new films, and decide accordingly.
Do ask yourself this question first. Why do you want to use old film anyway? New stock is far better, fresher, well within use-by date, and will give you more predictable results with sensible processing. Old films, well, you pays your money and you takes your chances. A personal example here. I have a big stock (50+ rolls, also several 100-foot bulk rolls) of pre-1990 Kodal Panatomic-X film, which I bought mostly new but some on Ebay as it came up for sale at prices I was prepared to pay. Okay. I tend to shoot it at just under its original (EI 32) speed rating, and process it just under normal process times in (mostly) D76, My results are all over the place. I now rarely print on paper and tend to mostly scan for internet posting, so my ideal negatives are slightly less than normal Gamma (how many of you here remember Gamma?) for best scanning. Well, out of five rolls I processed last weekend, two came out with what I consider to be the cost to normal contrast, one was underexposed beyond redemption, and the other two way overexposed. All taken on the same bush walk, using the same camera, in the same light conditions. So there you are. Go figure, as they say.
Fresh film minimises all these frustrations.
As for prices, well, I live close to Melbourne, and I always buy my film locally. Mostly Ilford. My usual retailer wants A$160 for bulk rolls of FP4 and HP5. I’ve found another seller who will let me have the same rolls for A$130. And one camera seller who has a stock of always expired but way way expired (circa 2005) Pan F at A$85 a roll, discounted for multiple roll purchases. I don’t care for Pan F, but with careful processing I can get EI 100 out of it and tame its contrast to a certain extent. So it’s a good buy and I’m very tempted, if only my film fridge wasn’t so full of – yes, you guessed it, expired film.
This is all common-sense advice – but it never ceases to amaze me how few people actually apply common sense to their daily living and especially to their photo purchases when basic intelligence somehow seems to fail.
Just my thoughts. Or opinions if you prefer. I’m not asking anyone if they think there is a God or not or whether His name is Ansel Adams, Minor White or Edward Weston, Vivien Mayer or whoever. No disrespect at all to anyone’s beliefs is intended here. What I’ve written is only all my own basic thoughts about things photographic. Let’s not forget, it’s all meant to be fun. Lightening up. And getting out there to make good images.
From Dann in Melbourne.