I went to Henrys yesterday, which is near a major mall in Mississauga here in Ontario and this being one of the biggest stores and known mainly for expertise an understanding there are few if any problems. I have bought chemicals, papers, general things from then and there have been no problems. So yesterday, I almost went into an argument at the counter with a complete idiot about bw film at 100 feet, namely tmax100 and delta100. There was no argument. First he tells me that I should get 1200 pictures from one roll of 100 feet. Yea. I bought tmax100, wanted a change from delta. Was the last one there, I asked for another, and it looked beaten up. I took the film home, 45 minutes away, and just about readay to load it I notice that it has to be processed before APRIL of 1997. It's FIVE MONTHS OLD! Check your film. Look at the dates! So I was hoping that people reading this would also share THEIR personal horror stories....I got an exchange by the way. 30 minutes away, at another store.

-- Albert Hasselsjo (ai312@freenet.hamilton.on.ca), August 26, 1997

Answers

Albert, one always inquires as to the fresh dating of film before purchase. You were lucky to get anyone at all to exchange it. Most stores won't exchange any film or paper as once it leaves the store it can't be guaranteed as to quality. Also many photographers buy outdated film on purpose, to save costs and for other reasons.

-- Dan Smith (shooter@brigham.net), August 27, 1997.

Like milk, film can be used past it's expiry date provided it was stored properly. The choice of date is necessarily conservative to cover all possible problems once it leaves the manufacturer. I think you were right in returning it though and I agree with Dan that you were fortunate they took it back. I rarely even think of checking the dates because I just assume that the vendor wouldn't sell out-of-date products, which is often a false assumption.

-- Andy Laycock (pbrlab@unixg.ubc.ca), August 28, 1997.

Yes, It's like a horror. BUT I have used Kodak T Max 100 dated OCT 1993 with success, processed in D-76 (sometimes in HC-110) but for 1/3 prize. I have stock frozen at -18 C. I also use NP-55 negative cinema film (ORWO), dated 10/1987, frozen, without any changes. For processing of outdated bw films is very good D-23 or Atomal (soak TMX 13 minutes/20 C).

I like to buying bw outdated stock, but at least for 1/3 of price...

Pavel Roubic

-- Pavel Roubic (roubic@lfmotol.cuni.cz), September 11, 1997.

Horror Story

And now hear MY story. In 1990 I purchased some Kodak 64 asa color slide film that was dated 12/86 but had been kept in a refrigerator in the store, (at 50% discount), shot pix and developed it in E-6, (naturally), and had beautiful color, density, etc., etc. So storage is one of the more important features of film. Yes. Films do go out of date and I was, probably, just lucky, but it was a 100 ft. roll and I DID NOT get any bad pix.

-- H. David Huffman (craptalk@ix.netcom.com), May 12, 1999.

horror story

When I first got into photography, in 1995, I used my dad's equipment, which he hadn't used in ages. I found two bulk loaders full with Plus X and Tri X, both dated best before some month in 1976. They had not been refrigerated for at least ten years and with slightly increased developing time they turned out fine, except for lots of grain, but all dad's old prints were just as grainy.

-- Dr. Phibes (zoltan@yield.com), January 13, 1998.

To be honest, I've never had any problems with outdated B&W film. I used to work for a photo department in NYC when I was in photo school. The department had some old rolls of Kodak and Ilford B&W which they gave me for class-which I used to my heart's content (and my images came out fine). I recently shot a roll of Ilford HP5 120 which expired in July of '96 (and this is April '99), it should come out just as good. And about the exchange? You got over big time! Most camera places wouldn't let you exchange sensitive material at all. Peace.

-- Vic Reynolds (decosta1@hotmail.com), April 19, 1999.

I have some Kodak Contrast Process Pan sheet film which was used for making B&W copies of documents. When i bought my first 4 X 5 kit it was given to me by the retail establishment, "just to get rid of the stuff" which had expired 10 years before. The best before date is 8/81. It's a very very contrasty very fine grain film. The owner was unsure as to it's provenance and had not refrigerated it since he acquired it.

Point is, I've used it in the studio to shoot "conventional" macro shots and have been very very pleased (and admitedly surprised) with the results. I suspect, but this is only my own half-baked theory here, that this film may have been a pre-cursor to Tech-Pan.

-- Sean yates (yatescats@yahoo.com), May 18, 1999.