Freezing film

paul139

paul139

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I've always kept my film in the fridge but have read that some people freeze theirs. As I'm about to buy quite a few rolls soon I wondered if this is safe. Does it make the emulsion brittle?
 
I think Arkady once said that freezing films is the best for storage, even for long periods.
I store the films; never had a problem. Haven't stored anything for years on end, though. They usually get used up within a couple of months
 
paul139 said:
I've always kept my film in the fridge but have read that some people freeze theirs. As I'm about to buy quite a few rolls soon I wondered if this is safe. Does it make the emulsion brittle?
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Little or no point until you come to its end date. At that point think about storing it in a cool dark place.
 
It makes the film very brittle so thorough thawing is a must. Other than that, it certainly prolongs the shelf life.
 
I personally freeze all my films as I have space to and then that way expiry dates don't mean anything. When I want to use a film I generally remove it from the freezer the night before and put it in the fridge then 3 hours or so before I want to use it I take it out and let it thaw.

Heres what Kodak has to say about it and their recommendations:

http://www.kodak.com/global/en/professional/support/techPubs/e6/e6.pdf

On the second page are rough thawing times for different types of film.
 
It's just that space in the fridge is at a premium (she who must be obeyed keeps putting non essentials in there)
 
I can only comment on black & white films, but personally I've never stored films in a fridge or a freezer. I have always kept them in a cool dark cupboard until I'm ready to use them, but in saying that, I've always used them well before the expiry date.

Certainly, no harm can come from placing them in a fridge if you wanted to. Perhaps when it comes to colour film, this may be a better option but as I don't use colour, I've no experience of how well it keeps.
 
I generally keep 2-3 rolls of each film type in a airtight container in the 'fridge, and remove what I want to shoot with the night before. As I take some film out of the 'fridge box, I'll replenish it from one of the boxes of film in the freezer (I tend to buy films in packs of 10 at a time, so if it's a new film type, i'll stick 3 in the fridge and the other 7 in the freezer)
 
Carl V said:
Perhaps when it comes to colour film, this may be a better option but as I don't use colour, I've no experience of how well it keeps.
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Well there's a 100' roll of Fuji colour film dated 1991 on the bay..if you want to find out ;)
 
excalibur2 said:
Well there's a 100' roll of Fuji colour film dated 1991 on the bay..if you want to find out ;)
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I came across a film a little older than that recently when I was having a clear out in the loft, a roll of Kodak High Speed Infrared 2481 dated May 1987. It was in a box full of stuff from my retailing years over 20 years ago, including some old brochures. God only knows how I ended up with this film as I have never used infrared film in my life and don't recall ever stocking it in our shop either. :thinking:
 
Carl V said:
I came across a film a little older than that recently when I was having a clear out in the loft, a roll of Kodak High Speed Infrared 2481 dated May 1987. It was in a box full of stuff from my retailing years over 20 years ago, including some old brochures. God only knows how I ended up with this film as I have never used infrared film in my life and don't recall ever stocking it in our shop either. :thinking:
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I've currently got 20 boxes of Kodak Colour Infrared (EIR) dated 1991 in my freezer, as per the storage instructions... Dunno whether it'll be alright after living in your loft for that long (especially through hot summers) but whack on a strong yellow/orange/red filter and shoot it at 200, can't hurt but try!
 
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EIR???

That stuffs gold dust practically and sells for quite a bit on ebay. There was a guy cutting sheet colour aero IR film down to 120 that gave the same effect but now Kodak have discontinued the sheet film so thats stopped.

Ever consider selling any of that? I've always wanted to have a go with it!

According to the tech sheet a yellow or orange filter should be used, nothing stronger or all you will end up with is a red image.
 
That's correct actually, #12 is the recommended filter but I've seen brilliant results with a #15 and more orange ones too. I don't want to sell any though I'm afraid as, as you said, it's like gold dust and it was a present from my parents. Plus I've not shot any yet so dunno whether it's duff or not!
 
Jakska said:
Dunno whether it'll be alright after living in your loft for that long (especially through hot summers) but whack on a strong yellow/orange/red filter and shoot it at 200, can't hurt but try!
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Thanks for that. May be worth a try one day I guess, and I do have all the above filters which I use for black & white film anyway. As you say, after being in the loft for a good number of years it's probably 'cooked' by now. I think I might just keep it as a souvenir for now - wouldn't have a clue how to develop it anyway.
 
Kodak High Speed IR film had to be stored in a freezer or at least in the fridge as heat easily fogs it so I imagine its past use by now
 
I think radiation will be more of an issue, not even a fridge of freezer can prevent that :(.
 
I have a constantly increasing sized plastic box in one of our fridges. (We have a fridge in the bedroom too for Helen's meds) so plenty of space. I didn't know that you could freeze film! That would be even better as we have a humungous freezer....
 
Mr_T said:
I think radiation will be more of an issue, not even a fridge of freezer can prevent that :(.
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Only high speed film is affected quickly by this, HIE's not a particularity high speed film despite the name (only about ISO 80 under sunlight, 200 under tungsten) so radiation would not affect it as much as say an ISO 1600 film that had been frozen for 10 years. Kodak actually give this as the reason why T-Max 3200 is only in 35mm, not 120, according to them they would have to enclose it in a metal case or background radiation would fog it yet Ilford Delta 3200 seems to have no problem in 120 and its quite similar.

Looking around some people have managed to get good pictures out of 20 year old frozen HIE. Theres some expired in 2001 on Ebay at the moment thats been frozen and I'm tempted to get it but I take about a month to finish a 36 exposure film so unless I freeze or refrigerate my camera when its not being used it'll probably go past usability before I finish it. Plus you have to load and unload it in complete darkness which I can't do although I suppose I could get a changing bag.
 
Some years ago there were some films found in the arctic which had been taken by either Scott or Shackleton (I think).

These were developed and the pictures were still quite good but a little grainy.

And when I worked at Kodak years ago all film was stored in huge freezers.

So freezing is best - but obviously they need to be well thawed, not just because they may become brittle but because of condensation on the film.

.
 
There is actually a small possibility that Mallory did manage to climb Mt Everest to the summit in 1924 as the expedition is believed to have been carrying a 127 film camera and according to experts at Kodak if its been undisturbed in the camera for the last 75 years or so in the very cold conditions on Everest then it should be possible to develop the film still. However although Mallory's body was located a few years ago, there was no camera with him so its likely to be on his partner, Irvine's body which has not yet been found.

It would be amazing if they actually did find the camera and develop the pictures, could re-write a few history books...

From a technical viewpoint it was also be amazing with the camera being in such hostile conditions for such a long time.
 
doubtful on the gamma tbh... should be ok on the rest though :D
 
david1701 said:
fridges and freezers are big metal boxes so should kill alpha beta and a fair bit of gamma ;)
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Well certainly alpha and beta but unless your freezer is made out of lead probably not the gamma ;) (go on then maybe a little of it :LOL:)
 
Background radiation is not strong enough anyway to cause any adverse effects to film unless its been stored for extreme lengths of time, its less with high speed film but still its quite a long time.
 
Ooops, I thought most IR film was just as sensitive (if not more) as the super-high speed films. This shall teach me for relying on memory, Google is far better!

*edit*

I was thinking of Kodak 3200 film that was/is supposedly stored in lead lined underground containers to reduce radiation damage. This in itself is quite possibly an urban myth too!
 
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