DSLRUsers.com

G'day film buffs,

I've forcing myself to wait until after PMA to upgrade from film SLR/Digital Compact to a 30D (just in case something special is announced) so I've dusted off my trusty EOS500N and have been snapping away, getting back into the groove of using an SLR.

I've been using film I bought in 2003 and I just realised today that it expired in 2005. It is ISO400 Fujifilm 36 exposure film that hasn't been refrigerated, but it has been stored in a reasonably consistently cool & dark cupboard (circa 15-20degC).

I did a bit of googling and found a number of film enthusiasts who actively seek out expired film at markets/on ebay, etc and found they do it for one of two reasons:

a) cost - they shoot so much film and are willing to take the risk;
b) thrill-seekers - they love the potential for "unknown" outcomes in the picture - strange hues, random artifacts, sometimes even perfect shots - this angle seems fairly odd, but piques my creative interests

Anyway, I've got around 40 rolls left of this film so I'm going to put my 'thrill seeker' hat on and see what prevails - not caring about the potential to waste film lets me play around with exposure bracketing, among other things - and with the V8's coming to Adelaide in a few weeks, I'll have plenty of material to shoot

Will post any interesting results in a few weeks - meanwhile, anyone else used expired film and gotten anything interesting out of the experience?

Cheers

Leigh

My local film man sells recent out of date for $ 1.00 or $2.00 per roll - depending on film speed and wether 24/36. Great results.
I have used 3 -4 years old ISO 200 and 400 Fuji Superia - results aren't too bad just don't blow prints up too large. I also had some seven year old Fuji Superia ISO 400. Very grainy.
I bought some old Velvia in Singapore Airport for a low price - not worth using, each roll came out differently- some good some bad.

Leigh,

It all depends upon the storage conditions. If the film has been kept cool, then it will be fine.

Try a roll or three and see what comes out: that will give you an idea of what the rest will be like.

Thanks for the feedback - will drop in a couple of rolls on the way to work this morning and see what happens

My Dad took some shots on expired film with his DSLR: they all had a uniform red/crimson wash over them - as if through a massively dense lens filter. I scanned them onto my computer and corrected them using Levels in photoshop - the detail on the photos was okay, actually. But you do lose a bit in the process. I have no idea if this is a typical outcome...

BT*ist wrote:My Dad took some shots on expired film with his DSLR:

That would be quite a feat.

 LOL! I'll rephrase: "My Dad took some shots on expired film with his SLR"

... it goes to show how often I've had occasion to write/type 'SLR' without the necessary 'D' prefix

Sorry about that. I just couldn't resist.

gstark wrote:

BT*ist wrote:My Dad took some shots on expired film with his DSLR:

That would be quite a feat.

Not if he had that prototype Leica with the exchangeable back.

If the film turns out to be ordinary, I would be happy to pick up a few rolls for an appropriate price as I want to practice home developing (and will therefore waste numerous rolls of film getting them open, too much agitation, etc).

I will follow this thread.

Cheers

P

Bah. I spent hours last night trying to get my web hosting working (using Joomla/Coppermine) so that I could upload some of the photos and share my results, but the hosting server is hosed (anything php related is dying) and they're taking their sweet time about fixing it. *grr*

hart wrote:Bah. I spent hours last night trying to get my web hosting working (using Joomla/Coppermine) so that I could upload some of the photos and share my results, but the hosting server is hosed (anything php related is dying) and they're taking their sweet time about fixing it. *grr*

Many of us use Dreamhost. Prices and facilities are at least as good as what you've mentioned, and mostly, everything just works.

And support ... sometimes slowish, but manned by people.

Real, warm, bodies.

gstark wrote:Real, warm, bodies.

You've touched them ???

gstark wrote:Many of us use Dreamhost. Prices and facilities are at least as good as what you've mentioned, and mostly, everything just works.

And support ... sometimes slowish, but manned by people.

Real, warm, bodies.

A number of the guys from work also use Dreamhost I found out yesterday - an interesting looking company (employee owned) vs what little I know about aplus.net - I will say one thing for aplus.net - their front-line support has *always* been instant (no waiting around) - they generally were able to answer my questions fairly quickly but if anything needed to be done by an admin, it took days.

I'm still within my 30 day money back guarantee period so I might chat with the guys more seriously at work and test-drive some dreamhosting. Nothing I've done isn't portable

Cheers

Leigh