Film Storage: Freezing vs. Cooling

I have searched the archives for answers to the following question, but could not find a

specific Q/A: In storing b&w film ( or color, for that matter), is there a preference

when it comes to freezing the film, or just refrigerating it? Thanks.

Either is fine, although some polaroid materials and some others advise against doing it.

 

If you're not going to use it for a very long time I'd put it in the freezer to keep it as cool as possible for extended periods of time to prevent it from ageing. I keep most of my film in the fridge, so I can use it without waiting as long, but some stuff camps out in the freezer.

As I am a novice I found your question very interesting. I hope I won't offend you by expanding it a little though. I see your mention of b&w film. I have noticed that the pro shops around here keep the color films in the cold while not keeping the b&w films cooled. Does cooling the b&w film help or just color?

Perhaps there are "new rules" but the old rules were along these lines:

 

Film generally is good 6 mos. to a year after the date w/o any special precautions. Storing it in the fridge will add a year or so to that with no problem.

 

Freezing it will generally extend its lifetime beyond yours.

 

Some caveats however. All bets are off if it was exposed to abnormal heat before you purchased it. Those effects are irreversable. Once you do remove it from the freezer, expose and process it ASAP.

 

Don't know if the above applies to Polaroid (60 second) type films.

 

Jerry

Several years back I was told that the freezing/thawing cycle can affect the crystal structure in some film. I don't know if that is true or not, but ever since then I have only ever bothered to refrigerate film. When I used to shoot a LOT of Velvia, I would buy it in 200-roll lots -- thus insuring batch-consistency as Vevia used to have problems in this regard. Velvia is supposedly one of the films most sensitive to storage degradation. Anyway, I then stopped shooting 35 for an extended period when I moved to MF. A few years ago I started shooting 35 again and had some refrigerated Velvia left over that was out of date by four years. I shot this film not expecting much, yet it performed just as it had five years earlier. My point being that if this works for Velvia, it should work for other films.

 

On an side note, I had a friend whose high-speed emulsions came out "fogged" after a two yeat storage period and he queried the manufacturer. I know it sounds a bit bizzare, but he was told that his film likely fogged due to background cosmic radiation, and apparantly this is a phenomenon to be careful of with any films higher than ISO 200. It was then recommended that if he planned on storing high-speed films for a protracted period of time, he should do so in a lead bag in the fridge for extra protection against the effects of background radiation. FWIW only...

Keeping film in the cold helps keep all it's intended

characteristics intact. When it heats up, or sits around at room

temperatuere for years, it loses some ability to maintain optimal

image perfomance when developed. If it goes through radical

temperature changes a few times, it's probably ruined. Even so,

all fims experience a drop in contrast and density after a while

sitting around unused on a shelf. Color film has the added

misfortune to suffer color shift or fading. Some very weird things

can happen, but generally the colors just fade and get dull.

 

Pro dealers sell lots of film- their turnover is such that they may

not bother to keep B+W in the fridge, because it won't sit on the

shelf long enough to go bad. They save their fridge space for the

color films which are more sensitive and suffer more dramitic

and obvious consequences of aging.

All fine answers, but the higher the film's speed the faster it will fog because of background radiation, much of it cosmic. Frozen or not, fast film doesn't last that long.

 

Cheers,

 

Dan

I've got Elite II in my freezer from 1996 when I bought a boatload of it when Costco was clearing it out. Looks as good today as it did then. I have some 400-speed Ektachrome and likewise it is fine. Perhaps there's more cosmic radiation on the West Coast due to the proximity to all the nuclear stuff left over from the testing in the 50's out in the deserts ;>)

Jay:

 

Actually it's incontrovertable proof that California is closer to the sun than Florida -- HUGE ;>)

Cooler is better - the chemical/physical changes take more time the lower the temperature (as anyone who's ever mixed powdered developers knows!).

 

So - cosmic radiation aside - freezing is better, but the film takes a little longer to warm up. Plan ahead. (But personally I just put my film in the freezer or refrigerator depending on which has the most spare room. It's used within a month anyway.)

 

Polaroid's instant film packs don't like freezing because they contain a semi-liquid in the processing pouch, and freezing can cause the chemicals to precipitate or separate and foul the developing.

 

"Regular" film does not contain liquids, so the problem doesn't apply.

Re: the suggestion, above, to freeze film in a lead pouch to shield it from cosmic radiation: the kinds of particles that are spoiling your high-speed fast film, frozen or otherwise, are not stopped, or slowed down, or even made to think about slowing down, by lead or by any other substance. Which is why it is pretty much pointless to freeze ISO 1000 or faster film. At slower speeds, however, the cooler you keep it, the longer it lasts.

Doug is almost correct, although gamma rays are not that much more energetic that X-rays. Over time, a considerable number of "rays" in both wavelength ranges will penetrate a lead shield. To really protect your film, you'd have to store it a few hundred metres below the earth surface in granite or other solid rock, preferably uranium-free one.<p>But are there any holes in the Western US that haven't been occupied by the DoE yet?

I still have some frozen Kodachrome 64 that expired in 1984. I shot some a few months ago and it's as pretty as it ever was. I also shot some outdated Ektachrome 100 that still looks good after being frozen about 15 years. The Ektachrome 400 sucked. But it did in the 1980's, too--no surprise.

 

One of my household freezers is half filled with film--black and white and color--a lot of it expired years ago. All of it still looks good. That's the way to go for long term storage. If I'm going to use it before the expiration date, refrigeration is fine. If I'm going to shoot it within a few months, I don't bother to even refrigerate it--pro film or amateur film.

Max: I refridgerate my film and also keep it in air-tight baggies.

This prevents moisute from seeping in and when you take out

the film you should leave it in the baggy for an hour or so to

prevent condensation.

Er, that's a negatory on the granite. Try getting a lump of granite and a gieger counter in close proximity, and you will soon realise that granite is scarily radioactive!

 

However, this raises the question as to whether cosmic rays are the main culprit here. For example the basement may have a higher background radiation level than the attic, and a TV set will throw off enough x-rays to fag film over an externded period.

 

Certianly there is no point in trying to stop cosmic rays reaching your film. Some cosmic ray particles pack the same punch as a well hit tennis ball, so a little bit of lead isn't going to do much!

 

What is probably more important is geolocical background radiation. If that's the case I would guess the basement is not a good location for a film-storage freezer. (Especially in a granite bedrock area!)

 

Also, the lead pouch would need to have a wall thickness of several millimiteres to be effective. A couple of layers of roofing lead would do the trick, but it would not stop it all. Thicker, in general is better.

 

Some radiation will be effectivey stopped by a thickness of glass though. (I remember that we had a lump of uranium fuel rod from the local nuclear plant in a glass jar in the science prep-room at school. Don't even think about how it got there, but that was in the good old days when it was all Russians!)

 

 

However I have a question about freezing film. I have heard that it can be the cause of streaks that look like improper agitation marks. Is this so, and how? Or is this more to do with the time between taking it out of the freezer and use?