7 year-old Fuji Provia 100 - any good?

<p>Hi.<br>

I was cleaning up my freezer and then I found these 6 rolls of 35mm Provia. It says they expired in July 2004 but the thing is that they have been at zero Fahrenheit the whole time. It's not that I clean my freezer only once in a decade it's just I've always had like 50 rolls of film in there and the Provia ended up in a plastic box it didn't belong.<br>

I'm not asking for speculations. I'm addressing this question to someone who has actually shot on Fuji Provia that had spent 7 years in a freezer. I would only process this film normally. Should I expect any degradation of quality as opposed to new film?<br>

It's an RDP 3 emulsion, if that's of any relevance.<br>

This is not a big deal really, I have plenty of more recent Provia film. It's just I'd hate throwing 6 rolls of film into the garbage not being sure they belong there. In a couple of month I have a self-assigned project where I'd have to shoot through 4 or 5 rolls in a couple of days. If the film in question is supposed to yield results almost identical to new film I would definetely use it.<br>

Thank you in advance for sharing your experience with me.</p>

<p>The only definative answer is take one roll and shoot it as a test roll. If it comes out well, the rest are very probably good. If it does not, discard the other rolls.</p>

<p>Since you have six rolls and need only five for the assignment, sacrificing one roll should not cause a problem.</p>

<p>I've used Provia a lot, and have shot 4-year-expired Provia that was frozen and was satisfied with the results. I don't think I would try it for really critical pro work, but I could see no degradation in my landscape/nature photos.</p>

<p>Yuri, I wouldn't use it for anything that required professional level results but recently I was given a couple of rolls of Sensia 100 that had been frozen for 10 years and I was happy with the results. See the last 6 posts of my 2010 folder. Best, LM.</p>

<p>Heck, film that age is only starting to come into its prime. ;)<br>

Almost certainly it will work fine, but do what they say and don't put your one-time only shots on it until you've tried it. I'm shooting some film that expired in the late 70s with usually good results. Color is probably more likely to have minor color shifts, but those can usually be easily corrected in "post-processing".</p>

<p>Well that's what I thought at first: Shoot one roll, develop, see if it's satisfactory.. but then I went like: I can't be bothered. The 2 of my cameras are currently loaded with other film and I wanted an answer right away because I'm stockpiling my freezer with lots of stuff and I need every square inch of it. Didn't want any 'garbage' just taking up space.<br>

I pretty much heard everything I needed. Thanks guys. I WILL use the film for the project. What's the worst case scenario? Reshooting? The stuff I'm going to photograph is very reshootable and I know I won't even have to.</p>

<p>Hi Yuri,</p>

<p>Please post back and let us know how it worked out.</p>

<p>All my Provia 100F is frozen RDPIII from circa 2003. I've used a few rolls over the past year and it is perfect. I can't see any color shifts when shot side by side with newer film. It has been in cold storage since it was bought.</p>

<p>I've still got some Sensia 100 that expired about 7 years ago that I got dirt cheap. It's still fine. Go ahead and fire away</p>

<p>I shot 10 year old Provia F with great results - I purchased 40 rolls 10 years ago and ended up only using 28 rolls, so I had 12 left over. I shot the last of those 12 rolls a few weeks ago. Looks fine to me. This film was stored in a freezer at between 0-5 degrees fahrenheit.<br>

<br /> <img src="http://hull534.smugmug.com/photos/876359022_K9bFB-L.jpg" alt="" /></p>