found sealed roll of Kodacolor II, worth using?

So in a camera box, I had found a still sealed in the box roll of Kodacolor II 35mm film. even though it's sealed, it expired in 1982 and wasn't stored in the best conditions when I found it (warm attic). based on my research it uses the C-41 process so it should be developable, but I am worried if the film would be unusable due to age and storage conditions. anyone have experience with older film like this that can give tips?

It might be fine, it might be terrible. Why bother? Throw it out and buy a fresh roll unless you aren’t precious about your photos.

I agree with Stuart. There are better ways to save a few dollars than shooting ~35 year old colour negative film that was stored in an attic. There's nothing that special about Kodacolor II.

 

Actually, I don't agree with Stuart...where he says "it might be fine". Attics are an awful place to store film.

 

In fact, list the film on eBay. Someone will probably be interested in it for collectible purposes, and you then have your few dollars to buy a fresh roll. (It's always a good idea to support today's film manufacturing industry.)

Hot storage is bad for film, but sometimes curiosity takes you to strange places. I know the feeling. The way I am, I would shoot it and develop it hoping for a surprise. You never know. That said, I am the kid who ordered Sea Monkeys from the back of a comic book and haven't learned that lesson yet.

 

Best,

Henry

A hot attic might be the worst place to store film. If you want to experiment with a roll or two and would only cost you the price of development, then fine. If you expect results that are consistent with fresh color negative film, I would not risk it on this stuff you found.

thanks for the replies guys. yeah I did find it free so if I did shoot it i'd only have to pay development costs. needless to say Curiosity might push me to try it simply because of that though (local film lab gives rather good results at a good price)

Find a place that will develop only, without prints, which lowers the price.

 

But even so, the development price is usually more than the cost of the film.

 

If you find 10 rolls together, one roll will tell you what to expect from the others, but

you only have one roll.

 

Some overexposure (lower EI) will give you a good chance of getting above fog.

Kodacolor II is one of the lower speed C41 films, which will help.

 

Another choice, if you have a darkroom, is to develop it as black and white.

If you already have the supplies and chemicals, the cost is low.

 

But my choice is not to use it.

 

I do use old, even very old, black and white film.

 

Not so long ago, I had an already used roll of Kodacolor 1000. Give the high speed, the

chance of good results was much lower, but I developed it as black and white.

 

It does have a lot of fog, or maybe I overdeveloped it.

 

I do use old (and even very old) color film that has been refrigerated, or in cool

room temperature. (My basement darkroom is about 50F in winter, and maybe 68F

in summer.)

Film that old, and those conditions....rate it 4 stops over box and just have it developed. That said...use it for something that could be complimented by the look you will probably achieve. I use a fair bit of expired 110 film in a Baby Diana for a Low-Fi Landscape project. I dont expect it to look like new film...nor do I wish it to.

 

No. If you've any abiding interest in film photography, fresh film bought today up the odds it will be around tomorrow. Besides, the cost of processing (likely) crap film is the same as fresh. Then there's the benefit of getting a neg you can process as spotty, murky, grainy, fogged and/or weird according to your taste.

There are some film sizes that aren't available new, and in that case, old is better than nothing.

 

I have two rolls of Kodacolor II in size 616, now in the refrigerator, and I was told that

they were before I bought them. I have some Kodacolor II in 126, not near as old as

the OP, and kept cool in my basement darkroom since I bought them.

 

If a similar film was available new, I would probably buy new.

 

I know labs that process 35mm film, and since 126 is 35mm wide, one might process it.

 

I don't know of any labs that will process C616, though, so I might have to do that myself.

 

But so much 35mm C41 film is available for low prices, I don't see much reason to

use such old film, unless you know that it has been refrigerated most of its life.

There are some film sizes that aren't available new, and in that case, old is better than nothing.

 

I have two rolls of Kodacolor II in size 616, now in the refrigerator, and I was told that

they were before I bought them. I have some Kodacolor II in 126, not near as old as

the OP, and kept cool in my basement darkroom since I bought them.

 

If a similar film was available new, I would probably buy new.

 

I know labs that process 35mm film, and since 126 is 35mm wide, one might process it.

 

I don't know of any labs that will process C616, though, so I might have to do that myself.

 

But so much 35mm C41 film is available for low prices, I don't see much reason to

use such old film, unless you know that it has been refrigerated most of its life.

 

When in doubt with oddball film sizes, you can always process as B&W. It certainly makes doing it yourself a lot easier, and you can sometimes salvage film that might not look so good in color.

 

As for expired C41-it DOES have a couple of very specific uses for me. I have a decent amount of Portra, Fuji pro films, and even Konica in 120 that's long expired and not particularly exciting for me even if it were fresh. When I was initially building my Hasselblad kit, I shot it to check backs for proper indexing and light leaks. I also use it with other systems, particularly the RB67, to check for light leaks after I've resealed a back. One local camera store charges me $4 to process only while I stand there and BS with them, and sometimes even doesn't charge me if I'm making a decent sized other purchase or if they need to check out their chemistry before running something important(I tell them up front that it's function testing a camera, so as long as I can spot light leaks and frame spacing I don't care what they do to it). It saves me having to mix up chemistry and spend the time developing B&W myself(plus my stash of 120 "burner" film for this purpose is running low-I'm down to a half dozen rolls of expired Delta 100).

 

C-41 is cheap and available, though, so won't mess around with stuff that's too badly expired.

Lab near me is $8 for C41 35mm and $8.50 for C41 120.

 

I haven't tried the mentioned discount methods.

I think you're wasting your time using colour film that old.

 

However, I'm not sure why Kodak replaced Kodacolor II with the awful Gold series. My old Kodacolor II negs always printed easily with brilliant colour, and they scan easily too - unlike Gold and all the other more grainy and less easily-printed variants that Kodak subsequently came up with.

I thought gold was T-grain, but I haven't thought about that for some time.

 

There are so many different C41 films from Kodak and others, that it is hard to keep track of them.

I thought gold was T-grain, but I haven't thought about that for some time.

 

There are so many different C41 films from Kodak and others, that it is hard to keep track of them.

 

Kodacolor II was a standard grain film. Gold was T Grain and was finer than the Kodacolor series. While some didn't like the punchier colors, the grain was finer.

Kodacolor II was a standard grain film. Gold was T Grain and was finer than the Kodacolor series. While some didn't like the punchier colors, the grain was finer.

 

It was about that time that I started using VPS, not wanting those punchier colors.

 

I needed to copy some prints, and the nearby store told me about VPS, and especially not to worry

too much about temperature. (It says to keep below 55F.) That is, it isn't worse than other films

at the same temperature. Most of the pictures of our kids growing up are on VPS.

 

So, was VPS, specifically Vericolor III (I don't know about I and II) T-grain?

 

I have also used Portra 160, but by then the kids were getting bigger, so not as many pictures,

and then more digital and less film.

well there's still a lot more replies here, so I'll include some extra info

 

the lab I go to will develop without prints (and it's a good price too, just $5 to develop C-41, and they'll even do scans for an extra $2) so I'm not too concerned in terms of pricing. Though I do get the overall message of being "don't expect good results" which I won't if I end up shooting it. I've even gone and looked up what I could expect and I have seen the "bad" results, but all I can say is, could be interesting still.

T-grain technology or not, Kodak Gold was still pretty gritty stuff. And anyway, the image is formed of dye clouds that have little to do with their activating AgX parent image.

 

Both Fuji and Konica made better behaved colour negative stock.

My overall impression of Kodak Gold was that even in full mid-day sun, the labs tended to take the name as an indication for how to print the film :) . I tend to like things warm, but an 81B on a cool film like E100G/the new E100 is about as strong as I'll go for mid-day sun(and even use those unfiltered in the morning/evening).

 

BTW, I saw this regardless of where I had it processed and printed, but at the time it was a lot of Walmart, Kroger, and Walgreens, both in-store and send off. All of these labs probably had their majority of their business from Kodak and Fuji Superia products.

 

Both Fuji and Konica made better behaved colour negative stock.

 

I shot a decent amount of the Portra "NC" films, and even though they were bland the lab I used could get a lot out of them for event photography(which is mostly what I used them for).

 

I use to love 400UC. It was nice and punchy, but lacked the over-the-top warmth that I always saw in Gold. I still have some medium format stuck back in the freezer-I should shoot it, but when I shoot color negative film these days I usually either want the "tame" colors of Portra or the nice bright colors of Ektar.

 

I admit to never having shot Konica film(unless they made some of the store brand stuff I use to shoot back in the day, something which wouldn't surprise me). I have probably a dozen rolls of various speeds and saturation in 120 that expired back in the 90s stuck back in the freezer-I didn't go out of my way to buy it, but it was in the case with my ETRS outfit(I think that belonged to a wedding photographer, as the top foam of the case has a couple dozen straight pins stuck in it, and there was also a stack of Cokin vignettes).