Frozen film?

Martin's Tmax 3200 question below has made me remember that I have a

not dissimilar(!) query, and I wonder if anyone has any experience

with such a situation?

 

I have about 50 rolls of film (mainly 120, but about 10 35mm as well)

that have been exposed and frozen for 25years, since 1978, in my

freezer. Don't ask me why , but for personal reasons I've never got

around to having them developed.

 

Any suggestions as to how I should go about this?.

 

Many thanks for any help you can give.

 

Regards

 

Bruno

This question deserves to be answered the way you answer Kamol's questions. First,

you open the freezer door; then, you take out a roll of film with either your left or

right hand and then you let it unfreeze; then you develop it and see what you get.

 

--Mitch/Bangkok

Mitch

 

Thanks for taking the time and effort to respond. My questions regarding Kamol were genuine questions,and somewhat different in intention than your juvenile attempt at being sarcastic.

 

Regards

 

Bruno

Sarcasm has little to do with the previous post. That's the only way to find out! You could clip off part of a roll for your test. There's a chemical, the name escapes me offhand, which can be added to the developer to reduce fogging, but it can also affect film speed. Try it first without. You might also consider posting this on the B&W-FILM forum.

Al

 

My comment about sarcasm was directed at Mitch's reference to Kamol's previous questions. If the archives are searched you will find that I never answered any of Kamol's questions in the way implied by Mitch. I suppose he got out of bed the wrong side today.

 

Regards

 

Bruno

I'd throw caution to the wind and soup one of the rolls as is. I'd increase the

development time since I'm sure there's going to be base fog. See what it

looks like. It's probably just fine. Talk about a time-capsule.

My experience is that slower films do better than fast film.

Kodachrome 64 frozen for ten years is fine, while Kodachrome

200 frozen for 7 years is fogged.

Well the first question would have to be:

 

What kind of films are we talking about?

 

B&W is fairly straight forward. Soup a roll or two at the recommended times and then

adjust as necessary for the other rolls.

 

Colour is a different matter though. If it is not current processes (C41, E6, etc) then

you will have to send it to someone who specialises in old colour processing.

 

http://www.filmrescue.com/

you definitely want to overdevelop to increas contrast. the fog base will be very high and you will want to get a decent contrast range. you may also want to spike the contrast post-processing. sometimes a selenium bath will do the trick. there are lots of other methods. finally, i recommend digital printing for really fogged negs. it is amazing what you can recover thru use of PS. really a revelation.

Bruno,

I had a similar situation, thought he film was refridgerated (not frozen) and the time was 8 years (not 25). I contacted Kodak, and they were able to give me some very useful general guidelines.

 

I would contact them if I were you, and see what they say.

 

Erik.

I read somewhere that gamma ray (especially abundant in any electro-magnetic appliances) has the cumulative effect of fogging film.

As someone above suggested the latter part of my posting was absolutely straight: as

no one is likely to have experience with keeping exposed but undeveloped film frozen

for 25 years the only way to find out is to try.

I found this to be an interesting question. Would the same responses apply to UN-exposed film stored similarly? Might Kodak have provided any development modifications for Tri-X stored for that period of time?

 

Thanks for your responses...

I thought gamma rays come from outer space, not refrigerators, and there is nowhere you can hide!:}<BR><BR>

 

If this is B/W film, then the recommendation to do a clip test is best. Do the first test with a

normal developer like D76 1:1, and pick a developing time longer than normal for the film you have. That test should tell you if you need an anti-fogging agent

<BR><BR>

The anti-fog chemical agent is Benzotriazole, sometimes called Kodak Anti-fog #1. If you can't still get it from Kodak then you should be able to get small quantities from a chem. supplier like the '<A HREF="http://www.photoformulary.com/" TARGET="_blank">Photographer's Formulary</A>' in Montana.

Neil is right. The fogging is much more to do with cosmic and

other natural background radiation than anything induced by

electric appliances. To prevent (reduce) such fogging you should

store you film deep down a mineshaft or, I guess, inside a

bomb-proof nuclear bunker (not the ordinary sort designed to

protect against fall-out but the ones built underneath enough

concrete to withstand a direct hit from a nuke).

Thanks for all your comments - the films are mainly Tri-x. From what has been said I think Kodak need to be contacted.

 

Regards

 

Bruno

Bruno: Try processing a roll, increasing the developement time slightly for additional contrast. Another trick is to lower the temperature and increase the developement time. This will add some contrast without affecting the overall exposure. In 1970 I processed a roll of film (828) from a camera from the father of one of my friends. The film was from WWII and turned out fine. The film was not refrigerated, but stored in Alaska. I have subsequently processed some film in a camera given to me and identified the pictures as taken in 1965, processed in 2000. Again they turned out fine. The film may be a little brittle from being frozen for so long (the moisture tends to leave the base) so handle it a little bit more gingerly than usual.

 

Please let us know how this turns out.

 

Mark J.

 

P.S. I have the Kodak Master Darkroom Dataguides (B&W) from 1966 and 1970 at my fingertips if you would like any of the older times as recomended for the older emulsions.

 

Cheers.

Mark

 

Thanks for your offer. I think I'll do one film as a test, as recommended, and see how it goes.

 

Regards

 

Bruno