Out of Date HP5 (October 2005 - 6 Months) - Any Special Instructions?

heya,

 

I've just shot a roll of Ilford HP5 Plus 400, which expired in October

2005, about 6 months ago.

 

I read here,

 

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00E6Nr&tag=

 

that I should probably over-expose the film slightly, but of course, I

didn't read this until I've already shot the entire roll...lol...(for

future reference, exactly how much - half an f-stop? One?).

 

This film has basically been kept refrigerated since I bought it in

early 2005, so what sort of results can I expect?

 

This will be the second roll of film I'm developing myself (with help,

of course) - is there anything special I should do? Or would I be

better off sending it to a pro-place, and giving them special

instructions and getting them to do it? (I'd prefer not to, though,

just so I can try myself - or is it very hard?).

 

Also, the roll is now sitting next to me - should I refrigerate it

from now until I get a chance to develop it? (About 2 weeks or so from

now). I think I read on these forums that exposed film ages faster?

 

Thanks,

Victor

Victor, I would not worry about the expiry date and would process normally.

 

I regularly shoot the odd roll of film (FP4, Delta 100) that expired sometime in 2004 (I sometimes find the odd roll at the back of the cupboard in my darkroom!). The film works just as well as a fresh roll - however, it is stored in a cool place, though not refrigerated.

 

With HP5, I normally shoot it at 320asa and overdevelop it by around 10%. But remember, your milage may vary depending on your equipment/process. Hope this helps.

Just use the stuff straight. Six months out-of-date is nothing for B&W film.

 

I've got some FP4 (yep, plain vanilla FP4, not FP4+) that's 13 years past it's sell-by date, and still perfectly useable. I wouldn't use it for anything important, of course, but it's still absolutely fine for the odd snapshot or two. And for generally messing about trying new techniques.

Quit worrying. You're reading too much and not shooting and learning. Everything should be fine.

It's part of their marketing scheme to put a date on film so you will dump it and buy-buy-buy more! I've been shooting b&w expired in 1997 and it is yet stable. BURN IT MAN.<div></div>

Well, old film can go bad. I once bought a bulk loader that had about 25 ft. of FP4+ in it that was really trashed; lots of fog and about 1 1/2 stops slower than it should have been. Lord knows how old that stuff was or under what conditions it was stored.

 

But you have no problems at your end. B&W film stored under the conditions you describe and only 6 months out of date is not a problem. I have recently shot some 7 year out of date Fuji Sensia 100 that was ok. Not great, though good enough for casual shooting. It had been kept frozzen. I have some outdated TMX (11/2004) that I'm using up now, again kept cold, that is good as new. I honestly did not expect the Sensia to work as well as it did, but there you have it. I'd have been surprised if the TMX was bad.

My out of date HP5 is badly fogged and a bit slow, but it went out of date in July. July of 1989 that is. I think nothing of using b&w films that are 5 years out of date, so you'll probably do just fine. B&w paper is another story. Many modern papers barely make it a couple years, if that.

Slower films are affected less by being out of date. Refrigeration and freezing slow down the degradation, too. Shoot your film with confidence; you've stored it well and it's close to the date.

 

On a lark last summer I shot a roll of Plus-X with a 1981 expiry date. A friend got it along with a bunch of other long-expired film at an auction. A sheet of FP3 processed nicely so I figured, what the heck, let's try it. I processed it in PMK (which isn't the most forgiving developer when it comes to fog) and the results are quite nice. I suspect that the purchaser had the film frozen for most of its life so the degradation was very minimal.