35MM FILM - EXPIRED FILM

EXPIRED 35MM FILM

I RECENTLY BOUGHT A JOB-LOT OF EXPIRED 35MM FILM OF VARYING AGE AND CONDITION TO SEE WHAT EFFECTS CAN BE CREATED THROUGH MY PHOTOGRAPHY.

Expired film has the ability to create very unique effects with film photography, with film degrading over time and with unfavourable conditions this leaves a damaged but still useable film to experiment with. I have always been fascinated by photographic effects and sometimes buying new film can be a little dull, as you know that if shot correctly, you will get an image very close to perfect. What’s the fun in that?

Zeb Zakovics

Author

Experimental vs. Affordable

It’s no secret that photographic film from all manufacturers is getting expensive at an increasing rate. At the time of writing this Kodak Portra 400 is hitting £20 here in the United Kingdom, whereas a few years ago you could grab a roll for around £7 and feel comfortable buying it. Unfortunately for myself, I have only recently this year (2023) began taking photographs on 35mm film and so I’ve jumped in the deep end with expensive costs.

Because of this, expired film is coming out from the dark holes from which they were lost. Lots of expired film is popping up on eBay and Facebook Marketplace, so I thought screw it, buying a £100 job-lot of expired films. None of them have any dates on them, so I’m shooting these expired films completely blind. There were however some gems in the bunch that I will go through in another post, but for now here are some shots captured with some of the more basic 200 & 400 ISO rolls from the expired haul.

These expired film rolls are a mixture of different brands with different ISO ratings. I have however ran with an average expectation of ~10 years for the expiry value, meaning that I am setting the ISO 1 full stop more than the rating of the film. This means that for an ISO 400 film I am rating it at 200 instead to accommodate for the loss in sensitivity due to the expiry. Some of the films are obviously older than others, however with no indication on the roll canister itself I feel like 1 stop is a good baseline. It’s a good time to note that all of these images are completely un-edited, they are exactly how they were exposed and developed.

All of these images were taken on a Canon AE-1 SLR camera which obviously helps to produce some nice results on the film. Recently I have found a Chinon Auto 3501 point-and-shoot 35mm camera that was used by my grandad while he travelled the world for work, including to Australia where he took many photos of his experience on the other side of the world. I plan on getting a battery for it and giving it a go with some of the expired film soon.

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