how will out-of-date K40 turn out when processed?

[jumar]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size=2 face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><table border="0" width="90%" bgcolor="#333333" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="0"><tr><td width="100%"><table border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" bgcolor="#FF9900"><tr><td width="100%" bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><font size=2 face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by Corey:
I shot some k40 from 1977, it came out purple and very, very light. I tried it again with a cartidge from the same batch but the next time I overexposed two stops and shot with the indoor filter on. It came out at normal exposure, and the filter helped a little, but it still had a purpleish-blue tint. I say stick with the new stuff. Unless it's been refridgerated, mine wasn't.</font></td></tr></table></td></tr></table></BLOCKQUOTE>

Interesting... I found two rolls of 1978 K40 in a garage sale today. One is exposed (exciting! who knows what's on it...) and the other is unopened. I'm assuming both have been in a box for all these years. After having shot your two rolls of 1977 K40, can you suggest anything cool for me to do with this unopened one? I'm sure it's bad film, but maybe I can take advantage of the poor quality you were getting... by shooting night time lapse or something else more on the experimental side?

Anyway, suggestions are welcome, and I'll shoot it over the next week.

[Matt Pacini]

Well, I've shot some K40 recently that I've had in the freezer since late 1999/2000 and it's turning out fine.

However, I have some bad news for you guys:
radiation hitting your film happens over time, at the same rate regardless of whether or not it's in the freezer (you can read up on this on the Kodak web site)

So it's not as if you can leave your film in your freezer forever and shoot with it. Sure, it helps in one way, but that radiation will get ya sooner or later!

Matt Pacini

[Matt Pacini]

This reminds me of an interview I read with a guy (forgot his name) that was one of the astronauts who was on the space station for a really long time.
He said one day, he closed his eyes, and he could see these little moving pinpoint starlike patterns coming at him, like when you see a spaceship in a movie go into warp drive or whatever.
Then he turned his head to the right, and they were going left to right now!
It was real! It wasn't his imagination, this stuff is zooming through space!
It was radiation that he wasn't being shielded from, since he was outside our atmosphere.
He said he figured right then, it was time go get the hell out of there and go home!

Matt Pacini

[al77]

Hello,
Just to let you know, I got back the test reel of out of date k40 that i shot & it turned out ok. the image is slightly paler than new k40 & does have a vague purple tint in places but considering it was only a couple of euros per reel inc processing i'm happy with the result. I have another 4 out of date reels to shoot so i hope they also turn out ok too...

[Matt Pacini]

"..slightly paler than new k40 & does have a vague purple tint in places..." doesn't fit the definition of OK to me.

If it works for you, great, but I'd call that significant problems.
Matt

[al77]

True it's not ideal, but for 2 euros it produced a result I'm still able to use with a little correction. Comparing that against another jittery cart that i got last month 'new' for 12 uk pounds which the results are completely useless. I'm using these out-of date carts to shoot part of a 'dream sequence' in a short film where unnatural colour isn't really so much of a problem as it would be for the rest of the film so i'm putting the films to good use. Super 8's an expensive process so it helps me to be able to use these cheaper films where i can get away with it. At the very lest the films are useful to test out shots without wasting new carts. Of course I'm using new carts for the majority of the short film as I want to do my bit to keep Kodak producing super 8 film.
thanks,

[Greg Crawford]

I had to wait about 30 days to get my film bake from Kodak, to answer your question about old Kodachrome. A month ago. I could have said then, don't bother, and I would have been right!

I found a roll of Kodachrome that I got back in 1991. The stock was well taken care of from 1991 till 1998, when we moved to the midwest. In 1998 we placed a lot of your things in storage. This roll was stored in a hot storage unit in Northern California from 1998 till June of 1992, when I drove our remaning positions back to the midwest. Since then, this lone roll of Kodachrome has been laying stored in our home from June till the following July then I read your post and shot the stuff.

It had been in storage in Northern California from 1998 till last year. And temps get above 100 for much of the summer months. The film was way off color towards the magenta. The image looked soft, no shadow detail or contrast for that mater. Blacks looked bluish. My first impression is the film also looked overly grainy. I only looked at the film with a high powered lens, and could not project or video transfer this film.

Bottom Line: Save Your Money!
Buy new film and start fresh!