Advice on shooting expired plus-x

Post by **slagmonkey15** » Thu May 10, 2007 6:08 am

I recently got seven rolls of plus-x (old #7276). Not sure if they were ever refrigerated. I know you should expose it at 100ASA but any tips on what else might make it look decent. Over it under exposing further?

Thanks

Post by aj » Thu May 10, 2007 8:42 am

If they are not really old and have not been stored in extreme warm circumstances these films should work as when they where fresh.

Should they be very old (over 10 years) you may notice some loss of contrast and/or some faint fog.

Just expose dead on and run one filem first as a test.

Good light!

Post by **Patrick** » Thu May 10, 2007 9:49 am

Are you positive that these particular Plus-X films are 100asa? If they are considerably old, they would around 40 or 50asa. I think it was within the last few years that Plus-X was changed to a 100asa stock.

Post by **slagmonkey15** » Thu May 10, 2007 2:40 pm

well they are 40/50 asa rated, but you are supposed to expose them at 100asa because the new chemicals push the film to 100.

The guy who sold them to me (I haven't gotten them in the mail yet) said they expired 9/06. Was it that short time ago they changed over? If so I would imagine they would be in pretty good shape.

I think I'll take your advice and expose them spot on and see what happens. However, just to clear up something. If it is rated at 40/50 and I want to expose at 100 I need to stop down.....one stop? I know as the speed doubles the light you need halves. So you only need one stop to halve the light, just confusing on the 40 to 100 speed end. And I know that B&W is faster in daylight so would I expose at 100asa in Daylight and....80 in tungsten?

I guess either way we're looking at half the light.

Thanks for your insights

Post by **Angus** » Thu May 10, 2007 2:45 pm

09/06 is no time at all!

With colour film I'd start to wonder if it were more than 3 years out of date.

With B&W I'd not be too concerned if it were 10 years out of date!

The changeover was probably 2004 ish.

Post by **Patrick** » Thu May 10, 2007 4:19 pm

Ive exposed two rolls of 16mm Tri-X that were at least 15 years out of date and they turned out reasonably fine....

Website · Post by **BigBeaner** » Thu May 10, 2007 5:38 pm

Patrick wrote:Are you positive that these particular Plus-X films are 100asa? If they are considerably old, they would around 40 or 50asa. I think it was within the last few years that Plus-X was changed to a 100asa stock.

Ya true, it was within a few years. I've exposed 15-20+ years super 8 tri-x and also plus-x (super 8 and 16mm) and it came out fine the only problem really was the stupid auto focus on the camera!

Post by **mr8mm** » Thu May 10, 2007 5:53 pm

Some clarification is in order. First: Kodak did not put expiration dates on B/W S8 film. Only kodachrome had an expiration date. Second: It was not the film that was changed. It was the processing chemistry that was modified. The film was modified to match the processing but the EI film of the was not increased. The ASA on the Plus-X became 100 because the processing changed. If the new Plus-X is processed in the old chemistry the ASA will be 50/40 not 100/80. If the old Plus-x is processed in the new chemistry the ASA is 100 not 50. So, the ASA you use is based on the processing chemistry not the film. If you process your old Plus-X in the new chemistry then the ASA is 100 regardless of what is on the box. If you process new or old Plus-X in "old" chemistry then the ASA is 50.

Tri-X is not effected. Old or new it is always ASA 200 regardless of the processing chemistry.

John S.

Post by **vidwerk** » Fri May 11, 2007 5:03 am

I shot a roll of 16mm Tri-X that expired in the mid 1960's.
Turned out just fine. I was amazed.

vidwerk.

Post by **thebigidea** » Fri May 11, 2007 5:42 am

that's good to know. I have 12 16mm tri-x, plus-x, and 4-x spools with 68-72 expiration dates. A flickering, age fogged image would be great for what i'm doing.. I love the look of expired Svema S8...

Post by **Patrick** » Fri May 11, 2007 8:20 am

Fogging is always a possibility with any old film but I didn't see any fogging with my 15 year + Tri-X. I doubt you would see flickering, unless there's something wrong with your camera.

Post by **thebigidea** » Fri May 11, 2007 2:52 pm

Last year I shot about 15 1992-93 expiration Svema b&w reversal carts and it was really inconsistent and constantly brightened a bit and darkened, when projected it gave a nice silent movie style organic flickering... Of course the exposed image was so faint that once you increased the contrast a lot and brought the brightness down to regain some semblence of black, this effect was amplified considerably.

Really unpredictable stuff! Worked great for instantly ancient-looking footage.

Post by **Patrick** » Fri May 11, 2007 3:00 pm

I wonder why there was flicking. Perhaps it's a really unstable film that deteriorates unevenly after just a few years of being out of date....!

Post by **thebigidea** » Fri May 11, 2007 3:10 pm

A very strange effect! I thought it might be a broken camera but it was done on manual exposure and all the tri-x and plus-x was rock solid. You could see the image fading on the actual film... it increased when we tried pushing it a few stops in development.

some snippets of it in this trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVEehm2JOSQ

Next week: unspooling negative into big piles of cat hair.

I think my favorite outdated film effect is the weird neon color dementia on certain kinds of old Agfa Moviechrome where only one color has gone neon and the rest looks ok. Like some naturally occuring Photoshop filter gone horribly wrong!

I adore whatever pastel Perutz-type ancient outdated junk Jack Smith used to make "Normal Love" - I wish we could get film with that kind of color without futzing in post endlessly. While i'm at it I want a "60s Italian Hercules vs. the Moonmen-type" filmstock.