Burned through $40 on expired film from a flea market thinking I'd get a cool vintage look, but all I got were blank rolls and a sad darkroom session.

Has anyone else had a batch of old film that was just completely dead, and how do you test it before wasting your time and money on it?

3 comments

3 Comments

maxp681mo ago

Oof, that's a brutal loss. I grabbed a brick of 10 expired Tri-X rolls from a garage sale last year and only two had any usable images. I test single rolls now by shooting a few frames of something high contrast in bright sun, then clipping the film leader to develop just that bit first.

-1

lily5741mo ago

Oh man, that's such a smart way to test it. My buddy wasn't so lucky, he bought a whole batch of expired Portra from some guy online. He shot a whole wedding with it before he developed anything, like a full ten rolls. I mean, every single frame was just clear film, totally blank. He had to call the couple and tell them he lost all their photos. It was a total nightmare, he almost quit shooting film after that. Your clip test idea would have saved him so much trouble.

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oscarwright1mo ago

Yeah I started doing clip tests after I lost a roll of Ektar from 2003. Shot a whole day at a car show and got nothing back. Now I'll shoot three frames of a detailed scene, snip the leader, and develop just that bit in a tiny tank. If it looks fogged or blank, I know to push the whole roll or just trash it.