Commercial Photographers - Business & Web Content Writers

This question is often asked but rarely gets definitive answers Now with the help of Kodak  we can provide reliable answers. Our own experience confirms Kodak's technical advice.

The main considerations for film storage are –

Time from purchase to use, then to processing. Storage temperature and humidity. The humidity factor is especially hard to control as too high will promote mould growth and too low can cause the film to buckle – a very difficult problem occurring during processing. It is not recommended to store exposed film longer than 6 months.

Generally, purchase your film, paying attention to the expiry date, buying as long dated as possible. Shoot it promptly then process with moderate urgency. This way all adverse storage issues are mainly avoided. Buying or using expired film is usually OK too, depending how far past the expiry the film is. You wouldn't want to be paying full price and a substantial discount, or free is worth considering. For camera testing and getting the feel of new film gear expired film is good value provided the outcome is not expected to be pristine  and your frames are not especially significant.

This is the ideal but there are always many reasons why we have to store film – unexposed and exposed. So; prompt useage has no need for cold storage except in ultra humid (tropical conditions). For moderate term storage the refrigerator at around 6C is ideal. For longer term storage you can freeze your film. But, what is most important is allowing refrigerated or frozen film to come to ambient temperature before camera loading or processing. This step is very important as if an attempt is made to load or process film straight from storage the film will be brittle and condensation formed as the film warms can make the film sticky which will impede camera loading and can introduce moisture to the camera interior. On the processing side condensation on the film may make proper loading onto processing reels impossible. This situation is irretrievable.

Give your refrigerated film (unexposed and exposed) at least 3 hours to rise to ambient and frozen film at least 5 hours.

When you have succesfully developed your film/s and are holding your transparencies in your gloved hand what about longer term storage of these. We use Print File Archival Preservers, available for all film sizes and then store away from light in a cool dry place. Properly stored these will last for decades, easily outlasting corruptable digital.