Me and my daughter have some Fujicolor HG 100 that expired in January 1993. We are going to shoot it in January 2023 to mark it's 30th year since expiration :)
@@zachmueller2912 I'm aware of that. I've shot plenty of expired film. I don't think 8 months is going to make a great deal of difference in its 30yrs. It's more symbolic, to get a nice round figure.
My grandma passed away in 2008, and I found her old camera that still had film loaded! Getting it developed and seeing pictures of me as a kid next to those I took myself was a very cool experience.
I had 25 year old EXPOSED film that still hadn't been developed! I tried to develop it recently. It came out BEAUTIFULLY! Black & white film is built like a tank!
NOTICE!!! when shooting old rollfilm, there is a HIGH chance that the tape holding the film to the spool has crumbled! To fix this, you need to unroll the film untill you reach this tape, and retape it. (in the dark bag ofc. The tape is at the first frame beginning) Its advisable to check rolls older than 1980. I also recommend taping the paper to the takeup spool.
I find it interesting that there are still expired rolls to be sold. I shot a ton of it from eBay over a decade ago when you couldn't give it away, and I could neither find nor afford fresh film. My oldest successful roll was some 116 that expired in 1949. Recently came across a few subscription services where you pay up to $20 a roll for random expired film. Yikes
I shot 4x5 film in a camera from 1910.... Camera had a lens from 1908 and was the best ive ever had lens wise was so clear and creamy and the images were dreamy sort of sad i sold that camera.
@@pilsplease7561 I always get beautiful results using that 116 camera but with modern 120- 1916 Kodak Autographic Jr 1A. It was only a shame that I couldn't get 116 that was fresher
@@pilsplease7561 yeah, old large format make such nice images. I have a 1910 4x5 rb auto graflex that I fixed up and it is my favorite portrait camera as it can shoot 4x5 handheld
Excellent! I actually own one of the Sears Tower cameras that were in the catalog page. Picked it up years ago and it works well. It is also a rangefinder.
60 years from now, imagine trying to use and read todays digital storage media. Even if you could find a camera that could put the images down, you'd be hard pressed finding anything capable of pulling the files off.
@@sypialnia_studio as some who worked on “retro computing” kit when it was still relatively bleeding edge, I have hdds a mere 40 years old which would be time and cost prohibitive to try and get the data off. I get what you are saying, but the retro computing community is kinda niche and definitely not something the general public would be able to do, unlike using film. So I suspect your comment may age a tad moor poorly than mine, but only time will tell.
@@SoapyWetDish I think using and developing such old film needs special equipment and lab that you can't just find on every corner at an average city. I have plenty of friends who are pro photographers and none of them could just take that film and put it in their cameras. They just don't have cameras for such formats. Then finding a photo lab that could reliably develop such cartridge would be near impossible around me. I would argue that retrocomputing is a *bit* less niche than retro photography community. But still, both are really niche. But the way the retrocommunity is active with really old 40+ years old systems gives me a lot of hope that in 60 years we will be able to use any data format from the past, with a lil bit of searching at your local area.
@@sypialnia_studio The difference is, film is still available and still produced today. Digital storage formats are developing apace and I see no sign of it letting up. Until very recently I had old digital cameras that I could not get flash cards for (not that you’d want to) and the flash cards I had were unreadable, I have since destroyed them because defunct/proprietary cards in sizes of single digit megabytes are of no use to anyone anymore. On the other hand, I have a small collection of 120 and 35mm film that is older than those flash cards and cameras combined. I have a minimal amount of equipment, dark bag, developing tank and 3 chemicals (all of which are available on amazon) which allow me to develop B&W 35mm and 120 film easily at home. That being said, I don’t think I’d try colour film as the process is a little more involved. Once developed its a simple case of scanning the negatives, you don’t need a dark room, enlarger or any other specialist equipment. I’d recommend researching and trying developing your own B&W film. It isn’t as difficult or as out of reach as you seem to think and there is something special, it’s quite hard to put into words, about the feeling of achievement you get when you see those negatives for the first time.
If only photographic equipment businesses could truly understand this love we have for film photography and kept producing film at an affordable price... thanks for sharing this great experience. I myself have an undeveloped roll of Ilford BW 120 film in my Rolleiflex, which has been there for six years now. "Fresh" if compared to the one you used! I'm looking forward to sending it to a lab and get it developed, because there are some pictures I took of my son when he was just a baby with this film. Keep up the great work!
Oh my word! I actually gasped when you loaded the film in SUNLIGHT! I would have done it in my darkroom or changing bag! I know that's always the case with Infrared, but given the age a bit more TLC couldn't hurt. I'm amazed how the photos turned out.🇺🇲❤️🏴
This is incredible to me because I've shot on 35mm that expired in 2007 and it was a hazy blurry mess. This was either very well preserved or just amazing quality.
I once bought a Voigtlander Brilliant TLR camera that had film left in it. I developed it and the roll was exposed in the early in the late 1960s or 1970s. Most of the images were pretty good considering the film was flashed with me opening the back not knowing it was in there. Did you underrate the film in the video to account for its age?
I developed a roll of film exposed in the 1940s, and it was difficult to tell if the softness was the lens\camera, or the age of the film. It was slightly foggy, but amazingly good, considering.
I had forgotten all about the Kowa Six! I remember thinking is was so cool when I was a teenager back in the 1970's. I remember the few I ever saw being very expensive. I had a Mamya C330 with the 80mm and 180mm lenses (I really wanted the 55mm but never found them!) and really couldn't afford a Kowa.
About 30 years ago, I purchased a Kodak Medalist II (620 film) from a person in Connecticut. It had a roll of film (B&W) in it that had been used. In fact, not even completely finished. According to the person who sold it to me, it had sat for over 30 years at that time. I carefully removed the film and had it processed. There was an apparently brand new 1960 Ford Sunliner (convertible) that had been photographed, plus other photos' of local Connecticut buildings from about that time. It was remarkable time capsule. After, I had the camera converted to 120 film, then cleaned, lubed and adjusted. I took many remarkable photo's with it after the conversion. It served me for several years and then I, quite regrettably now, sold it. I hope it served someone else with much joy....Thanks for sharing your old film experience! 🙂
In 1989 I shot some rolls of agfa 35mm b/w that expired in 1963. I lost track of it until last year (2021). Processed it myself using cinestill DF96, and the images are excellent. Black and white holds up for a long time if kept in a cool location.
Wonderful video and thank you! Sitting next to me here in my office are a lot of older cameras, including an XPan, a mint Rolleiflex 75/3.5, a Leica IIIf, a Bronica RF645, a bunch of ETRSi, Chamonix 4x5 and tons of beautiful lenses, completely untouched in 5 years. I have a fridge full of film that expired a few years ago and so now you've awakened the beast within and I have to get shooting before my lovely wife mandates a fire sale! Oh, life can be too busy at times! Cheers and thank you from Australia - Dave
I see you're changing film in direct sunlight (even if it's a bit hazy) and you probably did that when you went seaside too. Those light leaks (lighter stripes on the left and right) are not from the film or camera, but daylight getting acces to the film between the paper and the spool. Cover the camera with something dark, like a jacket, or go in the shade when changing film , and used film should be kept dark. You'll probably never see those streaks again.
Other than a little light leak at the edges of these photos, the film is as good as the day it was made. I used to use this 120 format, and I actually won a photo contest with it. Digital is more convenient, but IMHO, film is still better.
For black & white twenty years after expiration date is not a big problem but for color it is. However, in this situation, black & white can be slightly extended in processing to improve lost contrast.
I love my Kowa Six. My first one, a local one I got a deal on, was stolen from my truck. But the camera is fun to use. I've read that the best way to wind the film is without the handle, just the knob. To limit the torque applied to the mechanism. Also I shot a roll of 1980's Panatomic X in my former TLR, a Rolleiflex 3.5F and got decent results. Great video and looking forward to the next one. I just need to find a 150mm for my Six.
Hello from Russia🇷🇺✌️✌️✌️ Usually I use the Soviet photo film SVEMA and TASMA, sometimes the German photographic film ORWO Nc19, NC21 which is 30 years old, but I have never come across a 60-year-old film, so respect for the author of this video🎞📸💯💯💯
GOOD STORY! I remember I used to take films with my father's "Brownie" 1960s 8mm. camera. I had a role from the '60s and in trying to develop it, Since no place would develop it, I finally had to send it to West Germany. I got a call one day from them, in which they told me that the film literally disintegrated as they were trying to process it! They apologized and asked me if I wanted the film back. Needless to say, I said no. That was the last time I used it, in 1982. The beautiful thing is that my daughter (now 20) has taken an interest in old cameras and film. Since I had my father's Brownie (instant) camera from the early '60s, I gave it to her for this Christmas, and she was "Awe-Struck" with joy!
Black and white film doesn't expire like color does!! Expired color film is always more difficult to handle and make images and a lot of times impossible!!
I found a family camera that had a 25 year old half exposed roll of b&w film left in it. I shot the rest of the roll and then developed it. The old shots came out fairly well exposed, the new ones very weak.
It probably would have helped if you shot the new pictures a stop or 2 lower:for example, treat asa 125 as asa 100. Old film does tend to become less sensitive to light.
Thanks for showing us that expiration date is simply a recommendation. It's kind of like food labels 'eat before' date. I have used old film in the past and it has always exceeded my expectations. I used to work for a studio and specialized in 'on location' photography; weddings, reunions, high school events. The studio had decent cameras to use. We had a Hasselblad 2 1/4 x 2 1/4 medium format camera. But my favorite was the Mamiya RB67 2 1/4 x 2 3/4 with film back that could rotate for portrait or landscape. I just subscribed - thanks again.
In 2009 I discovered that my family's old 8mm ciné camera still had a part-exposed roll of film in it from 1979. I knew that it was colour film, but there was nothing indicating the process type, so the lab had to develop it in B&W to be sure of recovering anything. And it worked! It turned out we'd only shot a couple of minutes' worth, but it was still magical to see the family on holiday 30 years previously.
what a coincidence, i happen to recently gotten some expired tri-x (exp. date not printed) that i assume is from 60s or 70s that came with my 2x3 crown graphic
When I sold my parent's house in 1993, I found an old Brownie camera that had a roll of exposed film in it. I took it to get developed and found pictures that were from the mid-50's, so 40 year old film holds up.
I personally shoot and home process expired film as a hobby and I can easily tell you film of any age even over 100 years old can yield good results with the help of measurable overexposure. Totally enjoyed your video, the first roll of film I would of put the camera in a change bag taken the film out and put it in a lightproof container within bag and reroll the film onto spare backing paper, but seeing the results of the rolls you successfully shot, you got some real nice results, did you use the 1 f-stop/shutter overexposure per decade of age rule? I've used that rule with my films and 90% of the time I will get pictures of varying quality many really good to excellent, majority of my expired films date from the 1930s to 1970s, I develop the B&W films in Caffenol C or D76 and the old colour films (Kodacolor/Ektachrome) in C41 cold at 20 deg C. Here's a couple of montages I've uploaded 1934 Kodak Verichrome 116 th-cam.com/video/lPd2ImJU24I/w-d-xo.html 1958 Kodak Kodacolor 120 th-cam.com/video/3h4QLgHc5ao/w-d-xo.html digital post processing was involved for colour balancing on the Kodacolor and light levels on the Verichrome so it's a hybrid analog/digital process.
I have a lot of 120/220 that old and a lot from the 1980's. I use a two part developer like Diaphine so that development time is not a factor. I get really nice results, I use an RB-67. But I also have hundreds of rolls of 35mm and a pair of Canon FTb. For the 120 film I use an Epson V600 scanner to get digital that is fantastic.
I took a photography class back in the 80s and one thing we were told is that you can usually use film up to a year beyond the expiration date, and it will work fine. If you keep it in a freezer it will last indefinitely. Of course if you want to take it out and use it you have to let it thaw out first - usually takes about an hour.
Enjoyed seeing your experiment. I remember when film came on rolls and you loaded it into the camera like that. Now people "film" things with their phones... They don't even know what film is!
A very good photographer friend of mine advised me to keep all unused films in the fridge, in the door pocket. I was focused on very low sensitivity films at that time, like DK4 or DK6 (document films) coz I wanted to get only black and white from those films. And I kept such films for 10 years in my fridge. When used again, fantastic results. On my opinion, in such occasion, photographer shouldn't use processing machine to process that film, but manual controlled processing under red light in a photo laboratory and observe how the negative evolve.
While B&W film holds up well with age, no undeveloped film can avoid background radiation unless shielded in lead. Kodak in Rochester NY detected nuclear tests by noticing some unaccounted for fogging/specs on some of its film even at great distance from said tests. If it has high ASA, you may want to store it in the kind of lead lined bags we used to pass film thru TSA checkpoints
Salut Mathieu, est-ce qu'il est possible d'avoir le lien du bras magique que tu utilises sur ton Kowa Six ? J'aimerais en installer un sur mon Yashica Mat 124 ! :) Merci d'avance
This brought back some memories. I own a Mamiya C33, which I used for Portraiture and Weddings. I also had access to a Zenza Bronica S2 camera, which was a great camera for studio work, but needed a sturdy Tripod to get sharp pictures, as the way the Mirror worked, made it jump quite considerably and made it difficult to get good sharp shots when hand-held. My father had a Zeiss Ikon Nettar 2/517, which gave 8 shots of 6x9cm on 120 film. I still have the Mamiya and the Zeiss, although I've not used them for many years, as the bellows on the Zeiss leak light. It was new in 1951 and came with the new 'Prontor' Lense and shutter.
I recently found an Olympus Trip 35 camera at a thrift store, datecode puts this camera manufacture at 1979. Got me 3 rolls of 2004 expired 35 mm 24 exposure Kodak Ultra Gold 400 to give my kids (8 and 10 years old) a sense of what photography once was. Can't wait to find out what that will bring!
Merci pour cette vidéo très instructive ! J'aime beaucoup utiliser les films périmés. Permets-moi de te poser quelques questions : demandes-tu un traitement particulier à Nation Photo pour que le grain du film soit aussi fin que possible (pas seulement pour les films périmés) ? Quelles sont à ton avis les meilleures pistes sur le net pour trouver des films périmés ? Quelle application te paraît-elle la meilleure comme posemètre sous Android (si possible avec la possibilité de mesurer la lumière incidente) ? Merci 🙂
Neat. I noticed I have some films that expired between 2002 and 2005 because I haven't shot film since 2005, but will again this year. Compared to 60 years 20 years should be nothing :)
I have 3 Bronicas. An S2A, ETR, and SQ. The ETR and SQ has a leaf shutter, while the S2A has a film plane shutter. The S2A is, by far, my favorite medium format SLR, and it looks a lot like a Hasselblad.
It would even be more interesting if you can try colour film from this age. The colour might look quite weird or different than it should be. That would be a fun experiment
Hi Mathieu, Question: Did the lab push it? and/or did you expose it at box iso? I have some Kodak TMAX from 1980's and it is very thin. When I drop it 4 stops, the negative seems to go very grey/low contrast all over. Nice video! Thx
Hi, this is a pretty cool video. When you got this developed, did you do any push processing (i.e. longer development) to compensate for the film being so old or was this developed at box speed?
You are lucky that your favorite photo lab uses a card style processor. Several years ago I processed some very old 126 on reels. When film gets old it's gets springy. I had to fight the curl in the dark finally tapping one edge down so I could wind it on a reel. After that I never processed old film again. Also cool that the film is labeled "panchromatic" That got shortened to Pan AKA Tri X pan and then disappeared all together.
I had six rolls of 2008 expired ExtraFilm 200, I shot one of them to make sure a new camera would behave as it should but I can't yet do C41 processing myself and didn't want to pay for developing so I froze it and hopefully when I find it I will have learned C41 processing. I am kind of hoping I will have forgotten what I shot when I find it again and decide to develop it that will make it more exciting.
Nice video! Do you know which developer and what dilution they used in the lab? I found an old Eastman Tri-X from 60s or 70s in a bulk loader I bought. I did a few frames and developed it in D76. Now I'll experiment with Rodinal. I'm going to post a movie on YT about it :)
@@MathieuStern Wow 1/500, I guess the film was stored in the fridge or in a dark cooler place all these years! The results are great and the photos themselves are very good!
Silver halide emulsions will hold its sensitivity well, granted that it was stored well and cool, and in a dark place. Shot Ilford XP1 that expired in 1994 - and it is not as good at holding its sensitivity as it a C41 emulsion, and not the robust conventional chemistry. I did a video about it on my channel - I used the Yashica LM from 1959 to shoot it.
To have the shutter in the lens is not unusual for this type of camera; Hasselblads from that period and a lot later also have the shutter in the lens.
Me and my daughter have some Fujicolor HG 100 that expired in January 1993. We are going to shoot it in January 2023 to mark it's 30th year since expiration :)
I wish you luck, but you should know that color film degrades faster than b&w
@@zachmueller2912 I'm aware of that. I've shot plenty of expired film. I don't think 8 months is going to make a great deal of difference in its 30yrs. It's more symbolic, to get a nice round figure.
@@stew_redman dont forget to overexpose it quite a lot
I shot a roll of fuji slide film from like 1976 the OG E6 slide film. Got some colors out of it that shocked the hell out of me
@@pilsplease7561 Nice
My grandma passed away in 2008, and I found her old camera that still had film loaded! Getting it developed and seeing pictures of me as a kid next to those I took myself was a very cool experience.
That’s incredible!
im sorry for your loss. that is such a cool story!! i think it would be cool if you put them in a book
There is something about film grain that is very spectacular.
Btw, I love the 60's film, color grade and vignette vibe you gave to the video.
Glad you enjoyed it!
@@MathieuStern did you shoot each frame individually using some more film, and then animate it into a youtube video?
Black and white holds up well against aging, especially a low ISO like this. Its always fun to experiment like this!
I had 25 year old EXPOSED film that still hadn't been developed! I tried to develop it recently. It came out BEAUTIFULLY!
Black & white film is built like a tank!
@@Milnoc If truly is then can be outstanding.
NOTICE!!! when shooting old rollfilm, there is a HIGH chance that the tape holding the film to the spool has crumbled! To fix this, you need to unroll the film untill you reach this tape, and retape it. (in the dark bag ofc. The tape is at the first frame beginning) Its advisable to check rolls older than 1980. I also recommend taping the paper to the takeup spool.
that's exactly what happened for the first roll
Recently had that happen to me with some Svema. Funny enough, that's the first and only time thus far that the tape has failed on me.
I find it interesting that there are still expired rolls to be sold. I shot a ton of it from eBay over a decade ago when you couldn't give it away, and I could neither find nor afford fresh film. My oldest successful roll was some 116 that expired in 1949. Recently came across a few subscription services where you pay up to $20 a roll for random expired film. Yikes
I shot 4x5 film in a camera from 1910.... Camera had a lens from 1908 and was the best ive ever had lens wise was so clear and creamy and the images were dreamy sort of sad i sold that camera.
@@pilsplease7561 I always get beautiful results using that 116 camera but with modern 120- 1916 Kodak Autographic Jr 1A. It was only a shame that I couldn't get 116 that was fresher
@@pilsplease7561 yeah, old large format make such nice images. I have a 1910 4x5 rb auto graflex that I fixed up and it is my favorite portrait camera as it can shoot 4x5 handheld
@@seafire820 people don't understand that back then things were simpler
@@kj4ilk what do you mean?
Excellent! I actually own one of the Sears Tower cameras that were in the catalog page. Picked it up years ago and it works well. It is also a rangefinder.
Those were made by various Japanese manufacturers. The one I have was made by Mamiya.
So happy to see this. I had a Kowa Six back in 1970 when I was photographer for my college yearbook.
60 years from now, imagine trying to use and read todays digital storage media.
Even if you could find a camera that could put the images down, you'd be hard pressed finding anything capable of pulling the files off.
I can't even read media from 15 years ago like CDs :))
As the retro computing community is very well and live I predict this comment will age poorly.
@@sypialnia_studio as some who worked on “retro computing” kit when it was still relatively bleeding edge, I have hdds a mere 40 years old which would be time and cost prohibitive to try and get the data off.
I get what you are saying, but the retro computing community is kinda niche and definitely not something the general public would be able to do, unlike using film.
So I suspect your comment may age a tad moor poorly than mine, but only time will tell.
@@SoapyWetDish I think using and developing such old film needs special equipment and lab that you can't just find on every corner at an average city. I have plenty of friends who are pro photographers and none of them could just take that film and put it in their cameras. They just don't have cameras for such formats. Then finding a photo lab that could reliably develop such cartridge would be near impossible around me. I would argue that retrocomputing is a *bit* less niche than retro photography community. But still, both are really niche. But the way the retrocommunity is active with really old 40+ years old systems gives me a lot of hope that in 60 years we will be able to use any data format from the past, with a lil bit of searching at your local area.
@@sypialnia_studio The difference is, film is still available and still produced today.
Digital storage formats are developing apace and I see no sign of it letting up.
Until very recently I had old digital cameras that I could not get flash cards for (not that you’d want to) and the flash cards I had were unreadable, I have since destroyed them because defunct/proprietary cards in sizes of single digit megabytes are of no use to anyone anymore.
On the other hand, I have a small collection of 120 and 35mm film that is older than those flash cards and cameras combined. I have a minimal amount of equipment, dark bag, developing tank and 3 chemicals (all of which are available on amazon) which allow me to develop B&W 35mm and 120 film easily at home.
That being said, I don’t think I’d try colour film as the process is a little more involved.
Once developed its a simple case of scanning the negatives, you don’t need a dark room, enlarger or any other specialist equipment.
I’d recommend researching and trying developing your own B&W film. It isn’t as difficult or as out of reach as you seem to think and there is something special, it’s quite hard to put into words, about the feeling of achievement you get when you see those negatives for the first time.
TH-cam AI is a wonder, didn't search for this, don't normally watch this kinda video, but definitely enjoyed it! 👍
If only photographic equipment businesses could truly understand this love we have for film photography and kept producing film at an affordable price... thanks for sharing this great experience. I myself have an undeveloped roll of Ilford BW 120 film in my Rolleiflex, which has been there for six years now. "Fresh" if compared to the one you used! I'm looking forward to sending it to a lab and get it developed, because there are some pictures I took of my son when he was just a baby with this film. Keep up the great work!
they are not salvation army haha, and keeping it alive for some hipsters, what a joke
This was such a fun collaboration! Thanks for the feature!
Thanks a lot Damion for your help !
I had a Kowa Super 66,, which had interchangeable film backs. I loved it!
Oh my word! I actually gasped when you loaded the film in SUNLIGHT! I would have done it in my darkroom or changing bag! I know that's always the case with Infrared, but given the age a bit more TLC couldn't hurt.
I'm amazed how the photos turned out.🇺🇲❤️🏴
This is incredible to me because I've shot on 35mm that expired in 2007 and it was a hazy blurry mess. This was either very well preserved or just amazing quality.
Depends on how it was stored...atmospheric radiation
I got goosebumps seeing how the first photos came out🥰
How beautiful. Makes me want to fish out some old film I have lying around and shooting in film
Have you exposed the film to the original sensibility or pushed it in some way during exposing or developing? Thanks. Awesome results!
During time, might need doing slower whatever it is.
I once bought a Voigtlander Brilliant TLR camera that had film left in it. I developed it and the roll was exposed in the early in the late 1960s or 1970s. Most of the images were pretty good considering the film was flashed with me opening the back not knowing it was in there. Did you underrate the film in the video to account for its age?
If it's been refrigerated the entire time, probably yes. If it's been frozen the entire time, definitely yes.
I developed a roll of film exposed in the 1940s, and it was difficult to tell if the softness was the lens\camera, or the age of the film. It was slightly foggy, but amazingly good, considering.
with film that was exposed a long time ago, using anti-fog can help.
I had forgotten all about the Kowa Six! I remember thinking is was so cool when I was a teenager back in the 1970's. I remember the few I ever saw being very expensive. I had a Mamya C330 with the 80mm and 180mm lenses (I really wanted the 55mm but never found them!) and really couldn't afford a Kowa.
About 30 years ago, I purchased a Kodak Medalist II (620 film) from a person in Connecticut. It had a roll of film (B&W) in it that had been used. In fact, not even completely finished. According to the person who sold it to me, it had sat for over 30 years at that time. I carefully removed the film and had it processed. There was an apparently brand new 1960 Ford Sunliner (convertible) that had been photographed, plus other photos' of local Connecticut buildings from about that time. It was remarkable time capsule. After, I had the camera converted to 120 film, then cleaned, lubed and adjusted. I took many remarkable photo's with it after the conversion. It served me for several years and then I, quite regrettably now, sold it. I hope it served someone else with much joy....Thanks for sharing your old film experience! 🙂
In 1989 I shot some rolls of agfa 35mm b/w that expired in 1963. I lost track of it until last year (2021). Processed it myself using cinestill DF96, and the images are excellent. Black and white holds up for a long time if kept in a cool location.
What about color films? I have some film from 2009 and i hold it in freezer.
Sold my Kowa Super 66 a few months ago before a big move. This made me miss it. Heavy though!! Great photos.
Wonderful video and thank you! Sitting next to me here in my office are a lot of older cameras, including an XPan, a mint Rolleiflex 75/3.5, a Leica IIIf, a Bronica RF645, a bunch of ETRSi, Chamonix 4x5 and tons of beautiful lenses, completely untouched in 5 years. I have a fridge full of film that expired a few years ago and so now you've awakened the beast within and I have to get shooting before my lovely wife mandates a fire sale! Oh, life can be too busy at times! Cheers and thank you from Australia - Dave
When I used 620 film back in the 60's, I always loaded it in a very dark room, otherwise the first couple of frames would always be partially exposed.
I still have two boxes of Autochromes that expired in 1928, still haven't figured out how to use them
It's best to load roll film indoors or at least in the shade. Light can sneak in and fog the film a bit.
Mathieu, you are not only a Photography Maestro, but also a Master Chief of Experimentation...
thats my passion !
It looks like the door of the film chamber on your Kowa has a slight light leak on one edge. Also, the film was likely made by Agfa.
Absolutely amazing. I love the dreamy look that the film gives.
I see you're changing film in direct sunlight (even if it's a bit hazy) and you probably did that when you went seaside too. Those light leaks (lighter stripes on the left and right) are not from the film or camera, but daylight getting acces to the film between the paper and the spool. Cover the camera with something dark, like a jacket, or go in the shade when changing film , and used film should be kept dark. You'll probably never see those streaks again.
Other than a little light leak at the edges of these photos, the film is as good as the day it was made. I used to use this 120 format, and I actually won a photo contest with it. Digital is more convenient, but IMHO, film is still better.
His light seals need replaced badly.
I’ve got a roll of 125asa Ektachrome that expired in 1976, need to give that go sometime
For black & white twenty years after expiration date is not a big problem but for color it is.
However, in this situation, black & white can be slightly extended in processing to improve lost contrast.
I love my Kowa Six. My first one, a local one I got a deal on, was stolen from my truck. But the camera is fun to use. I've read that the best way to wind the film is without the handle, just the knob. To limit the torque applied to the mechanism. Also I shot a roll of 1980's Panatomic X in my former TLR, a Rolleiflex 3.5F and got decent results. Great video and looking forward to the next one. I just need to find a 150mm for my Six.
Is it best to load film in subdued light ( avoid the sun etc ) ? Thank you. Great presentation. Excellent. RS. Canada
Beautiful. Real. Photography B&W that touch’s your soul
It expired 2 months after I was born. Was fun to see, thank you.
Hello from Russia🇷🇺✌️✌️✌️
Usually I use the Soviet photo film SVEMA and TASMA, sometimes the German photographic film ORWO Nc19, NC21 which is 30 years old, but I have never come across a 60-year-old film, so respect for the author of this video🎞📸💯💯💯
It’s me ! Thanks
I have an electric 8 from 1964 with one unopened roll and TH-cam decided I needed this lol
Yo those shots literally look like they’re from a different time even though they were taken today 😯
Amazing. As close to a time machine as one can get. At least back to the 1960’s
GOOD STORY!
I remember I used to take films with my father's "Brownie" 1960s 8mm. camera.
I had a role from the '60s and in trying to develop it, Since no place would develop it, I finally had to send it to West Germany. I got a call one day from them, in which they told me that the film literally disintegrated as they were trying to process it! They apologized and asked me if I wanted the film back. Needless to say, I said no.
That was the last time I used it, in 1982.
The beautiful thing is that my daughter (now 20) has taken an interest in old cameras and film. Since I had my father's Brownie (instant) camera from the early '60s, I gave it to her for this Christmas, and she was "Awe-Struck" with joy!
"Poor mans Hasselblad, because it was very close to the quality, but way cheaper"
So like a Kiev 88 that actually works?
Black and white film doesn't expire like color does!! Expired color film is always more difficult to handle and make images and a lot of times impossible!!
Fantastic.How amazing is this? Thank you very much for sharing this, Mathieu.
Je l’aime!
That film looks better than anything you could’ve done with a digital camera, and I don’t know why
I found a family camera that had a 25 year old half exposed roll of b&w film left in it. I shot the rest of the roll and then developed it. The old shots came out fairly well exposed, the new ones very weak.
Maybe a problem with the camera mechanism aging?
It probably would have helped if you shot the new pictures a stop or 2 lower:for example, treat asa 125 as asa 100.
Old film does tend to become less sensitive to light.
I got, shot and developed some Efke R21 that expired in 1975, and they came out beautifully
Thanks for showing us that expiration date is simply a recommendation. It's kind of like food labels 'eat before' date. I have used old film in the past and it has always exceeded my expectations.
I used to work for a studio and specialized in 'on location' photography; weddings, reunions, high school events. The studio had decent cameras to use. We had a Hasselblad 2 1/4 x 2 1/4 medium format camera. But my favorite was the Mamiya RB67 2 1/4 x 2 3/4 with film back that could rotate for portrait or landscape.
I just subscribed - thanks again.
Just don't do it with milk!
This is amazing, it never gets old, it gets better, like wine!
I just finished shooting a 20 year old roll, and this gives me some hope for the results.
'Expiration dates' are attached to a whole range of items encouraging more and more consumer expenditure!!
In 2009 I discovered that my family's old 8mm ciné camera still had a part-exposed roll of film in it from 1979. I knew that it was colour film, but there was nothing indicating the process type, so the lab had to develop it in B&W to be sure of recovering anything. And it worked! It turned out we'd only shot a couple of minutes' worth, but it was still magical to see the family on holiday 30 years previously.
2:02 Like the Hasselblad 500 series shuttter mechanism which is also a leaf shutter in the lens and not a focal plane one...
what a coincidence, i happen to recently gotten some expired tri-x (exp. date not printed) that i assume is from 60s or 70s that came with my 2x3 crown graphic
When I sold my parent's house in 1993, I found an old Brownie camera that had a roll of exposed film in it. I took it to get developed and found pictures that were from the mid-50's, so 40 year old film holds up.
I personally shoot and home process expired film as a hobby and I can easily tell you film of any age even over 100 years old can yield good results with the help of measurable overexposure. Totally enjoyed your video, the first roll of film I would of put the camera in a change bag taken the film out and put it in a lightproof container within bag and reroll the film onto spare backing paper, but seeing the results of the rolls you successfully shot, you got some real nice results, did you use the 1 f-stop/shutter overexposure per decade of age rule? I've used that rule with my films and 90% of the time I will get pictures of varying quality many really good to excellent, majority of my expired films date from the 1930s to 1970s, I develop the B&W films in Caffenol C or D76 and the old colour films (Kodacolor/Ektachrome) in C41 cold at 20 deg C. Here's a couple of montages I've uploaded 1934 Kodak Verichrome 116 th-cam.com/video/lPd2ImJU24I/w-d-xo.html 1958 Kodak Kodacolor 120 th-cam.com/video/3h4QLgHc5ao/w-d-xo.html digital post processing was involved for colour balancing on the Kodacolor and light levels on the Verichrome so it's a hybrid analog/digital process.
Just bought a pan film this week. It expired in 74, excided to shoot it. Great vid👍
1967 was 55 years ago, NOT 60! ... 60 years ago was 1962, and I should know, it was the year of my birth!
I have an 8mm film cart for a film camera that expired in 1959
I have a lot of 120/220 that old and a lot from the 1980's. I use a two part developer like Diaphine so that development time is not a factor. I get really nice results, I use an RB-67. But I also have hundreds of rolls of 35mm and a pair of Canon FTb. For the 120 film I use an Epson V600 scanner to get digital that is fantastic.
I took a photography class back in the 80s and one thing we were told is that you can usually use film up to a year beyond the expiration date, and it will work fine. If you keep it in a freezer it will last indefinitely. Of course if you want to take it out and use it you have to let it thaw out first - usually takes about an hour.
Enjoyed seeing your experiment. I remember when film came on rolls and you loaded it into the camera like that. Now people "film" things with their phones...
They don't even know what film is!
A very good photographer friend of mine advised me to keep all unused films in the fridge, in the door pocket. I was focused on very low sensitivity films at that time, like DK4 or DK6 (document films) coz I wanted to get only black and white from those films. And I kept such films for 10 years in my fridge. When used again, fantastic results. On my opinion, in such occasion, photographer shouldn't use processing machine to process that film, but manual controlled processing under red light in a photo laboratory and observe how the negative evolve.
NO !!!!.. NO light at all with film, paper print is OK with an approved red bulb.
The antique effect that these rolls give is unique.
The portraits were incredible.
While B&W film holds up well with age, no undeveloped film can avoid background radiation unless shielded in lead. Kodak in Rochester NY detected nuclear tests by noticing some unaccounted for fogging/specs on some of its film even at great distance from said tests. If it has high ASA, you may want to store it in the kind of lead lined bags we used to pass film thru TSA checkpoints
Salut Mathieu, est-ce qu'il est possible d'avoir le lien du bras magique que tu utilises sur ton Kowa Six ? J'aimerais en installer un sur mon Yashica Mat 124 ! :) Merci d'avance
This brought back some memories. I own a Mamiya C33, which I used for Portraiture and Weddings. I also had access to a Zenza Bronica S2 camera, which was a great camera for studio work, but needed a sturdy Tripod to get sharp pictures, as the way the Mirror worked, made it jump quite considerably and made it difficult to get good sharp shots when hand-held. My father had a Zeiss Ikon Nettar 2/517, which gave 8 shots of 6x9cm on 120 film. I still have the Mamiya and the Zeiss, although I've not used them for many years, as the bellows on the Zeiss leak light. It was new in 1951 and came with the new 'Prontor' Lense and shutter.
As always, excellent video again Mathieu 😍😍
I recently found an Olympus Trip 35 camera at a thrift store, datecode puts this camera manufacture at 1979. Got me 3 rolls of 2004 expired 35 mm 24 exposure Kodak Ultra Gold 400 to give my kids (8 and 10 years old) a sense of what photography once was. Can't wait to find out what that will bring!
Merci pour cette vidéo très instructive ! J'aime beaucoup utiliser les films périmés. Permets-moi de te poser quelques questions : demandes-tu un traitement particulier à Nation Photo pour que le grain du film soit aussi fin que possible (pas seulement pour les films périmés) ? Quelles sont à ton avis les meilleures pistes sur le net pour trouver des films périmés ? Quelle application te paraît-elle la meilleure comme posemètre sous Android (si possible avec la possibilité de mesurer la lumière incidente) ? Merci 🙂
Wonderful work! Gotta' love the Kowa Six.
Nice pics! Great composition. Did you make any adjustments to the film speed settings for the expired film or shoot at ASA?
Neat. I noticed I have some films that expired between 2002 and 2005 because I haven't shot film since 2005, but will again this year. Compared to 60 years 20 years should be nothing :)
Best video I've seen this year.
Love the vibe of your films 👍
Does that mean that you can only use lenses that were made specifically for the Kowa 6 (or Kowa in general?) that must be very frustrating.
yes, but the lenses are gorgeous so it's not that bad
Not frustrating. It's professional grade equipment and a pro doesn't want to hang cheap lenses on a good camera.
I have 3 Bronicas. An S2A, ETR, and SQ. The ETR and SQ has a leaf shutter, while the S2A has a film plane shutter. The S2A is, by far, my favorite medium format SLR, and it looks a lot like a Hasselblad.
i love the amount of background information you gave!
Glad you liked it!!
Your videos give me a relaxation I can't explain.
It would even be more interesting if you can try colour film from this age. The colour might look quite weird or different than it should be. That would be a fun experiment
I will do that, if I can find some film
Hi Mathieu, Question: Did the lab push it? and/or did you expose it at box iso?
I have some Kodak TMAX from 1980's and it is very thin. When I drop it 4 stops, the negative seems to go very grey/low contrast all over.
Nice video! Thx
Hi, this is a pretty cool video. When you got this developed, did you do any push processing (i.e. longer development) to compensate for the film being so old or was this developed at box speed?
You are lucky that your favorite photo lab uses a card style processor. Several years ago I processed some very old 126 on reels. When film gets old it's gets springy. I had to fight the curl in the dark finally tapping one edge down so I could wind it on a reel. After that I never processed old film again. Also cool that the film is labeled "panchromatic" That got shortened to Pan AKA Tri X pan and then disappeared all together.
Thanks for the info!
I had six rolls of 2008 expired ExtraFilm 200, I shot one of them to make sure a new camera would behave as it should but I can't yet do C41 processing myself and didn't want to pay for developing so I froze it and hopefully when I find it I will have learned C41 processing.
I am kind of hoping I will have forgotten what I shot when I find it again and decide to develop it that will make it more exciting.
Nice video! Do you know which developer and what dilution they used in the lab? I found an old Eastman Tri-X from 60s or 70s in a bulk loader I bought. I did a few frames and developed it in D76. Now I'll experiment with Rodinal. I'm going to post a movie on YT about it :)
This gives me hope I have sooo many rolls that are this old.
Pushing the envelope as always! Wonderful!
My God, I remember the Kowa cameras from when I was a kid. Great video!
So cool!
Amazing! Please tell me what shutter speeds you used?
most of the time 1/500 because it was sunny
@@MathieuStern Wow 1/500, I guess the film was stored in the fridge or in a dark cooler place all these years! The results are great and the photos themselves are very good!
And one thing nice about the leaf shutter arrangement in your camera, it could sync with flash at any speed the camera could operate at. Very neat!🙂
Silver halide emulsions will hold its sensitivity well, granted that it was stored well and cool, and in a dark place. Shot Ilford XP1 that expired in 1994 - and it is not as good at holding its sensitivity as it a C41 emulsion, and not the robust conventional chemistry. I did a video about it on my channel - I used the Yashica LM from 1959 to shoot it.
I used to love playing with XP1.
I wonder how many stops of light you had to overexpose. Or why was the film still sensitive enough?
awesome journey to historic photography btw
Probably 5 or more. And I doubt it had any latitude left. Just loads of greys and no pure black or whites
Have shot 1960 rollfilm before, its usually foggy as hell and needs a lot of overexposure
To have the shutter in the lens is not unusual for this type of camera; Hasselblads from that period and a lot later also have the shutter in the lens.
of course you can still use it. film actually holds up way better than most people think it does.
Leaf shutters were very common in medium format. Hasselbad, Pentax, Mamiya used them along with others. I have some 20 year old 4x5 to try someday