old s8mm film

versioncity1

versioncity1

Active member
I discovered about 20 rolls of unopened s8mm film in a box the other day. Its way out of date. Is there any point in shooting with it?
I wouldn't use it for anything important but still i'd have to pay processing on it. Anyone have any experience of using old film stock.
What is the worst it could look like? Is it that the colour is just way off? (which i don't mind) or is it that i simply won't get any sort of exposure?

thanks
 
I don't know what would happen. Shoot a roll, process it and see what happens. You might get some real funky look.
 
Hey there,

You'd be surprised at how well old, un-refrigerated film stock can hold up. Back in Film School they discovered 20 or so rolls of color 16mm spools, 100ft loads at least 10 or 15 years old. I'd say a good 95 percent of it was fine. Some turned out great, some came out with less saturated colors. Only 2 that I know of turned out blank after processing.
Test a roll and see would be my course of action. Just be prepared to reshoot. Use newer stock for the the more difficult stuff that you may have trouble recreating easily.

Best

eMJay
 
Depends on how well it was packaged.

If it was kept in like an area thats real warm with alot of moisture (say an attic crawlspace over the summer) then its probably useless.

However if it was a relatively dry cool space then maybe it'd be worth experimenting with a roll. Processing fees are pretty reasonable for Super 8.
 
versioncity1 said:
I discovered about 20 rolls of unopened s8mm film in a box the other day. Its way out of date. Is there any point in shooting with it?
I wouldn't use it for anything important but still i'd have to pay processing on it. Anyone have any experience of using old film stock.
What is the worst it could look like? Is it that the colour is just way off? (which i don't mind) or is it that i simply won't get any sort of exposure?

thanks
Click to expand...


I shot many of my first shorts on super 8mm and I guess I have two comments:

1. The stock might hold up, but it will definately affect the quality....
2. The quality of super is extremely poor, even in the best of conditions. I'd only go through the bother of shooting, developing, then transfering to tape/dvd if you had a specific project you wanted the old super 8 look for (say a music video). If you do, I'd go along w/those that say to shoot one roll first.

Best of luck,

john
 
thanks for replies.
As far as shooting anything it would just be abstract images, people etc, just for my own libary not any specific project; I wouldn't risk that.....
I thought I might get bits i could use in the future, textures, plates etc to go alongside other material.
EMJAY, from what you say i guess its worth shooting it off.
If I do I'll let you know the results.
 
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