I definitely have an eBay problem.
Ever since getting back my first expired Polaroid film scans, I started chasing that nostalgic feeling. Or maybe I just got bored of the predictable nature of fresh stock.
When I came across a pack of Kodak Ektachrome P1600X, I knew I had to snatch it right away. It was coming from England, had been expired since 2001. I haven't loved slide film (i.e. Kodak Ektachrome E100) so far - it has very little latitude and tends to not come out the way I would like it to. However, I was ready to give this one a shot - I love fast film.
Tech Specs:
In the same spirit as Kodak Tmax P3200, which is really an ISO 800-1000 film meant to be pushed to ISO 3200, Ektachrome P1600 is an ISO 400 film with an effective speed of EI (exposure index) 1600. You can see this through the complicated label on the film canister below. Shooting at ISO 800 would be equivalent to pushing one stop, ISO 1600 to two stops, and so on.
I found this particularly interesting. From experience, the only slide film on the market with low ISOs (<100) has very little latitude, which means it does not tolerate exposure differences well (which is actually a strength of color negatives). Meter perfectly or die. On top of all that, it experiences color shifts rather easily, and one would normally never push/pull it.
Another fun fact I learned from browsing Reddit:
Fast films like [Ektachrome P1600] fog from environmental radiation like cosmic rays from space and the atmosphere. These pass right through refrigerators, and the effects accumulate with time. When new, these films needed to be aged for a year or so before sale. Kodak stored them deep underground in salt mines.
Pretty neat.
The Debate:
So the real question becomes: how do I actually shoot this? Labeled on the box is the date 05/2001, so these things have been expired for over two decades. Even worse, I had no idea how it has been stored. Fast speed film typically does not age well, and there is the added challenge of expired slides in general. As usual, I went on the internet for strangers' advice.
It was overwhelming. Lots of opinions from different sources. Some mentioned that the overexpose-one-stop-per-decade rule does not really apply to slide film. Some recommended to shoot at box speed and pull a lot. Some said to try cross-processing. Anyway, there was a lot of heat and the sentiment leaned pessimistic. It sounded like no one was prepared for how these could come out.
I brought all the above to my lab. The manager, kind and helpful as ever, explained to me that the reason behind pulling expired slide film is to lend it a darker base, which may have degraded overtime, adding contrast. I was told to try bracketing at different ISOs, and pull by half a stop in development. So the test roll I shot ranged from ISO 200-1600, and I asked the lab to develop at ISO 1000 (a pretty outlandish request which definitely earned me a side-eye).
The Results:
I was not disappointed again! The photos came out beautifully, and in some shots I observed a faded magenta hue that made them dreamy as ever. It would seem that the best shots are from ISO 400, but again, pretty much all photos were usable/discernible, which seems to back my theory that with age comes increased latitude in transparency film. Enjoy!
