What Happens When You Shoot Film That Expired in 1946?
“Expired film is always unpredictable,” says photographer and YouTuber Mathieu Stern, known for his “weird lens” videos. “But what happens when the film expired almost a century ago? Can you still get an image?” To find out, Stern shot with the oldest rolls of film he could get his hands on, including one from as far back as 1946.
In his video, shared by Fstoppers, Stern says that this experiment with expired film taught him “a lot about film photography” and was one of the “most exciting” photographic journeys he’s been on in a long time. And that’s really saying something.
Like many photographers who find themselves embarking on an expired film project, Stern started when he got his hands on some old, expired film that one of his subscribers found in an attic — not exactly optimal storage for film. Some of the film from the attic dates back to the 1940s and 1950s.
While there are rules of thumb for shooting with expired film, like overexposing by a stop for every decade the film is expired by, there is always an element of mystery. Sometimes it works great, and sometimes it is chaotic.
However, for Stern, the film wasn’t expired by 10, 20, or even 30 years, but by about 80. That’s a lot.
“Nobody could even tell me if it would work,” he says. “But that’s why I had to try.”
Armed with three rolls of film from the 1950s and one from 1946, Stern began shooting on his trusty Canon camera, using the lowest ISO setting possible on his camera to compensate for the film’s age.
He had the film hand-developed by expert technician Christophe at Nation Photo in France. After an hour of careful work on one of two very old color rolls of film, it was time to check the results.
And it was blank. Nothing.
“The disappointment was real,” Stern explains. “But I still had three more rolls.”
The other color roll was also completely blank, leaving two black-and-white films, including the oldest of them all from 1946.
The Kodak Super-XX from 1946 was also blank.
“I was devastated,” Stern admits. “Hours of shooting for nothing.”
The final roll, Kodak Super-XX that expired in 1956, was, thankfully, not entirely blank.
“After scanning, I could just barely make out a few faint frames,” the ambitious photographer says.
However, this adventure was not yet over. Stern refused to give up hope and decided he would develop the old rolls himself. What he found is incredible, as shown in his video above. There was something on the oldest roll of film, after all. Some frames had exposed very small amounts of light, despite the film’s age. However, the film’s gelatin, an essential ingredient in photographic film produced even today, which is made from animal bones, had broken down over the decades, appearing as black dots all over Stern’s faint photos.
Ultimately, while he had fun, he recommends highly against using expired film for anything important. Even film that is only expired by a few years can be tricky to work with and may be ruined altogether depending on how it was stored. For photos that must look good, new film or digital is the way to go. However, for those who enjoy a bit of gambling with their photography, expired film can be a rewarding (or devastating) way to take a chance.
Image credits: Mathieu Stern
