Tag: Experience Report

I think I have wasted enough money on expired 35mm films. The recent experience exposing an expired roll of Kodak GT 800-4 35mm film was disappointing. My [first time exposing a 35mm roll of Film Photography Project (FPP) RetroChrome 400] Color Slide Film was a couple of years ago using an Asahi Spotmaic II. At the time, I was relearning film photography, and I blamed myself and my camera for the crappy result. This time I know that the problem is not me. The problem is not my camera. It’s the film.

Ok, I admit that the decision to use this film is mine and that I did not carefully read the literature on the Film Photography Project website.

RetroChrome is government surplus High Speed Eastman Ektachrome color positive film/daylight balanced.

The film is cold-stored 2004 expired. The film performs excellent at its intended box speed of 400 iso which leads us to believe that this film has been stored in the “deep freeze” for the past decade.

Argh!!!!

I like the look of Kodak Ektachrome E100G, a roll of which I exposed for the first time a few years ago. I think I underexposed that first roll, but the results were still quite good. Ektachrome E100 is a color reversal camera film known for its beautiful color. Like most slide films, it has a super fine grain, rich saturated colour, and is excellent for daylight exposures.

On the other hand, the grainy, washed-out colours of FPP RetroChrome 400 with grey shadows devoid of detail was disappointing. I shot this film at box speed in bright daylight on a winter afternoon, but the frames appear as if they are underexposed. Had I known this, I would have maybe exposed set my XD-11 to expose at ISO 300 or 200.

It is not at all what I had expected. Furthermore, FPP RetroChrome 400 is expensive, almost as expensive as Ektachrome. I can understand that some people may like the look of FPP RetroChrome 400. I don’t know why?

I have made a decision. I will carefully read the notes for any 35mm film I purchase going forward. I will not buy any more expired 35mm films. I like predictable results.