Hey Guys,
I've read the Kodak website and some older posts regarding this topic but they didn't fully answer my questions and raised a couple of new ones.
Recently I have acquired some different 35mm and 16mm film stocks from a friend who saved a whole bunch of film from shows he had worked on and hasn't ever used. He never stored any of it in the fridge but put the rolls in an Esky (icebox) and put it in a dark cool dry cellar type of a room. We are from sunny Australia so summer temps can get up to the mid-high 30's sometimes 40s (degrees, celsius) or 85-105 Fahrenheit.
He gave me around 1500ft of 16mm 200T (7217) short ends ranging from 40ft-100ft each dating back to December 2006. I also got given a couple of factory sealed 400ft cans of 35mm (200T/5217, 250D/5205) a 50D(5201) recan as well as a recan and 300ft shortend of 16mm 250D(7205) all from march 2008.
I think I'm going to freeze all the sealed cans as I do not know when I will use it, probably not in the next 3 months anyway. I'm thinking all the march 08 stock should be ok. I have heard about how you shouldn't freeze or fridge short ends and re-cans because of condensation problems. What are your opinions and recommendations on this? Has anyone done this and had any problems? Should I freeze all the stock I got given?
Also on the note of freezing I read about putting them in ziplock bags before freezing. Do you just ziplock the can or do you go into your change tent and ziplock the black bag and re-seal the can? If the latter is the case I would assume you don't bother doing that for new sealed 400ft cans.
Now the 200T from December 2006 I wouldn't be surprised if it had some side effects, but what would I expect and how would I combat any issues when shooting? Overexposing slightly? I was thinking that before shooting I should maybe get a dip test of 1 of the rolls and maybe shoot a controlled test like a colour chart to see any effects. Any other suggestions?
Lastly, I heard that I need to allow adequate time to let it thaw out, ranging from 1-3 hours. If I took them out of the freezer a day or 2 before I was shooting would that be sufficient and not cause any problems? Anything different to allow for the shortends and recans? Any other things to be aware of for when I do need to do this?
One last question, is it bad to freeze film, thaw it out for the period of a shoot (a couple of days) and if you don't shoot it to re-freeze it?
Thanks in advance to any questions you can answer, I know there is a fair range of questions there and any information on any of the freezing process or any other information I should be made aware of will be greatly appreciated. I Look forward to hearing from you soon!
John.