Yes! You can Freeze your Film!

I recently went out to Port Stephens with my daughter Kassandra.  Our intent was to do some walking up Mount Tomaree where there are wonderful views of the Port Stephens area, Shoal Bay, Zenith Beach and across the Bay to Winda Woppa and Tea Gardens.  It's a beautiful spot and the walk can be a little challenging carrying a bag full of camera gear.

So, I decided to lighten the load a little and only took a film camera and 2 x rolls of Fuji Superia 100 colour film.

We arrived at Anna Bay but, because it was a beautiful day the place was packed up to the gunwales and there seriously was not a car park to be found anywhere.  We decided to drive on to Fingal Bay and see what that area had to offer.  Arriving at a lovely park with a great view 'Barry Park' on Pacific Drive we discovered that there was a walking track that followed the coastline south around Fingal Head.  This gave us great views of Fingal Bay and some of the smaller islands that lie off the coast from there.

The 2 rolls of Fuji Superia 100 were sorta special.   They had been gifted to me last year and, although the expiry year was 2005, they had been frozen since purchase.  The film was also stored in zip lock bags which had the air sucked out of them.  I was eager to get out and about and use the film to test just how successful it is to freeze your film.  I had read quite a few articles about freezing film and the tech reasons behind doing so.  Basically, freezing stops the emulsion on the film from degrading over time and keeps it fresh.  So, ignoring all of the rules about exposure values for expired film, I decided to shoot it at box speed.  Before loading the film I removed the lid off the canister and let it thaw out overnight.

My camera of choice for the day was a Pentax SFXn 35mm with a Sigma 28-80mm f3.5-5.6 Macro Zoom.  The lens gave me some leeway from wide angle with the ability to zoom should I need it.  As you will see, the Macro function also came in very handy with some of the flora that was found along the way.

The results speak for themselves here!  The film turned out wonderfully!  As can happen with expired film, there is no loss of colour, no ultra graininess, no age misting.  It appears that freezing the film has maintained its freshness over the years.  I have some more rolls ready to go to the lab and will drop them in next week; stay tuned!

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