Film Storage: To Process or Not Process

I had 15 year old color film developed just fine. Anecdotal, but evidence that 2-3 months is not long at all. My film was refrigerated for most, but not all of that time.

High temperature is a greater danger to color film than time, so store it as cold as possible.

And don’t stupidly overlook the effect of security procedures at the various airports you’ll go through, upon your return…

http://www.kodak.com/global/en/service/tib/tib5201.shtml

Isn`t Cairo the capital of Egypt? Isn`t there a quality lab to have print film processed?

Nowadays it is much harder to find E6 processing. Since I don`t like the hastle of going through airport security, I make it a rule to get my film processed before I board my plane home.

Stupid afterthought, John Perkins is based in Egypt and last logged in 4 days ago. Might want to chat with him about it.

There’s a lab here like I mentioned, it’s just not very good. Negs returned with finger prints all over, contacts sheets are shit, scans aren’t great etc. I worry about giving them more than a couple of rolls too at a time to process. I have a guy in NYC who does a perfect job and can turn around large amounts of film like it’s nothing, of course he’s more expensive.

The film is stored at room temp, so I’m not worried about that, but more so going back through the xrays again. The US airports are the only ones that still will hand check film, everyone else I’ve dealt with has refused. Is refrigerating the film going to lead to any humidity issues since it’s not in it’s packaging?

Film is really getting to be a pain in the ass isn’t it :)

Refrigeration is not a problem. Put them in a closed plastic bag, squeeze out as much air as possible. And after you take the bag out of the fridge. then it warm up to room temp before opening it, so the condensation takes place outside of the stupid bag.

The higher the film’s ISO, the more vulnerable it is to security scanning.

Brandon,

If I were you, I would try to hunt down a good quality lab in Cairo before you give up on getting your film processed. In the meantime, store your already exposed rolls in a ziplock bag in the fridge.

There is certainly an advantage of seeing your results well before you head home. Have you tried contacting John Perkins? You could post regarding a good lab in Cairo separately from this thread.

Fuji is the best we have, and probably one of the few that can do 120. Keep the film cool, really important here now it’s getting to 40 degrees. And get people to hand search at x-rays, just tell them it’s been x-rayed 11 times already, why should it get fried a 12th.

Might have to go the Fuji route just for processing.

You also want to keep your film cool before exposing also. Is there a way for to get a blue ice or two and an insulated basket, the kind you put your lunch in? I used to use one of those with a blue ice in to keep my film cool when I was shooting mostly in Maryland. The blue ice needs to be frozen so you need to ask your lodging to put it in their freezer.

Come to think of it, I used to ask my lodging in Austria please keep my film in the fridge when I did not have my blue ice in an insulated basket with me.