How's Big's Your (Film) Stash?

I mentioned in a previous post that I have a bit of a film stash that I'm slowing working through, so I wanted to share some more details. I find it interesting to see what stock film photographers have on hand. I'm on the lower end of the scale I think, normally having around a dozen rolls of 35mm film in the fridge. However just as I was getting into medium format cameras, I purchased a bulk lot of medium format film when a local photography studio closed down. They had gone bust and an auction house was selling off pretty much everything.

Desks, books, computers, backdrops, projectors, cameras, scanners and much more. There were some nice Hasselblad 500c cameras up for grabs, but none went cheap. There were also a couple of Nikon Coolscan 9000's in the auction, which I was interested in, but seriously underestimated their value. Unfortunately they had bundled the two scanners together in one lot, and whilst I had hopes they might be sleepers, they went for about $1500 AUD (for the pair). Which looking back was probably a good deal with the prices they now fetch on eBay and the like.

All of the film stock was bundled together into one lot, and again I hoped it might fly under the radar. I ended up winning the lot, but it cost me a bit more that I originally hoped. Of most value were the boxes of Ilford FP4+, which made up most of the lot. All of the film had expired, but the Ilford was from 2004/5, so wasn't too bad. The rolls of C41 and E6 film were mostly from the 1980's and 90's, but a big unknown was how the film had been stored.

Film, Glorious Film

So I ended up with about 216 rolls at just under a dollar per roll. Now I had a more serious film stash, but still nowhere near the photographer who spend $100k+ to get the last batch of 8x10 Velvia 50 sheets. That's a serious film stash!

In amongst the lot were even a few rolls of Kodachrome from 1990.

Kodachrome 64 in 120 from 1990

Not sure what I'll do with them... or the other colour film as yet, but the full list included:

• 3 x Kodachrome 64
• 2 x Ektachrome 64
• 1 x Ektachrome 400
• 3 x Provia 400
• 1 x Kodak T400CN
• 1 x Portra 160
• 4 x Etkacolour Gold 400
• 5 x Konica Infared (35mm)
• 1 x Kodak Ektar 25 (35mm)
• 1 x Ilford XP2 400
• 194 x Ilford FP4

With 194 rolls of Ilford FP4+, you can see why I primarily shoot black and white medium format film. I sold a few boxes, gave away a few, but still have lots left. I've shot it at box speed, and also at ISO 64 with good results, so I can only assume that it was stored reasonably well at the studio. Just for fun I did shoot the Ektachrome 400 roll in the Minolta Autocord. The roll had expired in the 1980's and came out very thin and washed out. Some serious contrast boosting in Lightroom required just to get something resembling a normal image from it. I should have tried the Ektachrome 64 first, as lower ASA film is reported to age better. Below is a sample from the Ektachrome 400, as scanned, as well as after some quick adjustments (I didn't bother to dust and sport it). Its interesting that there is still some good detail in in.

Ektachrome 400 - As Scanned

With Contrast Boost, and Colour Adjustment

Converted to B&W