Expired super8 film processing
The content of this website dates back to 1994-95. At that time, using old film material (films whose expiry date had passed) still gave decent and useful results.
But now it is the 21st century
Ektachrome 160 or Agfachrome were maybe 10 years out of date back then, but gave usable images. I used a lot of old film material myself at the time to learn from (art school), and I shared it on my website at the time.
As from 2023, I advise against buying, shooting and processing unused old film material. Just ignore unexposed old super8 film. Don’t bid on eBay, CataWiki or Marketplace. Here’s why.
Super8 was born in 1965 as a medium for everyone. The idea was that you exposed 1 film, had it developed at the manufacturer (Kodak, Agfa, Fuji) and then watched the end result with a movie projector. The film type was a reversal film, in photography called a slide film. After photochemical development, you had a visible positive image, and the colours matched the shots.
Shelf life
Reversal film has the disadvantage of not having a long shelf life. We should make a difference between black-and-white reversal film and colour reversal film. With unused black-and-white reversal film you can still take pictures 10 years after the expiry date. The images will have lower contrast but you can assume that the image is good. This is different with unused colour reversal film. Each brand (Kodak, Agfa, Fuji) is different and has different characteristics so we’ll leave that for now, but in general, colour reversal films already fail to deliver the quality compared to a new film 2 years after the expiry date. Let alone after 20 years.
If you would buy an old Ektachrome 160 (example), Agfa Moviechrome, Revue Superchrome or any other old super8 film that is in an unopened package, it is now more than 30 years old. And colour reversal films that old do not produce a usable image. They are just too old. Image quality depends on many factors and through this link you can see an example of a developed Agfa Moviechrome. The S8RL can develop these films, as long as you accept the risk and know that the result is very unexpected and sometimes very disappointing.
Why do we offer expired film processing
This development service is particularly aimed at people who have already found old exposed films ‘in the attic’ and are still curious about what, if anything, is on them.
Kodachrome
Do not buy and shoot Kodachrome. The Kodachrome development is exclusively done as black/white negative (in Canada only), because it is technically impossible to develop them in colour. The colour dyes for Kodachrome are worldwide no more available. You receive the film back as a digital file. Send your Kodachrome directly to Canada. Via this link you can view an example of a developed and digitized Kodachrome.
- All prices are for each super8 cartridge (50ft), for double8 or doublesuper8 rolls (33ft) and some single8 films.
- All prices are exclusive return sending and 21% VAT.