 BetterPhoto Member |
How long can film stay inside camera? I am using a very, very, very cheap regular camera (about 30 dollars) I have a roll of important film inside this camera. This film has stayed in this camera for 3 months already. The film is just the normal type of film that you can buy from supermarket. Do you think this roll of film have been damaged. If it is ok, how long can it stay there without problems?
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BetterPhotoJim.com - Jim Miotke  Contact Jim Miotke Jim Miotke's Gallery |
It depends upon how hot the conditions are around the camera and other issues. If the camera was kept in a relatively cool place, you should be fine. If it was kept in the car, it probably got too hot. There is only one way to tell - shoot the film and see how it turns out. If you are going out to shoot something really important, just chuck the roll. After all film is cheap - even cheaper than that camera of yours :^) This is exactly the kind of thing we explore in SnapShot and the Weekly Workshops.
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John A. Lind |
Jim is right, environmental conditions make a huge difference. Three months for a "consumer" film at room temperature and not in high humidity is nothing to worry about much. Two things can happen with film left in a camera for a very, very long time. (1) You can get a color shift. Which direction colors will shift depends on the specific film. (2) When you take a photograph, a "latent image" is on the film. Exposure to light causes a chemical reaction to occur in the film emulsion. Developing the film stops anything else from happening in this chemical reaction. Until that time, the minute crystals in the film emulsion that underwent chemical change when you took the photograph can migrate their chemical change to other nearby crystals. This can contribute to color shift if it migrates to another color layer. The image will begin to lose "sharpness" if it migrates to any nearby crystals in the same or different color layer. This degradation in the latent image takes a very long time; however high heat and humidity will speed it up (along with other possible damage to the emulsion).
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