For about 10 yrs I shot almost exclusively on Minox film format (8×11), cut from 35mm film bought spooled in cassettes of either 24 or 36 exp. Of course some 35mm and 120 photography occurred, but not on a regular scale; Minox was (and still is) a large part on why I remained faithful to film photography.
Around 2010 I had already a really substantial stash of 35 and 120 film, both rolled and bulk, various emulsions, purchased in batches over a couple of years or so. It was cheap (well, not so expensive as it is today in any case) and the consumption of that stock was slow, given that I cut only 4 or 8 rolls of Minox format, or shot a roll of 35 or 120 every now and then. Never cut Minox film from bulk rolls, rolled film was to be found, cheap and easy. Life was good.
A couple of years ago I fully went back to shooting 35mm (and some 120 thrown in), with some Minox rolls every now and then. Reason why I did that it is not to be discussed here. That sped up the lessening of my stock, which was good. Film was getting used, and I was all right with it. That is why I bought it in the first place, right?
You know what FIFO means? That’s right, first in first out. I forgot about this rule, although not completely. Some rolls from old stock got used, but not all because I wanted to try new films which I didn’t have, and so some of the old rolls remained unused. On top of that, a few bricks in my freezer are now too expensive to just shoot without a purpose (Agfa APX 25, Fuji Natura 1600, Portra 800, Velvia 50), so I keep these for really good projects. Still none in my plans, but who knows. Due to the cost of the rolled film, I start to cut Minox from bulk rolls. And so the time for film spring cleaning time came.
Took out all the old, expired rolls from my fridge: 17 rolls of Agfa Ortho 80, 6 rolls of Agfa Professional 160, 13 rolls of Ektar, 9 rolls of Agfa Copex, 3 bulk rolls of 30 metres each of Kodak Tri-X 400, 2 x 100ft each of Fuji SHR in 16mm format, 1 x 100 ft Kodak ImageLink, 2 rolls of Kodak Plus-X, 12 rolls of Agfapan 100, 4 rolls of Ilford Pan F50, some 7 rolls of Orwo NP21, 8 rolls of Ilford Delta 100, 8 rolls of Konica VX400 color, 1 x 100ft of Efke KB14 (1/2 of it still in), 2 x 100 ft rolls of Agfa APX 100, 1 x 100ft Ilford HP5, 2 rolls of Kodak Techpan, 8 rolls of Delta 400, 3 rolls of Rollei ATP 1.1, 9 rolls of 120 Agfa APX 400, 3 rolls of 120 Delta 100, 8 rolls of Ektachrome 100, and others. Yes, I am ashamed.
I even found 2 rolls of Acupan 800 (wth?) and 1 roll of Police Bluefire (surveillance film). Can’t even say that I remember how or when these got in my fridge; I mean I know I shot a lot of Plus-X 125 in the late 90s, but that was long time ago. I do nto even recall shooting or buying Acupan 800. Yeah, so you see what I mean. FIFO didn’t work for me at all.
Anyone hoarding film today?
Image courtesy to Image by Takkk – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikipedia Commons