Shot my first roll of expired film from 1998, got way better results than the internet promised

Found a sealed roll of Fuji Superia 400 in my dad's old camera bag. The expiration date said 1998. Everyone online says expired film gets grainy and muddy, so I figured it'd be a wash. Loaded it into my Minolta X-700 anyway and shot a local car show down in Fayetteville last Saturday. Pushed it one stop to 800. The colors came out slightly warm and soft, but honestly the skin tones look better than anything I've shot on fresh stock this month. The grain is there but it reads as texture, not noise. Only messed up 2 frames out of 36 because the film was a bit sluggish in the advance mechanism. Anyone else find that expired slide film or negative film ages differently than the hype suggests? Or did I just get stupid lucky with storage conditions?

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1 Comment

nina1801mo ago

You're just lucky, most 25 year old film looks like trash no matter the hype.