I am not a huge fan of expired film, but when it comes to 828 format, there is no other option…

828 is the same width as 35mm, but does not have the sprocket holes. It uses more traditional backing paper and wound around a metal spool like 127 and 120. Due to this backing paper and the tiny spools you only get 8 frames per roll.

With the purchase earlier this year of a 1938 Kodak Bantam f4.5, I had two options - find some old backing paper and attempt the tricky process of re-rolling some fresh 35mm film onto it, or buy a very expired roll. 828 stopped being produced in the 1980’s so original rolls will be at least forty years old!

With the search for old backing paper not being fruitful, I searched good old eBay for some 828, and found a roll of Ilford FP3 that expired in March 1963!

The roll cost £11, and as black & white film does tend to age better than colour, it was worth a shot. The roll was still sealed in it’s foil wrapper, but storage was unknown. This has to be the oldest film I have shot, so had no idea how it would turn out. If you use the rule of one stop per decade for expired film, I would have to shoot at 1 ISO! I think I metered at 50.

The first frame on the roll was not great, but above is the second and it turned out quite well considering the age of the film. It proves the Bantam works properly, and has a very authentic vintage look. Some photographers online add that vintage look to their digital images, but this is the real deal!

To be honest I have had worse aging from much newer film. Maybe as it is an Ilford product, or maybe how it was stored but I am very pleased.

By no stretch of the imagination was the whole roll a success but there are a few out of the eight frames that worked out well - obviously I will only show the good ones!

I have shot this barn on many occasions as it is only a few minutes walk from home, but I still really like the composition. It does work best in summer though with the field full of crops, and the morning light from the left hand side. In the afternoon the barn is backlit which does give a nice silhouette, but mornings are my favourite time.

I imagine the damage on this frame is down to age, after all, the best before date was 63 years ago! This only happened once - strange as there are no sprocket holes to rip and I didn’t notice anything untoward when shooting. A shame, but these things happen in film photography.

I purposely shot most of the frames in strong sunlight, but it did handle the shady woodland very well - in fact the age spots are less noticeable with the dark shadows than in open landscapes.

I didn’t know what to expect from the FP3, but it far exceeded my hopes. The little Bantam was a joy to use too which always helps.

In terms of expired film, maybe I am too harsh on it but this experience makes me more likely to use old black & white for sure. It does give a look that modern fresh film doesn’t.

I did get the backing paper back from the lab when they developed the FP3 in case in the future I fancy rolling some fresh FP4 onto it. That would give an interesting comparison for fresh versus expired.

828 film expired in 1963!

The Ricoh 999 is not a myth…