A few years ago I took an inventory of all the film I had and created an Excel spreadsheet so I would know how much film I had, of what type, and how old it was. Over time the data began to slip when I forgot to update the inventory upon shooting a rol or acquiring more. I’ve been meaning to update it for a while now, and today was the day.
It turns out I have a lot of film. One hundred and sixty eight rolls (or, in the case of 4×5, boxes) to be exact. And I have fifteen more rolls heading my way next week! This has been acquired since I started predominantly shooting film again around 2016. I bought a bit here, a bit there, but clearly at a greater rate than I manage to use it.
The breakdown is as follows:
- 45 rolls / boxes of black and white film
- 88 rolls / boxes of colour negative film
- 35 rolls of colour reversal film
The breakdown by format is:
- 35mm – 86 rolls
- Medium format – 78 rolls
- 4×5 – 4 boxes – apart from one these are not full ( a couple of them only have 6 sheets remaining)
The majority of the film in the stash is also expired. a few rolls are several decades old, but most is quite recently expired and, as it’s been refrigerated or frozen, should be perfectly fine to use still, although I am conscious of the fact that it ain’t getting any fresher either!
The breakdown of expiry by decade is:
- 1970s – 2 rolls
- 1980s – 5 rolls
- 1990s – 9 rolls
- 2000s – 24 rolls
- 2010s – 19 rolls
- 2020s – 76 rolls
- Unknown expiry – 7 rolls
- In date – 26 rolls
What this exercise tells me, is that I ought to stop buying any more film and shoot what I have. To be fair on myself, this is what I’ve been doing but, unless I start using a motor drive, it’s a slow process and likely to be curtailed sometimes when I need to buy film that I use often (such as 400asa black and white like HP5+ or Tri-X) or, thankfully less frequently, when I see a deal on film that is worth taking advantage of (as is the case with the 15 rolls I have coming soon).
But the stuff I already have, well I need to start making a better effort to go and shoot it, particularly in the case of the much older stuff (some more Expiriment posts, perhaps?), but also with the stuff that I perhaps hold onto because I see it as precious, maybe because it is no longer in production, or perhaps because it is expensive. I have a tendency to hold onto this film while I wait for the perfect conditions to shoot it, conditions which rarely occur. While I don’t want to waste film on throwaway photography, I do need to be less prescriptive on where and when I will shoot film that is getting longer and longer in the tooth.
I’m fortunate to have acquired such a stash – I could shoot a roll a week for over three years and not run out – but I really want to see it reduce somewhat. Maybe I’ll gift a few rolls as Christmas presents, but what I really need to do is get out and shoot some of it!
