How Long Does Exposed Undeveloped Slide Film Last ?

I would think so. I thought you were going to say 10+ years.

Why not give it a go?

Although it's not quite the same, Robert, I found this reference from the Smithsonian interesting: 100 year old film developed from Arctic Exhibition.

~Richard
http://www.reevephotos.com

I would think so too.

When I was a kid my dad shot a lot of slide film and would many times develop film several years old. I don't know for sure but would guess he wasn't all that particular about storing it.

When I've heard or read about old film being discovered and developed, it's always been old-old... really old... 20-30 years old. Film is in a lightproof container. The worst sources of degradation would be from extremes of temperature, but you say it's been at room temp the entire time. Let us know if you get it developed and printed :)

Thanks all. I'll get the film developed and let you know, when it returns.

I have to send it to a lab in Florida, and so my return on this won't be super fast.

A local lab that used to do this sort of developing finally went extinct a few years ago. I'm one of the last of the dying dinosaurs ... (^_^) ... and so I have to send film to a dinosaur-developing lab out of state.


Since we're on the subject of film extinction, dinosaurs, and digital evolution, what's a good, reasonably priced digital camera and lens? [Experienced photographers yawn]
Yeah, I'll Google it too, but just curious to see any spontaneous suggestions here.

I finally got the slide film developed, and, generally, where my exposures were decent, the film developed with no problems. About four of the shots were a total screw up, and, out of thirty-six shots, only two shots stood out as anywhere near worthy. I chose those two shots, cropped one, and did a little highlighting on the other. Here are small versions of the resulting images:

Aww so cute!

Thanks, Robert! Very cute.... the lighting on the second one makes it extra special :)

Film manufacturers take into account that some people only process once a year and leave it in the camera or a drawer for that loing. For film users that was about the average. for individual camera owners. I worked with a marine science organization and they processed their Kodachrome once a year when they got a donation just for that. A year is nothing. I would speculate that there would be some degradation over a number of years, but it is always worth a try to process it.

I like that first one, Robert. It's like the grass is framing those cute eyes.

For the first puppy picture posted earlier, I decided that the leaf at right, lower corner was a distraction, and so I cloned it out, which made too much space at bottom, and so I cropped off some to get what I think will be the final edit:



Also, after again looking over the developed slides, for which I also got large scans done, I decided that a couple more of the shots might be worthy. Here's one of an alien-looking flower that was growing wild out of a large drainage basin near me:



At the time, I had no idea what this flower was, but it looked so stunning that I had to try capturing it. I now think that it is called a Passion Flower, where the word, "passion" has a Christian religious connotation, not the more general connotation of that word.

WOW......great images Robert!

Yep

Passion flower.

Worked at a nursery for 3 months in the spring and we sold those plants for $24.95.

I refrigerate my slide film both before and after exposure, if it's going to be awhile. I generally batch up quite a bit before I do them.

we found some old film at my ,mother in laws house. not slide film but still... my husband was about 50 when we found it. he had not been born yet when the photos on the roll were taken. we had them developed and got some really neat prints from it.

It is truly amazing how long latent images can potentially last on film.

I have hundreds of old Kodachrome transparencies, handed down from the family, going back to the early 1950's. Fortunately, they were stored well, but it's truly amazing how well those images have held up. I've scanned some of them and they have a near 3-D quality. Colors have faded a bit, but can easily be adjusted digitally.