Does developed film degrade?
After a bit of time, and stored in imperfect conditions, the images begin to fade, discolor, and generally warp. Things like mold, dirt, sunlight, and oils can slowly break down the images, making them basically worthless in around half a century.
A roll of film usually has an expiration date of two years after the date of manufacture. But it's more of a guideline than an exact date. A film's decline will be gradual, so don't be quick to throw them out. Film is made up of thin strips of plastic coated with a chemical emulsion.
They also develop formats that other retail stores won't. In that sense, it's good. However, CVS is not the best choice if you're looking for professional results or high-quality prints and scans. Most importantly, CVS is not the place to go if you want to hold on to your negatives.
Once the film is processed, it is then referred to as a negative. The negative may now be printed; the negative is placed in an enlarger and projected onto a sheet of photographic paper. Many different techniques can be used during the enlargement process.
All 35mm and 120 film has an expiration date. This is because the chemicals in the film start to degrade over time, and change the coatings that were originally put on the film.
There are plenty of people who have gotten quality photos developed up to 10 years after the “expiration” date, you may just notice some of the effects described in the previous paragraph: grainy, foggy, low contrast, skewed colors, etc. Don't fear though, as we'll touch on later, some people might want this effect!
It is rare to have a film more than 30 years old render decent color by accelerating or processing direct to color. Expect highly distressed color images (or nothing). The cooler your film was kept over time, the more likely you are to get good color.
While many airports' X-ray machines aren't strong enough to cause damage to film with one pass, the damaging effect is cumulative, meaning that if you're going to go through multiple airports, you could end up with foggy film by the end of your trip.
So, there's no problem when using expired film and the only thing you have to take into consideration is that you'll need more light than stated. A general rule is to shoot the film one stop slower than box speed for every ten years past the printed expiration date.
This is the biggest problem with developing your film at a retail store. Walgreens won't include the negatives when they deliver your order. This may not be an issue for some people and may be overturned by the price and convenience, but it's a big no-no if you're a photography lover or professional.
Does Walmart develop film good?
Unfortunately, film developing services have more cons than pros. If you don't care about the negatives or doing high-quality photo printing, then Walmart can be a good choice. They have many locations, and the prices are pretty affordable.
Common feedback with our social media poll also reported poor quality and the long turnaround, but Walmart has the best price for developing film (as low as $7.95), but everyone could've already guessed that. Something to be mindful of when using Walmart for film developing is that it doesn't return film.
Yes. Old film doesn't go bad all at once – colors shift, contrast fades away, and fog builds up. Old film (~10+ years past the process date) will have faded, skewing towards magenta.
Our general rule of thumb is that anything under 10 years is pretty good. You will see some minor color shifts, your blacks will start to turn blue, maybe some indoor shots taken without a flash will be too dark, and so on. 10-20 years will see some noticeable deterioration.
It depends how far past the expiry it is, and how it's been stored. Different types of developers also degrade at different rates. Some developers will work just fine for years after their expiry date, others may be completely useless after a few months. The first noticeable difference would be in the development time.
You can keep exposed, unprocessed film in a refrigerator for a few days when necessary. Put the film in a sealed container, and allow the unopened container to reach room temperature before removing the film for processing.