5 Frames of expired CineStill 800T with a Leica M4 and 7Artisans 35mm f/2.0

The film photographer’s life is full of silly mistakes. Some big, some small, and some… unforgivable. For example, tidying up my fridge, I realized that I let two rolls of glorious CineStill 800T expire. And I am not talking about a few months, either. These rolls expired SIX YEARS AGO in December 2017. I’m an optimist by nature, so rather than throwing them away, I decided to shoot them and do some experimenting.

A quick search on the Internet confirmed I was the only chump in a similar predicament. However, I found several fellows who succeeded in developing recently expired CineStill simply by overexposing one or two stops. Since my film has always been stored refrigerated at 4°C, I thought I still had a chance. So, I loaded one of the rolls in my trusty Leica M4 and set out on a chilly winter night to atone for my sins. I attached the M4 to a Manfrotto mini-tripod and to a shutter release cable. The lens I used was a 7Artisans 35mm f/2.0 (which, by the way, is the best bang-for-buck lens I’ve ever owned).

Beautiful Christmas lights were still shining downtown and I figured they would be the perfect subject matter for the CineStill film, which renders bright lights and neon in a unique way. I overexposed all images by 2 stops: this translated to an average exposure of 1/15 – 1/30 of a second at f/2.8. Shooting handheld with a Leica M body paired with a 35mm lens at low shutter speeds is not an issue; using the tripod as a handle offered extra stability whenever needed. I shot all 36 exposures on the same night, and then developed the roll in C-41 without any additional push. I am quite happy about the results: below you can see some of my favorite images. Fair warning: I hope you like grain, because you’re going to see a lot of it.

And there you have it, proof that a (refrigerated) 6-years old CineStill 800T roll can still deliver. I can’t wait to shoot its sibling and see if I get similar, or better, results.

Thank you for reading. Please visit and follow me on Instagram (@brickwahl_photo).
Stay safe and keep shooting!

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