I found several rolls of long expired Pro Max 100 film in my freezer a few days ago. These rolls are very old and when I last used film from this batch it showed severe signs of aging and spoilage. So I figured I'd run some tests to determine the best development time and strategy. If possible, I also wanted to push it a couple of stops to make it more suited for hand held work.

This image is Pro Max 100 pushed to ISO 400, stand processed in HC110, 1:75, 20C, for 90 minutes. The original film is soft, low contrast, and low grain. I boosted contrast in Photoshop and blended in a high pass layer to boost the grain a bit. (I like grain.) I think I have a passable exposure and development strategy for this film - now to burn it up and get rid of it!

One sign of the spoilage in this film is notable staining once developed. It appears in both stand processed and standard processed rolls - basically the stains are faint brown bands that are distinct in color from the developed emulsion and can cover half a frame to a couple frames on the film. So - not a film to be used with critical work, for sure.  On the bright side - the canisters this film is packed in are reusable so once it's used up that's more canisters for bulk loading plus more plastic cans.

Pentax ME Super and M 50 f1.7.