scubydoo.
the life of a film depends on how fast(like 800 or even 1600 speed) it is, the fastest the shorter its shelf life, the slower the longer its shelf life is. this is normally represented by the expiration date. for a film like reala the time from production to expiration is about 3 years depending. but dont worry this expiration date is a number set by the manufacture as a reccomendation, it doesnt mean one day after expiration it will go down hill. its that after that point they cant say that the colors will be accurate after that point in time( because the colors will shift, they will shift even while the film is still in date but not as much as they still will be in tolerance). I have had rolls about 2-3 years of there expo date that came out fine, only a little bit of color shift but that was correctable by the lab.
What i do is since i keep a high volume of film i store them all in a dorm fridge that is set to 32 degrees(it cant go any lower as if it did i would be there already) and only take out what i need for a day(then i let it slowly warm up to room temp over the course of a hour. as a result of this storage the colors stay the same as the day they were chilled. for example i have about 10 rolls of provia 100 that when i bought were about about a year from expiration as i was going on a trip to the east coast to shoot the cherry blossoms in washington DC where i used to live. well i had tested a roll to see what it would come out like and it was perfect, well then things changed and i couldnt go on the trip so i put the film in the freezer compartment of the fridge and left them there. well last fall(2+ years after the trip i planned on going on went south) i had a chance to go shoot some fall color and i was thinking about what film to take, and almost made a order then i remembered i had the provia in the freezer, so i pulled it out and used it and the color was exactly the same as the first roll. now this is a ideal situation that the film is stored in cool temps, but if there at room temp they should be fine but if they have been exposed to some high temps i would either down rate the film or just toss it as the shifts maybe outside of whats correctable.
i probably went information overload on you but if you have anymore questions feel free to ask
FWIW
Tooth
