422 Meters of Frozen Gold: The Expired Ektachrome Heist Part I

422 Meters of Frozen Gold: The Expired Ektachrome Heist

It was a regular workday—might have been Monday or Tuesday, I don’t remember exactly—when three rolls of Ektachrome popped up in my saved search on eBay Kleinanzeigen. No price, no details. Was this a scam? It looked a bit like it, but as a film enthusiast, I just had to write to him. The seller actually replied, and I figured, why not have a call? Just to be sure.

The Discovery: Half a Kilometer of Rare Slide Film

As it turned out, he was selling two reels of Ektachrome E400 (expired in 2004) and one reel of 64T (expired in 2005). That is almost half a kilometer of rare slide film!

Here is the kicker: He claimed the rolls had been in his possession for 20 years and, even better, had been stored in the freezer for the entire period. (But there was a catch: no shipping, only personal pickup.

The Logistics: From Stuttgart to Berlin and Osnabrück

Since I personally don’t know how to respool film to 35mm reels, I instantly asked a colleague if he would be in. Luckily, he not only knows how to respool, he also has a neat Reflex Lab Auto Bulk Film Loader (I have no affiliation with them, it’s just a great tool).

Sounds too good to be true, right? Well, not yet. As I live in Osnabrück, the seller was near Stuttgart, and my buddy is in Berlin. It was quite an undertaking. After a lot of phone calls and begging, another film photography geek from Stuttgart picked them up and shipped them to Berlin.

Is it FPP Retrochrome? The First Inspection

My buddy in Berlin started respooling the E400 and discovered that the film’s emulsion side was yellow. This sounded familiar to me, as I was lucky enough to get some rolls of the last FPP Retrochrome batch.

Side note: I absolutely love that film! If you want to see why, check out my Portugal beach shots here.

The emulsion was yellow too. Was it actually the same film?

2kg of Adrenaline: 90 Rolls of Analog Joy

Two weeks later, a package arrived at my doorstep. Film—and lots of it. 2 kilos to be exact, or in other terms: 90 rolls with 33 shots each. Believe me when I say that it was quite the endorphin rush.

The film is definitely stiffer and more yellow than modern Kodak Ektachrome 100. In direct comparison, it looks and feels just like FPP Retrochrome. I instantly shoved a roll into my trusty Nikon F2.

The Test: Finding the Sweet Spot

To find out the ideal ISO of this batch—as we know with slide film, the "overexpose by one stop for each decade" rule hasn't been properly proven—I shot the scenes at ISO 400, 200, and 100. I metered everything with my Sekonic Flashmate L-308.

The roll is now at Urbanfilmlab in Kleve. I cannot wait to get the scans back and show you the results!

Stay Tuned for the Results!

Do you want to see how the 20-year-old frozen Ektachrome turned out? I’ll be sharing the scans here and on social media very soon.

• Follow me on Instagram to see the first frames.