Portra 160 question!

My Kal

My Kal

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Michael.
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I bought 5 rolls of this maybe a year ago and never got around to using it. Foolishly, I've lost the box they came in and there's no date on the rolls.
Roughly, what would the life usually be on them when new?
 
Several years usually
 
It'll depend on where you bought them - ebay sellers often have stock that's on or past the use-by date while 'name' stores tend to hold stock with a longer life, though they'll also offer deals on stock that's closer to the date.

Shoot one roll at box speed and see how you get on :)
 
Thanks for that.
I'm pretty sure I got them from AG Photographic, when I had some film processed.

Any advice on speed with the Portra? I've just read somewhere it tends to overexpose at box speed. Never used it before, but looking forward to it!
 
Portra 160's only been on the market since 2011 so they won't be that old - the dates on them are only advisory anyway, it not like they hit that date and then completely go downhill. Just shoot it at box speed (although play around if you want as Portra 160 exposes with exceptional quality from +3 stops to -2 stops so i.e ISO 20 to 640 with normal developing) and see what comes out, there's probably a 99% chance there'll be no quality loss.

Sam
 
Portra does indeed have very good latitude. I, and I'm sure many others on here, go by the unwritten convention that portra 160 is in most cases best shot at ISO100. I personally go by this because portra appears in my experience to loose the shadows before the highligts, so this just evens it out a little.
 
Interesting... I'm shooting Portra 160 at the mo, and have been thinking the resulting images are a little on the pastel side. Maybe if I drop to ISO 100 they'll perk up a bit?
 
Providing the meter(ing) is accurate, it could be worth taking a few identical frames at 160 and 100 and seeing the difference?
 
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