Shooting Expired Konica Impresa 50 Pro

Shooting Expired Konica Impresa 50 Pro

Published by Dave Roberts on  February 24, 2023 under Film Photography Tips and Tutorials and tagged Expired Film, Konica, Konica Impresa

I’d never heard of Konica Impresa 50 Professional, but when I had the opportunity to buy a few bricks of this at £5 a roll who was I to argue. The bag of oven chips had to make way for 20 rolls of this exotic film and of course I had a roll in a camera and shooting almost immediately.  I always try and take a measured gamble with expired film and usually try and buy a batch so at least I get an indication how those rolls will shoot. Of course that’s no guarantee, but it does even the odds in my favour a little.

Further research on this film stock revealed that it was extremely high grain and rendered balanced as opposed to saturated colours with some comparing it to Fujifilm Reala. The slow speed was also a challenge, so good light would be needed which isn’t something the mountains of Eryri / Snowdonia are known for.

I’m going to share the results, despite only having shot the single roll as I think there’s so little information on this film online that even with just one roll this post will be useful. I’ve included all the shots from the roll, even though there’s one I’d delete and a chunk of the other rolls are very similar.

It will be even more useful as I update this post in time, adding more photos as I go – another 19 rolls worth !

How did I shoot the Konica Impresa 50 Pro

I decided to shoot a test roll in my Zenza Bronica ETRSi and as the stock had been cold stored I decided to shoot this at box speed despite being expired so long. I didn’t want the film to be too slow as I didn’t think the conditions were ideal to shoot any slower than 50 anyway. I’m going to try the next roll at EI25, especially with the better light in spring and summer.

The roll was professionally developed at Traia Labs in London and scanned at high resolution

How did the Konica Impresa 50 Pro turn out?

A few of these shots came out really well considering the age of the film, and that my shooting was rather lax as it was a test roll. Who can resist taking loads of shots of the crepuscular rays, hoping to just get the one shot! Despite not being saturated, the greens in the hills above have rendered nicely, contrasting with the browner hills in the distance.

I’ve seen some examples online and most that I could find emphasised the ‘expired’ look of this film. While I’ve no idea what the results from the fresh film looked like, I can’t see much indication that this was even expired. 

It may only be a test roll, but I’m going to have to defrost a few of these and get more shots taken with the Konica Impresa 50 Pro over the spring. when I think it’ll really shine.

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