[Huss]

I just bought a Pentax Auto 110 and it came with a stash of Fuji Superia 110 film. Dated 2006 but claimed to be frozen.
I actually was more excited about the film.

However... there seems to be a problem with it. The first cartridge would not advance in the Pentax - it was very tight and then suddenly the Pentax free wheeled. The advance lever would turn, but the film did not move. The Pentax was fine, as other brand films still work fine in it.
When I examined the problem cartridge I noticed that some of the teeth in the gear had sheared off. I figured this was a one-off, put the film in my Rollei A110 where it advanced - very roughly - until exposure #10 where it locked up.
Took that film out, camera is fine.

So.... I took another Fuji cartridge from this batch and loaded it into the Pentax. Film advance lever super tight again and this time I did not go any further as I did not want to risk damaging the camera. Took the film out and put it into the Rollei. Would not budge. Did not want to risk damage so took it out.

What are the chances that this whole batch has some sort of mfg flaw that it will not work in these cameras? I don't really want to open any more of the boxes (18 unopened, 19 total left) just to find more of the same.

Both these cameras work fine with Lomo films, and Fukkatsu.

[Fogel70]

It sounds like the film was damages in the freezer or during taking it out of the freezer.

[kypfer]

You seem to have made sufficient diagnosis to determine the film cartridges are likely to be faulty. Maybe 15 years in the freezer has caused degradation of the plastic gear, else, possibly more likely, the film itself has taken on so much of a "set" that the very act of unwinding it is too much strain on the mechanism, or even that the film has stuck to the paper backing … I've known very old 120-roll film do this.
With nothing else to lose, I'd try simply leaving a film cartridge in a warm (not hot) place for a day or two to see if it "loosens up". Disassembly of one of the failed cartridges may also reveal the problem.
I remember having some 100ft cans of very out-of-date b&w 35mm film stock with a very tight "set" from long storage, an absolute pain to reload into a 35mm cartridge, but the "soft yet grainy" results were unlike anything else

[Bob 256]

You could examine and take apart the sacrificial carts which failed and maybe learn something about the failure mechanism. The only way to know if more are affected is to try them. It could well be a lubricant issue and that long in the frig may have dried out the solvent or lubricant itself. Unfortunately if this is the case, there's no convenient way of replacing it without involved darkroom work. It's possible however, that you can use a tool to loosen the cart issue prior to putting them in the camera if you know what to do, hence the examination of what is the cause.

Just my two cents. Good luck,

[Huss]

Thanks for the comments. This is a little unusual as I have used film that was frozen much longer with no ill effects, but it was not 110.. (120, 220, 35mm).
All the film is still sealed in its foil wrappers, but it seems that this was not enough. I will try to break it free before I load the next cassette, but seeing the stripped teeth on the film gear with the last roll, this may be a little problematic!

[Wheatfield]

Most likely, the film was thawed a few times and now the paper backing and film have become one with each other.

[Huss]

So the second cartridge was a failure too.. I tried to break free the film before loading it, but unfortunately broke some teeth off again. Even though it was maybe a third of a tooth on the three teeth that I damaged, it was enough to prevent the film from loading. 2 films trashed, 18 left....
The third one - also stuck, But this time I was much much more careful and managed to break the film free from whatever was binding up. It loaded, advanced and shot through the Pentax with zero issues, and is now getting developed. I am actually very interested to see how it will come out seeing it is Fuji Superia, that is from 2006..

I also took apart the roll that just failed to see if I could figure out what was amiss. The film and the backing paper were not stuck together. At all. Looked perfect. So somehow something was sticking between the film/backing paper and the spool side that it was in. I was hoping to see some tell tale signs on the inner plastic of the container but there were none. The gear/sprocket end was fine because it rotated freely backwards and then forwards before the slack was used up.

Anyway, the Pentax Auto110 really is fun to shoot so I'm going to be using it a lot more.

[Huss]

Pentax Auto110, 24mm 2.8, Fuji Superia 200 expired 2006.
No issues with the film apart from it needing to be unjammed before use!

It is such a bummer this film has been long discontinued as it is quite a bit sharper than Lomo Tiger, and I find the colours a little nicer.