Originally posted by ChrisPlatt Some do this with non-expired film as well.
Some films seem to need it. Lomography's 35mm colour films (the "normal" ones, not the funky weird toned stuff) tend to behave better when slowed down a stop. 800 in particular is operating on the ragged margin of its competence to start with. I'm beginning to suspect they deliberately overrate their films by a stop to put them on that ragged edge, so the user gets that horrific washed-out, underexposed look that Lomo people seem to enjoy pushing as cool. I sort of enjoy their existence because they're a rebellion against the line of thought that in order to take decent pictures, one must strap a kilogram of carefully crafted glass to the front of one's camera at a combined price halfway to five figures. That said, they do go a little too far the other way sometimes. I don't mind that seventies Kodak print look - I admit I get nostalgic for it because that's when I grew up - but it can get a little overdone sometimes. The days of those emulsions are over now, and I can only think with what envy the casual photographers of the 70s might look upon the glossy 6x4's today's film chemistry turns out.