To Can or Not To Can?

[BAC]

I store my films, old and new, in metal tins that I put in metal storage boxes. I keep them in a climate controlled house (heat/ac) and I'm not at all worried about it. I find old home movies at estate sales that were stored this way for over 50 years that are in excellent condition. I have found a few that were curled or shrunk but I suspect that they were stored in a garage where they were exposed to heat, cold and changing humidity. I have never found any with VS. If I watch the films every now and then and clean them every 5 or 10 years I am confident they will last the rest of my life. If you are looking to store away films for decades then you may want to look into what the professional archives do with their films. That would require a temperature and humidity controlled vault.

[David M. Leugers]

Yes, that is the problem with cupping or curl. With twist the film will not lay flat but try to spiral over on itself, easily seen when the film is between two rewinds or going from the take-up reel back onto the feed reel. This causes problems such as getting the film to wind onto a reel properly or problems getting the film to feed through a projector if bad enough.

When we first get our films back from the lab, the film lays flat, is nice and pliable and is a joy to project. The goal is to keep it in that condition and does require effort on our part.