What do you say when someone laughs at you for using film?

[nikonr10]

Leica still has faith in 35mm film and have made a new Camera the MA which is based on the M3 and it's history ,
Never ever had that kind of problem with film be it 35mm or super 8 films that gone in to decay ? how did you store it ?

Never had the dried up mud puddle look on ANY of your films huh? How old are your films? The one I had which went that way that soon was a kodachrome from 1991 and by 1998 it already had mud puddle cracks. They really show up in the sky or any part that's overexposed, not so noticeable in darker areas. I had kept it on the plastic 50 foot reel with the round plastic cover, it's in a kitchen cabinet on the top shelf, close to a washing machine but not directly above it. There are 200 foot commercial films in cardboard boxes which I've kept with it that did not age like that! I'm still not certain if the cracks are on the Base or emulsion side, wondering if having it on such a small core reel hurt it or if I might have wound it up too tight on its reel one day?

My super 8 films are from the 90's and on! back then was kodachrome and 35mm B/w negs was also from the 90's and home cooked , Kodak have a good pdf on how to look after and store films etc ,
MY films from 2011 home cooked being B/W Reversal and E6 with lomo tank work's out so much more cheaper than lab prices ,some of these's film's have been sitting around in carts for a number of year's been from the mid 90/s B/W till I had the bucks for lab Process , which cost alot even back then also to find a lab near me that could do it , made the leap to DIY , Bleach was a real misson to find for my B/W ? took a long time , also waxing the film after process good trick to do , helps to lub the film's
Martin B talks about this and a lot more on homecooking ! alot one can learn from this wiseman , Now I have become a real DIY man it gets easy after awhile , the real hard part was Learning to load film in Lomo tank in a changeing bag , made big mistake's on the way , Now come's easy , have not got into loading my own super 8 films from bulk rolls as yet , maybe in time will do < love Film be it photographs / or my homemade / handmade films homecooked , nice when it's all yours from start to finish , Keep it Film .

[Angus]

Kodachrome turning to mud? What the heck did you do to it in order to achieve that?

In my experience, which is considerable but not vast, practically no film becomes unreadable.

I was given custody of my late grandfather's reg 8mm Kodachrome films in 1993. From his death in 1972 to that date they'd been stored in an attic, in their little plastic Kodak containers. At that point in time every one of them was perfectly preserved apart from a handful which had some "crazing" in the emultion. To be honest you barely noticed. Since then they have been stored in a cupboard, away from damp, heat etc. And they are every bit as good as in 1993. I have also inherited a large collection of slides & negatives from a great aunt. All the Kodachrome is like new (dated 50's to 90s). The Ektachrome is 90% as good as new. There is some PerutzChrome which has faded to pink but you can get perfectly good B&W prints from it if scanned/copied optically. All the plates, 120, 135 and 110 film shot by my late father from 1958-2008 survives in pretty much perfect condition as he looked after them. The same for every frame I have shot of still film (1977-) and the majority of my super 8 and reg 8 from 1986 onwards.

The only films that have deteriorated were stored *really* badly or handled really badly at some point. By which I mean left on a dusty floor, handled lots without gloves, wetted, abused and so on. Even then there's an image to retrieve, it might just need some retouching and converting from colour to B&W.

How you get film to turn to mud is beyond my understanding unless perhaps you microwave it or cook it in an oven.

[Will2]

In my experience, which is considerable but not vast, practically no film becomes unreadable.

A good friend who's also a colorist tells me all the time that almost no film is unusable... he's recovered decent images off of EXR 50 that's been left out in a garage in Texas for 20 years, shot and processed recently.

On Kodachrome, I'd agree too...it's practically bullet proof compared to any other stocks from the same time. I have a bunch of slides from the 50's in the same metal box that the Ektachrome slides or other off-brand ones are cracked and faded where the Kodachrome looks like it was shot yesterday, seriously. That's not to say that you couldn't destroy it on purpose or leave it in a hot, moist environment...

[slashmaster]

Kodachrome turning to mud? What the heck did you do to it in order to achieve that?

In my experience, which is considerable but not vast, practically no film becomes unreadable.


How you get film to turn to mud is beyond my understanding unless perhaps you microwave it or cook it in an oven.

I didn't say it turned to mud! I said that cracks formed in the film. The same pattern of cracks that you see in a dried up mud puddle. You can still play the film and see whats on it well but the cracks make it a lot less enjoyable to watch! Another way to describe it might be to say it looks like broken safety glass on a car window which is still intact. You know how the side and rear windows of a car could still be mostly in place after someone shot a bullet through it? Well thats what it kind of looks like... Hope that clears it up... By the way, I have a black and white Evel Knievel film where if you look real close you can see the very beginning of this problem starting to happen..

[nikonr10]

Kodachrome turning to mud? What the heck did you do to it in order to achieve that?

In my experience, which is considerable but not vast, practically no film becomes unreadable.


How you get film to turn to mud is beyond my understanding unless perhaps you microwave it or cook it in an oven.

I didn't say it turned to mud! I said that cracks formed in the film. The same pattern of cracks that you see in a dried up mud puddle. You can still play the film and see whats on it well but the cracks make it a lot less enjoyable to watch! Another way to describe it might be to say it looks like broken safety glass on a car window which is still intact. You know how the side and rear windows of a car could still be mostly in place after someone shot a bullet through it? Well thats what it kind of looks like... Hope that clears it up... By the way, I have a black and white Evel Knievel film where if you look real close you can see the very beginning of this problem starting to happen..

Sounds like your film has been badly stored which has caused this Reticulation from hot to cold back to hot , a kitchen is not a good place for film ?
Never in all my year had anything like this with super 8 or any other kind of film ? unless going for Reticulation effect , from hot to cold in dev stage ?

[BAC]

Maybe someone cleaned it with something they shouldn't have like rubbing alcohol. I have Kodachrome dating back to the 1930's and just about every year since and most of them still look fantastic. Kodachrome was an incredibly durable film. Improper storage like attics, garages and damp basements will do the most damage.

[slashmaster]

Sounds like your film has been badly stored which has caused this Reticulation from hot to cold back to hot , a kitchen is not a good place for film ?
Never in all my year had anything like this with super 8 or any other kind of film ? unless going for Reticulation effect , from hot to cold in dev stage ?

The kitchen always stayed about the same temperature, but you think a kitchen is bad for it anyway? It is away from the stove and sink, it is in a cabinet blocking almost 100% of any sunlight that might cause uv damage. I'm thinking what is more likely is I rewound the film by watching it backwards, therefore winding it back on its small cored reel with too much tension. It is a film I like to watch backwards.

[nikonr10]

Sounds like your film has been badly stored which has caused this Reticulation from hot to cold back to hot , a kitchen is not a good place for film ?
Never in all my year had anything like this with super 8 or any other kind of film ? unless going for Reticulation effect , from hot to cold in dev stage ?

The kitchen always stayed about the same temperature, but you think a kitchen is bad for it anyway? It is away from the stove and sink, it is in a cabinet blocking almost 100% of any sunlight that might cause uv damage. I'm thinking what is more likely is I rewound the film by watching it backwards, therefore winding it back on its small cored reel with too much tension. It is a film I like to watch backwards.

Have not seen your Kitchen so would not know how cold, warm, hot ,it get,fume"s from cooking etc cleaning chemicals, My Kitchen is old which means it get's very hot summer time and very cold in winter ! So would not keep any kind of film or photo chemicals there ? as it is also very small ,
check Kodaks PDF on how to look after film free download , if you follow these's simple rule's yours film's will out live you ?
Hope this help's ,

[Angus]

There's a tiny amount of crazing in a handful of the 200+ reels my grandfather left, and which were stored either in an attic or a garage from 1972-1993. That's twenty years of poor storage, fluctuating temperatures, dust, etc. For the most part those films look like they could have been shot last week. Kodachrome is practically bullet proof.

I also found an unprocessed Ilford FP4 B&W film in a cheapie Halina camera that he'd left. I froze it in 1993, eventually got it hand processed by professional film restorers in 2000 and it yielded 16 near perfect exposures which can be accurately dated to summer 1967 as some are of his son (my uncle) moving into a new house. Film really is nigh on indestructible unless seriously abused. Especially B&W film, and Kodachrome is effectively B&W film with the colour couplers added after in processing.

I don't know your kitchen nor your cooking habits but unless it's fully air conditioned I wouldn't store film in a kitchen. My kitchen is not air conditioned. The whole room heats up if I use the oven. I do a lot of "proper" cooking from scratch, spices give off fumes especially when roasted or fried. Anything fried gives off oil vapour which clings to any surface and requires cleaning. Even using the oven for meat gives off some fatty/oily vapour which recondenses on contact with any surface. The contents of cupboards is not immune. Just boiling or steaming vegetables gives off steam which will seep into cupboards. The mere act of boiling the kettle for tea or running the coffee percolator gives off steam....etc. Even washing dishes will give off water vapour.

YMMV. Maybe you have a large, air conditioned kitchen and rarely do any serious cooking. But as a general rule the kitchen isn't a good place to store film. In order for Kodachrome to do as you described it would need some pretty serious abuse. Another possibility is cleaning with inadvisable products such as alcohol solvents. That could unwittingly have damaged the emulsion.


PS. Shot two rolls of outdated B&W still film at my cousin's wedding on Saturday. Hand processed, scanned and photos up on Facebook on Monday. Now several of the wedding guests are asking how I achieved such beautiful B&W photos. Nobody is laughing at my 22 year old Nikon F601M and 40 year old flash gun....

[Angus]

In my experience, which is considerable but not vast, practically no film becomes unreadable.

A good friend who's also a colorist tells me all the time that almost no film is unusable... he's recovered decent images off of EXR 50 that's been left out in a garage in Texas for 20 years, shot and processed recently.

On Kodachrome, I'd agree too...it's practically bullet proof compared to any other stocks from the same time. I have a bunch of slides from the 50's in the same metal box that the Ektachrome slides or other off-brand ones are cracked and faded where the Kodachrome looks like it was shot yesterday, seriously. That's not to say that you couldn't destroy it on purpose or leave it in a hot, moist environment...

See my personal experience of Ilford FP4 exposed in a cheap camera in 1967, left in said camera in poor storage conditions until 1993...frozen from 1993-2000 and eventually processed yielding 16 excellent photographs.

My late great aunt left a huge stash of family photos....negatives and slides.....thousands of them. All the negatives are in good shape. All the Kodachrome slides are perfect. All the Ektachrome slides are near perfect. The PerutzChrome slides have faded to pink but yield very good B&W images if scanned or optically copied. Those slides all date from the 50s to the 90s.

[nikonr10]

There's a tiny amount of crazing in a handful of the 200+ reels my grandfather left, and which were stored either in an attic or a garage from 1972-1993. That's twenty years of poor storage, fluctuating temperatures, dust, etc. For the most part those films look like they could have been shot last week. Kodachrome is practically bullet proof.

I also found an unprocessed Ilford FP4 B&W film in a cheapie Halina camera that he'd left. I froze it in 1993, eventually got it hand processed by professional film restorers in 2000 and it yielded 16 near perfect exposures which can be accurately dated to summer 1967 as some are of his son (my uncle) moving into a new house. Film really is nigh on indestructible unless seriously abused. Especially B&W film, and Kodachrome is effectively B&W film with the colour couplers added after in processing.

I don't know your kitchen nor your cooking habits but unless it's fully air conditioned I wouldn't store film in a kitchen. My kitchen is not air conditioned. The whole room heats up if I use the oven. I do a lot of "proper" cooking from scratch, spices give off fumes especially when roasted or fried. Anything fried gives off oil vapour which clings to any surface and requires cleaning. Even using the oven for meat gives off some fatty/oily vapour which recondenses on contact with any surface. The contents of cupboards is not immune. Just boiling or steaming vegetables gives off steam which will seep into cupboards. The mere act of boiling the kettle for tea or running the coffee percolator gives off steam....etc. Even washing dishes will give off water vapour.

YMMV. Maybe you have a large, air conditioned kitchen and rarely do any serious cooking. But as a general rule the kitchen isn't a good place to store film. In order for Kodachrome to do as you described it would need some pretty serious abuse. Another possibility is cleaning with inadvisable products such as alcohol solvents. That could unwittingly have damaged the emulsion.


PS. Shot two rolls of outdated B&W still film at my cousin's wedding on Saturday. Hand processed, scanned and photos up on Facebook on Monday. Now several of the wedding guests are asking how I achieved such beautiful B&W photos. Nobody is laughing at my 22 year old Nikon F601M and 40 year old flash gun....

Hey Slashmaster maybe if's your cooking habit's ! ? Anyway just to let know that Kodak also make's a speical kind of tin to store film "s, to stop the film's going into "vinger Syndrome" live and learn each day , and there are around 25 bucks ?

[doug]

My daughter occasionally laughs, calling it 'stone age photography'. But most people just treat me as a harmless eccentric . Some are genuinely interested, though it can be a bit irritating when sometimes people insist on asking all about this strange wind-up camera, just when you are trying to get a shot. But on the plus side at least you know you don't have to worry getting your equipment nicked... unlike way back in cine's heyday.