I quickly discovered this morning why it would be easier to scan an entire roll of film vs scanning cut strips. Perhaps a silly question, but I’m curious how you all store a complete roll of film until you’re ready to digitize it? Since I don’t keep my scanning setup together at all times, I tend to wait until I have several rolls of film to do.
Thank you.
I hang them from my closet rails. They happen to be the right size to fit film clips.
Since I got the negative supply tools, my film gets scanned as soon as it’s dry, then cut and sleeved. scanning is so quick I’m almost always able to do it that way.
Recently I had two rolls of 35mm that I wasn’t able to scan for a couple weeks so I put them in plastic
bowls with a lid to keep them dust free.
Probably anywhere you can put them so they stay free of dust and scratches is the best.
Zip Lock bags. When the film dries I carefully roll it up, put it in a zip lock. I can easily and safely store a bunch of roles in a single gallon sized bag. You can also reuse the bags forever. I highly recommend you go with new clean bags because they have zero dust, dirt, etc.
Thank you, all, for the suggestions.
@mike_kukavica Since I don’t have my scanning rig set up all the time, as much as I’d like to handle the film like you, I don’t think it’s practical for me.
@Marty I really like your idea of the Zip Lock bags. I will definitely give that a try and see how I get on with it.
Everybody stay safe and have a great holiday!
Lineco Polyguard Continuous Film Sleeving Roll (35mm, 3 Mil, 1000’) is the same stuff pro labs use. It’s available from B&H and other fine dealers.
Alternatively, Nega-Files (glassine envelopes) are available for 6-frame strips. You can cut your film in strips of 4-6 frames each and use one envelope for a roll of 36. I have most of my film stored in these, some of which is 50 years old and still in great shape.
Users of the EFH (Essential Film Holder) need a minimum strip length of four frames of 35mm. For newly processed film, the roll sleeving makes sense. Cutting the roll into two 18-frame strips for the EFH makes it more wieldy. But six-frame strips are easier to clean…
I let them loosely curl around standing up on their edge inside an cardboard a4 portfolio box.
I bought my boxes cheap from my uni as they are acid-free archive quality and only cost a few quid I think.
I just got this to store dust-free without cutting:
It’s from a decent German brand (hünersdorff) and “ECO(???)” polypropylene, which if I remember well is the same as some sleeves are made from. Not sure if it’s chemically inert enough for 50 years, but for now it works great. This one has 24 fixed separations of 53x53 mm at 46 mm high. I suppose one could have fewer separations so the rolls can be larger, but this seems perfectly okay, at least for me.
The worst thing you will deal with in 50 years is film curl! I have some negatives stored in 100’ film cans back in 1968-70. They are all very curled and brittle.
If I had my choice, I would go back in time and put them in Negafile envelopes like the rest of my film from my teens through my thirties. All of those are pristine.
Bottom line, it works best to scan or macro photograph FLAT film.
Thanks Burkphoto, I’ll keep that in mind. I suppose I could eventually cut and sleeve them for longer term storage since indeed my childhood pics are stored like that and appear fine after decades, but as long as I’m generating film shots again and in scanning mode, the boxes are easier to work out off.
