How long will film negatives last in a box in garage?

4 years 10 months ago #647599 by Jeff Scott
I just realized that I have 2 boxes of old film negatives that my parents gave me a few years ago sitting in my garage somewhere.  I completely forgot that they were in there as my parents sent me home with a number of boxes including different items from my childhood.  

I'll likely look at converting these to digital, speaking of which, any recommendations?

But back to the title, how long will these negatives be good for in a sometimes very hot garage?  


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4 years 10 months ago #647603 by Nikon Shooter
Heat and time are the worst enemy of emulsions. There
are some perverted points where film conditions and sub-
jects are meeting for surprising results… but that is rare!

Don't be shy to use them, Jeff, but stay cool!

Light is free… capturing it is not!
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4 years 10 months ago #647670 by MYoung

Jeff Scott wrote: I just realized that I have 2 boxes of old film negatives that my parents gave me a few years ago sitting in my garage somewhere.  I completely forgot that they were in there as my parents sent me home with a number of boxes including different items from my childhood.  

I'll likely look at converting these to digital, speaking of which, any recommendations?

But back to the title, how long will these negatives be good for in a sometimes very hot garage?  


You'll want something like Wolverine Titan.  That's the one we use, it's fast, small and was ranked highest.  


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4 years 10 months ago #647725 by Dan Spade

Jeff Scott wrote: I just realized that I have 2 boxes of old film negatives that my parents gave me a few years ago sitting in my garage somewhere.  I completely forgot that they were in there as my parents sent me home with a number of boxes including different items from my childhood.  

I'll likely look at converting these to digital, speaking of which, any recommendations?

But back to the title, how long will these negatives be good for in a sometimes very hot garage?  


Hey Jeff, I just sent you a PM.  If you are interested let me know, I bought one and no longer need mine.  


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4 years 10 months ago #647737 by icepics
You better look at the negatives first! Of course if needed restoration could be done.

Depends on the condition when left in the garage, and yes the heat can damage the emulsion. How much? get them out and look at them. B&W can last indefinitely but color can shift.

Go through them and see which look the most worthwhile to start with. I use a small lightbox but you can just hold them up to a lamp, in front of the shade, to see them. You could scan them or have them scanned and try making adjustments to the digital copies.

If some are significant enough to restore but beyond what you can adjust yourself you could look up Film Rescue International and see what services they offer. Or any type art restoration company might be an option.

Sharon
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4 years 10 months ago #647744 by Alex
:agree:  good answer on the negatives.  Personally I would move them indoors to a closet or something.  

Regarding converting them, I just finished filming a "how-to" video a few weeks ago on the Wolverine F2D Titan.  This will be going live soon.  In short it's a breeze.  The engineer peeps with Wolverine made this thing to be crazy simple to operate, not to mention it's fast at converting film to digital. 

And it's small! 

Make: NIKON CORPORATION
Model: NIKON Z 7
Lens: 70.0-200.0 mm f/2.8
ISO: 160
Aperture: f/2.8
Shutter speed: 1/25 sec
Captured: Tue, 11 Jun 2019 22:32pm


Make: NIKON CORPORATION
Model: NIKON Z 7
Lens: 70.0-200.0 mm f/2.8
ISO: 160
Aperture: f/2.8
Shutter speed: 1/40 sec
Captured: Tue, 11 Jun 2019 22:33pm

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4 years 10 months ago #647751 by Alex

Thank you for making PhotographyTalk.com your photography community of choice.
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4 years 10 months ago #647773 by Gammill
After you are done with your negatives, you can work on my couple boxes :rofl:   I have been meaning to do the same for a number of years.  I get the bi annual reminder from my wife.  :whistle:


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4 years 10 months ago #647784 by Richard K Photography
Good little unit, huge time saver.  Some of these things are slow to scan, which can make an all day process for little gains.  At least that is what I perceived from my research.  


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4 years 10 months ago #647911 by Jeff Scott
Oh this is perfect, thank you.  Is this something you need to feed or is there a way to set it and forget it till done? 


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4 years 10 months ago #648029 by Jeff Scott
Found my answer, thanks again everyone!  


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