Film Stock Preservation and Temperature

Mackay Valentine · November 7, 2007

Hi, I recently was given 7000+ feet of Kodak 5218 short-ends that have been in a friend of mine?s closet for over a year. The closet is relatively cool year-round, probably never reaching above 70º, but I?ve heard that film stocks should be refriderated if kept for long periods of time. Will not refridgerating this stock have any adverse effects? Or will they be okay?

Nick Mulder · November 7, 2007

you can get color shift.

Best to get a bit of it 'snip' or 'wedge' tested at a lab - it doesn't cost an arm and a leg ... ask them to explain the results ;)

Dan Goulder · November 7, 2007

Hi, I recently was given 7000+ feet of Kodak 5218 short-ends that have been in a friend of mine?s closet for over a year. The closet is relatively cool year-round, probably never reaching above 70º, but I?ve heard that film stocks should be refriderated if kept for long periods of time. Will not refridgerating this stock have any adverse effects? Or will they be okay?

The people who sell film will tell you it's probably too old. This may or may not be true. If you get a chance to try out some of this stock, please share the results with us, as many of us do end up with excess stock which is stored under similar circumstances, always wondering when exactly that stock will cross the threshold of usability...

K Borowski · November 8, 2007

I don't have the applicable link to the Kodak website, as John Pytlak would have, but there's definitely an article somewhere on Kodak.com that gives you the best temperature and humidity conditions for rawstock. I've heard the 50/50 rule is good. 50 degrees Fahrenheit (~10C) and 50% relative humidity works well for extended storage. Storage of longer than a couple of months, over a year, you'd probably want to freeze the film, as long as you can keep humidity arond 50%. If MP film gets too dry there are issues.

~KB

Henri Titchen · November 9, 2007

Here is the link to the Kodak website section on film storage. Click on the headings to see the full information

on each topic.

http://www.kodak.com/US/en/motion/support/...53.12&lc=en

Henry.

I don't have the applicable link to the Kodak website, as John Pytlak would have, but there's definitely an article somewhere on Kodak.com that gives you the best temperature and humidity conditions for rawstock. I've heard the 50/50 rule is good. 50 degrees Fahrenheit (~10C) and 50% relative humidity works well for extended storage. Storage of longer than a couple of months, over a year, you'd probably want to freeze the film, as long as you can keep humidity arond 50%. If MP film gets too dry there are issues.

~KB

Matthew Buick · November 9, 2007

How would one go about monitoring a film's humitity when it's just stored in a home freezer?

Henri Titchen · November 10, 2007

Monitoring humidity can be carried out with an inexpensive datalogger such as the Dallas/Maxim i-button. I have used these and they work very well. It is easy to see the temperature and humidity cycles inside a frost free domestic freezer using these. The electronic datalogger is the size of a large button cell battery!

See the following link.

http://www.maxim-ic.com/quick_view2.cfm/qv_pk/4379