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Vaccumate was one of those film preservation treatments they did back in the day along with Vaporate. This sample of a Vaccumate treated film is marked with a 3. Maybe they had different versions. It is all just guess work. I could not find out anything about either treatment. Although you can't see it in the scan, the Vaporate film did seem to have a matte finish applied to the stock. I did not see any difference to Vacuumate treated film versus untreated film. <><><><> Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Archival Collection Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Small Gauge Film Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Advertising Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. VHS Video Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Popular Culture Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Audio Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Social Documentary Photography

I read that HDD's lose magnetism over time and they must be re-recorded periodically to preserve the data. On 3.8.2025 I tested a retired Toshiba 500gb HDD that was formatted and filled up about 98% capacity with photos and videos on 2.17.2015. After it was retired, it was put in a ziplock bag and stored in a garage where temperatures ranged from 45F to 85F for the 10-year period. It was not run during that time. When I looked at it, all the data (photos / videos) were fine. I didn't do any drive software tests on it, as I didn't have any to use. I downloaded some drive software awhile back and it took over my computer, so I was happy to get rid of it. I archive audio, photos, videos and text files. Either they work or they don't work...those are the tests I'm using here. I then decided to do a microwave test on the HDD. I had originated this use of microwaving drives by accident. Last year I had ordered a 4TB Samsung SSD and it had problems from the start. But I was hopeful the bugs would work out and tried to use it anyway. I was transferring a 1.8TB file to it and it jammed near the end of the transfer. I was horrified to find out it would not let me delete my data before sending it back for a refund. Hence the microwave came into my head. It was a natural offshoot from using the microwave to treat moldy and mildewed paper, which I do regularly. I can't tell you how long this original microwave test was on the 4TB SSD, but it was just a few seconds. I didn't know what would happen or if it would wreck the microwave, so it was short. When I plugged the SSD into the computer it would not show up. I was happy with the results and gave it a little more microwave radiation after that for good measure. All we hear about nowadays is EMP danger with digital, so that also inspired me to do some microwave tests. Here are the tests for the HDD, SD card and thumb drives tested in a 1000-watt Samsung microwave. Toshiba 500gb HDD 1 second microwave test: Passed (I don't think the microwave does much microwaving in the first second.) 2 second microwave test: Passed 3 second microwave test: Failed - drive made a loud pop and sparks near the cord port. Computer would not recognize the drive. (Drive was microwaved without the cord.) Generic 4GB SD Card 1 second microwave test: Passed (I don't think the microwave does much microwaving in the first second.) 2 second microwave test: Passed 3 second microwave test: Passed / Failed (?) Some sparks. One computer would not recognize about 80% of the files and they only showed up as icons. When I clicked on an icon it would not load and it said the file was corrupted. Another computer played everything fine. 4 second microwave test: Failed - card made lots of sparks, plastic started to melt in spots on both sides of the card and there was a strong burned plastic smell. Both computers would not recognize the drive. Note: This test should be rerun with multiple cards for 3, 4, 5, 6 second tests to pinpoint the failure. I used 1 card and it received a total of 9 seconds of microwaving before it failed. (Not counting the 1 second test.) Generic 8GB Thumb Drives I used 2 thumb drives for this test. Thumb drive #1 1 second microwave test: Passed (I don't think the microwave does much microwaving in the first second.) 2 second microwave test: Failed - drive made an audio sound when inserting into the USB port, but the computer would not recognize it. I tried it on 2 computers. Thumb drive #2 3 second microwave test: Failed. Drive made a loud pop and sparks inside of the USB connector. Both computers would not recognize the drive. The rest of the HDD magnetism tests will be 12-year, 15-year, 18-year, 20-years and 22-years...if I'm still around. <><><><> Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Archival Collection Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Small Gauge Film Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Advertising Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. VHS Video Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Popular Culture Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Audio Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Social Documentary Photography

If you have films with vinegar syndrome, they have to be stored open air. If they are stored open air, they generally stabilize more or less. And if you want to be sure about halting vinegar syndrome, you vacuum seal the film and freeze them. Nothing cures vinegar syndrome, but you can slow it down or halt it. These films shown have been stored open air for a few years. The previous owner stored them sealed in metal cans in a hot storage unit in L.A. for many years. Once they were aired out, they have not visually deteriorated further since they were stored open air. Most of the vinegar smell is gone; but if they are returned to film cans, especially non vented, the vinegar syndrome will start back up. Vinegar syndrome is caused by a lack of ventilation and heat. It is best to air out films on wire racks so they can breathe on both sides. Or you can stack them with a film core between the reels. The films shown are just a small fraction of the hot L.A. storage unit film collection I acquired, and I don't have room for that. But they have done OK being aired out as shown. You can flip them every year or so, but these have been sitting as shown for years. If you have your films in cans and they are acetate...you have to burp them once in a while to de-gas. When I first got this collection, you could smell the vinegar from across the room. Now the vinegar is 'almost' undetectable with the nose. Other reels still have a noticeable smell, but they have decreased with the vinegar odor maybe 85%. If your films are warped or start to develop flats you can reverse wind them. None of the chemicals being marketed to handle vinegar syndrome have done any good from what I can tell, and I've tested most of them, if not all of them, over an 8 year period. You can get PH / A-D strips to see where your films fit in with the vinegar syndrome. I don't use them. I'm not that anal or scientific. Film is just one small area I work in. Not enough time, money or space for everything. Plus, the A-D strips need to be enclosed in the can with the film to work right. These films will never be returned to a can, so the A-D strips are not of much use to me. But if you are of an anal nature, strip your films and chart them! I just use my nose. A-D strips are good to tell you when the vinegar syndrome is starting. <><><><> Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Archival Collection Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Small Gauge Film Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Advertising Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. VHS Video Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Popular Culture Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Audio Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Social Documentary Photography

No matter how you slice it...film collecting is messy business. Sure, if rich you can match your cans, barcode, have lots of horizontal or vertical film shelves and temperature-controlled film vaults...but it still boils down to film cans or reels on shelving...or the floor. And when you run out of shelving, you use the floor for shelving. I found this photo on the internet, along with the rest of these photos. This guy titled it reorganizing film, so maybe he has the shelving, and the floor storage is just temporary. 35mm is for the big boys. I just deal with 8mm and 16mm. Temporary or not, floor storage is very common for film collectors if you are short on space or shelving. It is common to see film jammed on shelves any way they can fit. Here is a smaller collector and is neater about it in his man cave... In the old days they made film shelving to store film vertically. But they are very rare to come across nowadays and they cost $$ when you do find them. For me it has been a lifetime of being short on space. Space cost $ and I've always worked on a shoestring budget, consequently I have always been short on space. Even growing up I had no space as a kid. My parents didn't have a lot of $ and I grew up in a 1 bath 4 room house in L.A. My bedroom was a foldout bed in the living room. An old gal down the street saw some of my film archive and said I was a hoarder. Some of my films being organized from M-R... I told her I'm not a hoarder, I'd just short on space. I've got a few million feet of film and if I had more space and shelving the same thing, she called hoarding, would not be so jammed up. So, if I am a hoarder, it is being a 'hoarder by design' and not by desire. I rather have tons of space and shelving...but I don't. A real hoarder fills up any space they get no matter how large. That is the acid test. Anyway, she inspired me to expand my shelving for cine' film with 3 or 4 more 6-foot-tall chrome wire shelving units. I don't have that much room for them, but I can put them on casters and double stack them. When I need something from the rear shelf unit, I pull out the shelf unit in front of it. I am not really a film collector; I'm a film archivist. I don't necessarily want the films; I just want decent digital scans of the films. My goals changed in 2023 from maintaining a physical archive to becoming a digital archive. But it is a benefit to education as well as the archival record when you can handle, inspect and smell the films versus just dealing with scans. And in the big picture, it is hard to get rid of everything even if you want to go all digital. It takes lots of time to dispose of things properly unless you just trash it all in a dumpster. 16mm IBT Dye Transfer Technicolor Lab Head DDTJRAC <><><><> Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Archival Collection Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Small Gauge Film Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Advertising Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. VHS Video Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Popular Culture Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Audio Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Social Documentary Photography

Now...it just depends on the material. There is plenty of vintage photography on the market that is dirt cheap. These are usually cabinet cards or CDV's of people...the plain Janes or Joes. But anything notable in vintage photography is usually pricey. And one of the most highly prized and $$ areas to collect is occupational photography, especially daguerreotypes. I was lucky when I acquired this occupational tintype. It was somewhat affordable because it was in such poor condition and the image had to be extracted from it in post. It is a large size tintype measuring 6-3/8" x 8", so that was a bonus. Larger images offer more detail to extract. Post processed scan Raw scan, no post processing. No telling about the age. Tintypes were popular mainly from the 1860s - 1870s. Although they continued to do tintypes for little portraits much later. This tintype is almost prehistoric compared to most of the other tintypes I've seen. If you have $$, you can collect top end material for vintage photography...although these are overpriced. Early on when I first came across the Getty Museum's Open Content Collection, I saved a lot of the vintage photography I found there. Back then (the early 2010s) they offered digital JPEG files that were 45 mb+ for some of their material. And they were very nice digital copies. Nothing like the subpar 200mb TIFF files the L.O.C. offers that are just digitized low quality film copies of the item. And the Smithsonian and National Archives are no better. Sadly, the Getty Museum cut way back in their generosity. The same 45 mb JPEG may be 6mb now. I modelled my Archive after the Getty of old. Although people have to write me if they want anything super hi res. The I.A. limits uploads to 10 mb. There is a practical limit to res and file size unless you are rich. I scanned this tintype 48 bit 2400 dpi TIFF and the file was 1.8GB. Crazy! Here are the extensive bit depth tests for you to peruse. https://archive.org/search?query=bit+depth+teoli <><><><> Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Archival Collection Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Small Gauge Film Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Advertising Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. VHS Video Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Popular Culture Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Audio Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Social Documentary Photography

Handling paper for flatbed scanning in the Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Archival Collection. Photo: D.D.Teoli Jr. I handle lots of paper in the Archive. Many hundreds of thousands of scans. When looking at scan jobs, I don't figure jobs by the number of scans, I figure them by how many feet of paper there is. A small job may be a foot or two. A big job may be 15 feet or more. Anyway, if you handle lots of paper as I do; work smart and wear exam gloves. They provide a multitude of benefits when handling paper. Wearing exam gloves gives you the following benefits: They keep finger and grease smudges off the scanner glass. They stop your skin from dropping flakes of dead skin and debris on the scanner glass. They give you a great grip on the paper both for placing and removing the paper from the scanner glass. They keep the paper clean as well as your hands clean. If not using gloves, your hands can get dirty handling matte black ink or gritty paper. White cotton gloves do keep originals clean. But they don't give you the tactile sensitivity and purchase of the paper as the exam gloves do. In the winter if your hands suffer from cracking and dry skin, the exam gloves help alleviate that problem. You can cream your hands up and put on your gloves to work. <><><><> Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Archival Collection Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Small Gauge Film Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Advertising Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. VHS Video Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Popular Culture Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Audio Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Social Documentary Photography

Kodak (Mexico?) Inkjet Paper Deterioration See yellowing edge of paper compared to white paper. The entire sheet of Kodak paper has yellow blotchiness. The edge is the easiest way to see the yellowing in a photo. If you have a laptop or unbalanced monitor, you may not be able to see the yellowing. This was Kodak's cheapest paper at the time. From what I recall, the paper was made in Mexico. Paper shown here is 10 years old, stored under normal household conditions. It started to show yellowing about 3 to 4 years ago. All of the rest of this Kodak paper shows the same yellowing. It is hard to get a good photo or scan of the yellowing, but it is easily detected by looking at it under 5,000k lighting. A couple of other major photo paper makers also suffered from yellowing of their cheapest brand of inkjet paper. I didn't record the maker's names. I didn't purchase this paper to print on. I didn't purchase this paper to do archival testing. All these papers were purchased to use as interleaf while printing artist books with an inkjet printer. Unless interleaf was used while printing, the pages would transfer freshly printed ink to the page stacked on it. This was a big problem when using matte black ink, but not a problem with gloss black ink. RC gloss or RC semi-gloss inkjet paper worked best as interleaf as it did not accept any ink transference on the RC coated verso of the paper. <><><><> Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Archival CollectionDaniel D. Teoli Jr. Small Gauge Film ArchiveDaniel D. Teoli Jr. Advertising ArchiveDaniel D. Teoli Jr. VHS Video ArchiveDaniel D. Teoli Jr. Popular Culture ArchiveDaniel D. Teoli Jr. Audio ArchiveDaniel D. Teoli Jr. Social Documentary Photography