You're 35mm Films and Slides are Dying Pt.V

If you value your images you should have them scanned to digital where they’ll be saved reliably for your lifetime and future generations.


Next month I explain the trials and tribulations of trying to yield good results yourself with cheap flatbed consumer based scanners. The results are lackluster.


Professional slide and negative scanning is now a service I provide to save your precious memories. So if you don’t know what I.C.E., ROC or DEE is then perhaps you should bring your film to me for professional conversion to digital. I can restore film and images too.
See my ad to the right... The clock is ticking...

You're 35mm Films and Slides are Dying Pt.IV

Mold growth on slides and negs is a huge problem, as the fungi actually eats into the emulsion layer. Trying to remove the growth with liquid cleaners most of the time results in more damage than good. Also a dry mold can spread spores very easily to other slides. Needless to say damp conditions promote this damage. Once this damage starts it’s hard to stop and precious negs and slides can not be saved.


The bottom line is that slides and negs under normal storage conditions begin to degrade after about 20 years. Some will degrade earlier and some later, based on other factors.

You're 35mm Films and Slides are Dying Pt.III

After doing some extensive research on the subject I’ve found that many people are experiencing a red color shift of their slides and negs. Although some cases are more severe than others it seems the storage conditions are a factor, but maybe not the reason. Negs and slides stored in high humidity and heat have resulted in accelerated color shift and often promoted even worse problems such as mold and fungi growth. More on that in a moment. It seems to be a feeling that poor initial developing is the reason for accelerated degeneration of film, specifically; contaminated or poorly executed rinsing at the time of developing.

You're 35mm Films and Slides are Dying Pt.II

Today’s digital cameras have done away with the film era, as film is getting harder and harder to find and film developing labs are even harder to find.

Unlike digital data, film has a life. A recent article I read said that film shot before 1962 is especially susceptible to degradation due to the early chemistry used, called E1. Shortly after 1962 a process called E6 was introduced which promoted film longevity, among other things.

You're 35mm Films and Slides are Dying

Most of us are old enough to remember film and slides. Slides were my main staple as a kid since aside from developing the negatives, they didn’t require the additional cost of making the prints. In many cases the prints seemed to stray away from the developed negative strips which really didn’t look like anything when held up to the light. Slides were developed and returned in tiny little boxes, often then arranged and loaded into a slide projector. And the bulb would blow when everyone was ready for showtime...


Today’s digital cameras have done away with the film era, as film is getting harder and harder to find and film developing labs are even harder to find.