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Question for you photo pros....
#363083 01/08/12 05:22 PM
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RickF Offline OP
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I have several dozen rolls of undeveloped 35mm film that was taken during the late 70s to early 80s, they have been stored in the house and in a zippered camera bag stuffed into a dark cabinet.

Do you all believe this film will be good after all of these years? I was thinking about trying a single roll first but thought I gather your thoughts first.

TYVM


Rick
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Re: Question for you photo pros....
RickF #363088 01/08/12 07:24 PM
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I would try one roll first, but add what you just said to the special instructions and send it to Kodac (probably, if they still do this type of thing) and not Walmart for development.

Re: Question for you photo pros....
CatBrat #363091 01/08/12 08:43 PM
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as long as they were never in direct sunlight or in hot weather, they should be ok.
just to be sure, have one developed and see.

it's best always to keep unopened film boxes in the fridge, and when a film has been exposed and can't be developed right away, it should be put in it's little airtight plastic box when the air humidity index is about 30%, and not more, and freeze it until the day you have them developed.

film development has been standardized for ages, and all the development machines are completely automatic, so there's very little to worry about this. Telling the lab they're very old negs will not change a thing.
where there is lots of variations is in the printing of those negs. some labs do very good work and others stink.

my credentials in photography: photolab technician for about 20 years. now retired.

Last edited by J. B.; 01/08/12 08:46 PM.
Re: Question for you photo pros....
J. B. #363092 01/08/12 08:53 PM
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even if the films have been exposed to heat, like very hot weather, the negs should still give you photos that are worth printing; the colors might be a bit different and the contrast too, but overall it should not be bad.

if you have one roll developed and the prints don't look very bad, then you could have only the films developed, and not printed;
then you could use a good scanner to digitize the films and then process those negs in a good image program like photoshop to bring them up to a very good quality level. once this is done, you can see the photos on your monitor or print them.

Last edited by J. B.; 01/08/12 08:54 PM.
Re: Question for you photo pros....
J. B. #363093 01/08/12 11:05 PM
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RickF Offline OP
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That's good and interesting info, thanks J.B. I'll let y'all know how and if they come out.

Unless the evidence is too incriminating.


Rick
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Re: Question for you photo pros....
RickF #363095 01/08/12 11:17 PM
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Quote:
Unless the evidence is too incriminating.


Be careful there Rick. Never know what you were taking pics of back in the 70's! wink

laugh


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Re: Question for you photo pros....
merchman #363096 01/09/12 12:16 AM
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Kodak does not do this type of thing anymore and Wal Mart is fine if you send the film out in the envelopes. The envelopes go to Fuji for developing. Don't even try to ask the WalMart employee anything. You will get nothing more than a vacant stare.

Remember what JB said about the scanner.... don't fret too much if the prints are not great. The negatives still could be pretty darn good. Sometimes the automated machine is the culprit.


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Re: Question for you photo pros....
Lampshade #363099 01/09/12 12:46 AM
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even if the negatives are not very good as you might see on a few prints, those defects should be easily corrected with an image program.
unless you're trained, it's very difficult to see if negatives have suffered from heat or are in good condition.
if you do this, get a scanner that has at least 4800 dpi resolution.
anything less and you will miss lots of fine details in the original negs.

Last edited by J. B.; 01/09/12 12:48 AM.
Re: Question for you photo pros....
J. B. #363108 01/09/12 02:28 AM
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Huh. I'd have thought Mark would want to be helpful here. Apparently not.


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Re: Question for you photo pros....
tomtuttle #363110 01/09/12 02:41 AM
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Cliff notes: they won't be perfect but there may be some images. Or maybe, there won't.


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