Original negatives

[steve B]

Unfortunately I do.......

The breakdown happens to pretty much all acetate film stock to some degree. An old piece of 35mm film that feels a bit brittle or less flexible than a newer piece has degraded slightly. Ones that have curled and won't flatten without a struggle have gone a bit farther. I have a few pieces that have shrunk to the point where scanning them would be a real problem. I'll eventually try to get them into a screwdown and see if they'll scan that way. If I run across one I'll get a pic. (No baseball, or anything important, just mildly interesting old photos)

Film that's been kept in a sealed container will give off an odor of vinegar. You don't see that often in negatives, but it's very common for movie film. Wether it gets that bad or not and just why isn't well understood. My friend who collects film believes it has a lot to do with the original processing, and/or certain cleaning processes that were used. There's one process that when he sees the name on the can he sets it aside because nearly every print they cleaned has gone bad. Metal cans seem to be worse than plastic cans as well. My guess is that they seal better.

Once the film offgasses acetic acid in a sealed space the whole thing feeds on itself.


The bright blue on a B+W negative is odd. I don't think it's from the film degrading. Any chance it's actually a B=W copy negative on color stock? I've seen stuff like that. Including a black and white movie faded to red.

I have a few odd bits of safety film, one of my favorites is a short commercially made 8mm movie that's on plastic that's a nice purple color. And it reacts to UV with a strong blue glow. It was made during WWII and I suspect it's something made to use while blacked out, maybe with a UV reactive screen. I've never seen any description of anything like it though, and my film collecting friend has only seen a couple of them in maybe 20 years.

Steve B