[pure-silver] Re: Deteriorating movie film

DEAR JOHN,
        Living in Barbados I am WAY out of the loop but I have heard that
there were services in Miami and Orlando that have done this kind of work.
Sorry that I don't know more about it...have you tried Googling "film to DVD
transfers"?  
                CHEERS!
                        BOB

-----Original Message-----
From: pure-silver-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:pure-silver-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of john stockdale
Sent: Wednesday, March 26, 2008 1:56 AM
To: pure-silver@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [pure-silver] Re: Deteriorating movie film

Thank you Bob and Richard,

I will investigate and see which films smell the most if I can. They are 
on open sided metal reels without cases and are all in one big horrible 
pile. But my years as a wine importer might help me locate the most 
offending films.

Bob, I have made some casual inquiries about scanning but have not had 
much luck. (This is in Australia). At least some of the Kodachrome films 
are impressively sharp so I'd like good quality scanning done.  I know 
that the very best job would be prohibitively expensive (frame by frame 
scanning) , but the quantity is such (thousands of feet) that I could 
buy some gear, do the job, and then resell it. Only the silent home 
movies interest me, so that simplifies to an extent. Do you have any 
ideas about the type of equipment that could be used?

Once agian, thanks for your help.

John

============
BOB KISS wrote:
> DEAR JOHN,
>       The first thing I would do is separate the Kodachrome from the B&W.
> Then see which one (if not both) is (are) emitting the acidic smell.
There
> is the possibility that, if the films had unstable acetate bases they
would,
> in the presence of moisture and warmth, deteriorate into acetic acid and
> other goodies.  I am also worried that what you might be smelling is
nitric
> acid from nitrate film.  If this is the case you have a very serious fire
> hazard on your hands.  To test for this, take a small snip of the b&w film
> FAR AWAY from the reels in a fire safe place like over the kitchen sink.
> Hold it with tweezers and light it with a match.  If it burns like a very
> fast fuse (Pssst!) then you have nitrate and a significant storage
challenge
> at hand.  If it is acetate it will melt and blacken slowly but not burn
> fast.  You will still have a problem if the acetate base is deteriorating
> into acetic acid but not a fire hazard. 
>       I am sure that many who reply will insist that nitrate films went
> out in the 30s or, at the latest, 40s but you might be surprised.  I
> discovered some nitrate film in some local collections of negatives.
Beyond
> the fire concerns nitrate film must be segregated from other film or the
> nitric acid will cause image deterioration of the other films.   
>       In any case it is time to find one of those 16mm scanning services
> that will convert your films into DVDs. 
>                       CHEERS!
>                               BOB  
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: pure-silver-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> [mailto:pure-silver-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of john stockdale
> Sent: Wednesday, March 26, 2008 12:20 AM
> To: pure-silver@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [pure-silver] Deteriorating movie film
>
> I have just retrieved from storage a large box of 16mm movie film from 
> the 1950s.  Some is Kodachrome taken by my father, and some are black 
> and white commercial copies from the US of various types of 
> entertainment, such as cartoons, Charlie Chaplin, travelogues  etc.
>
> The box smells strongly of acetic acid, which I understand is the result 
> of some breakdown of the films.  Can anyone tell me if the two types of 
> film are equally likely to deteriorate, or would there be a difference 
> between the Kodachrome and the black and white commercial films?  The 
> colour of the Kodachrome looks very good.
>
> John Stockdale
>
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