Avoiding the Big Melt Down:
Film and Digital Cards

I found out early in my career that film could be abused to the point that it was no longer acceptable. In the late seventies I worked part time at the local mall. Our store carried TV’s, stereo equipment, cameras, darkroom supplies, and film. The store interior was painted with bright primary colored stripes trying to be “hip”. The rear wall was constructed as a ten by ten grid of shallow eight-inch square boxes to hold the film supply. To be clever, the grid was tipped forty-five degrees so the boxes became diamond shaped. This configuration put the top rows of film right next to the ceiling, which proved to be a real life lesson.

Film goes through an interesting cycle during its life. After emulsion coating and packaging the new film is stored green, in an unripe condition, and aged until its color and speed are ready for use. Consumer grade films are shipped just a little bit green with the anticipation that they will be shelf bound for a period of time prior to sale. The expectation is that they may sit in a camera for two Christmas’s as well. During the film’s life, coloration slowly drifts from green to normal on towards yellow. All of this is normal and the minor color shifts are eliminated through printing corrections. Professional films are shipped at a right on condition for perfect and consistent color. A commercial photographer would not want to have color variability during a multi roll shoot. For this reason pictureline stores film in a refrigerated condition to prevent premature color change and film speed discrepancies.

At the mall store the film was not refrigerated, even worse it was stored at ceiling level near the spotlights. Try to hold your hand under a spot light for a few minutes, let alone a few months. To compound this error the film was not rotated out in a timely manner, because it was to high to reach easily. When the film was eventually exposed I found a noticeable difference, a lack of color saturation, a greater color shift, and increased grain. From that day forward I have been very attentive about how my film has been stored and transported during my vacations and outdoor workshops. If I feel uncomfortably hot, so does my film. I couldn’t stand to be stashed in a glove box, a car trunk or in an enclosed pickup truck shell for days on end with the sun pounding on me, so why should my film? With automobile interior temperatures in the hundred degrees plus range it doesn’t take many days to toast your film.

There are several good methods of film transportation and storage while on the go. The easiest unit to find and use is the plastic lined six-pack hauler or ice chest type lunch box. Add a frozen plastic gel pack (one of those sealed re-freezable blue things) in with the film and keep it out of the direct sunlight as much as possible. This is a great technique for a two or three day jaunt with a small film supply. For longer excursions, larger format films and sheet film holders just up size the solution. One scheme is to use a medium to large size cooler with several gel packs surrounding the film. For the Death Valley type journeys, I double up the medium to large size cooler into my giant cooler. The giant cooler has four well-capped old milk bottles of frozen water surrounding the secondary cooler containing the gel packs and film. From experience, it doesn’t hurt to put the frozen milk containers in a zip lock bag for extra insurance. This combination will keep everything safe for seven to ten days. Any unused film goes into zip locks and back into the fridge upon returning to home. Be sure to use the re-refrigerated film next, because it has already given up part of its film life. Always allow some time for cold film to arrive at ambient temperature before opening its factory sealed container to avoid condensation on the film and the sticky, damaging mess it may become.

Digital media is also vulnerable to heat extremes. Checking some web sites, manufacturers recommend not allowing their media to exceed 140 degrees. I can hear you laughing because you are not going to be out in that kind of temperature. Purchase a small key chain style thermometer from some place like REI. Hook it to your nice “professional black” camera case and see what it says. You can read why Ansel Adams painted his cases white for summer use. Cameras and other delicate equipment are not fond of high temperatures either. Slip your frozen gel pack into a zip lock and stash it in your case away from any direct equipment contact. It will help tame the black case blues, or should I say the black case red hots.

When not in use keep all digital media in its anti-static container and away from magnetic fields. Strong magnetic fields, like a television, may arbitrarily rearrange you best pictures pixels into something un-useable and unreadable. So keep those media cards within their operating temperature range, dry and away from magnetic fields.

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