How to archive a 16mm film of an RCA 501

I have a pretty large connection of family 16mm film dating from the early 30's up thru 1970, and have been busy with conservation projects for the past year. Acetate film that exhibits the "VS" symtoms will shrink over time and start to curl, in the extream the spacing and size of the sprocket holes will change and this will make it diffucult to impossible to project. A good projector can tollerate quite a bit of curling and still put on an acceptable show. There are many professional shops that will do a Telecine conversion of film to dvd (or tape if you perfer). Google. The going price is between .20 and .40 (usd) per foot. Cleani ng is ususally included. Fixing bad splices, torn sprocket holes, and replacing leader are usually extra charges. There was a boom in home film conversion to Tape about 20 years ago, most of this was at the local 1 hr photo place and pretty poorly done by projecting into a mirror and pointing a camcorder at it, if any of these fast shops are still around you probably want to avoid them. There are also places that will actually digitize the film frame by frame using a modified projector, camera and computer. If the film is acctualy yours then you would probably want to do some conservation in addition to getting it converted. There are some good web sites out there to get and education and some of the points have been mentioned already. In summary from what I have learned and use: - If it has signs of VS you need to segragate that film from all others as the acid vapors stimulate continued reaction in the reel and in any reels near it. Much like ripening fruit. - Store the reel in the open air. Don't keep it in a sealed can but rather where its in fresh clean air so the vapors can disapate. There are newer stable plastic storage cans that incorporate venting in their design. - The reaction is nearly stopped at cool & dry tempratures and accelerated with warm and moist conditions. I don't have the exact temprature (check Kodak web) but its around the low 40Fs as the optimal for long term storage. - Clean the print, and then consider soaking it for a week or more in Filmrenew and then clean it a couple more times and let it dry for a week. This will do a lot to slow the damage, lube the film and will make it somewhat more flexible, Running the film thru a couple of passes on the rewinder is recommended to relax the film. Filmrenew is considered by many to be the most gentle and least toxic cleaner. It is a petro solvent, seemingly to me to be based on Naptha. - Remove any tape (scotch or masking) and its adheisive. Some solvents can be used for this but you want to make sure you remove all traces of this before you store the film. check both ends of the film for wrong tape. Note that on acetate film the usual splice was with cement, but later film was not acetate and they used a special tape splice. Your film may have tape splices, as long as its the right tape its ok to leave them although some will say to replace them with cement splices for permenance. Film conservation has its differing opinions too. - Wind the film firmly but not tightly onto its reel (prefer metal reel) and make sure the film is even on the sides with nothing sticking up that could get piched or bent over. Once its on the reel, dont pull on the film to tighten it as this will drag it over itself and perhaps scratch something. - Kodak sells a product called a "Micro Sieve" which is a fabric bag filled with an absorbant chemical that can be placed between the reel and its storage can to absorbe the acid vapors and moisture. Check the Kodak web. This may be over the top for most VS problems. If you clean, and air it out, and keep it cool and dry it will probably go another 20+ years and still be projectable. I would be happy to talk with you more about this off the list if you like. bob. On 2/3/07, Bob Rosenbloom <bobalan at sbcglobal.net> wrote: