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July 11, 2018  •  Leave a Comment

One thing I never considered when I began the 70mm Journey is negative storage.

I guess I always took it for granted.

It had never once occurred to me that I wouldn’t be able to find archival negative storage for film 70mm wide.

It didn’t occur to me when I was buying specialty film loaders and backs for the camera and film stock.

Or when I was finding ways to expand my development reels.

Or when I was having to scan my negatives loose because I couldn’t find a way to mount them for the scanner. (more on that in another post)

No, it didn’t occur to me until I went to Horn Photo to buy the negative files, only to discover there were none.

Well of course there weren’t, there’s no demand for them really, and my local photo and camera store isn’t going to keep that stuff around, taking up valuable floor space.

So I checked Amazon.

I checked eBay.

I checked every site I could think of . . . nothing.

No one made anything to store 70mm negatives. Not anymore.

I could get 120 film storage, but as you can see in the photo, that wasn't going to work . . .

 

 

 

          What am I using for a light box? A computer screen and a blank google doc . . . hey it's cheap and it works.  

 

 

 

120 film is on the left, with 70mm on the right. As you can see, there's no swapping the two around.

I did find some 70mm continuous plastic sleeving available on ebay, but that wouldn’t get me through the entire 12 rolls.

Plus it's flimsy and can't be easily stored in a box or binder.

No, I needed something permanent and high quality.

I was not having my negatives destroyed by sub-par storage.

About three weeks ago I found a solution.

 

I was at my wit’s end.

I knew that I could store negatives, temporarily if nothing else, in glassine envelopes.

So, I went to google, as one does, and I typed in “Glassine Envelopes” . . . top hit; Bags Unlimited.

I click the link, and am taken to a splash page . . . for stamp collecting.

Guys, I may have not considered many things, but never in all my years has I even remotely connected the needs of stamp collectors to photography.

But there, in the corner there’s a link for Binders and Pages.

So I click, because why the hell not, and there, fourth from the top is the listing:

 

Stamp 3 Ring Binder Page

3 rows, 84mm x 195mm

 

YOU GUYS

 

      What's that? It's a unicorn that's what.

 

I found them. Yes, they’re not cheap. One more expense in this journey of mine. But they EXIST.

And they’re made for stamp collecting which is arguably as picky and as worried about the acid content of stuff that comes in contact with other stuff as photographers are.

So now I have a storage solution, which is more exciting than it sounds, because I can start organizing and scanning and properly cataloging the negatives.

I am so unbelievably thrilled.

            I converted this to black and white, but yes those are my 70mm color negatives in their nice new file folders. I am STOKED.

 

 

Now . . . if I can just get the scanner to cooperate we’ll be golden.


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