Archive Storage Options for Negatives, Slides, Prints & Media

Messages
197
Name
Jason
Edit My Images
No
Hi All,

Recently I've decided to make a shift towards film, the first test roll is off at the lab and the last film I probably shot would have been as a boy on a P&S in the 80's.

As the negatives, prints and CD should be with me next week I got to thinking about the best starter options for storage.

I've had a quick google and the following look Ok to me;
http://www.firstcall-photographic.co.uk/kenro-slipcase-and-ringbinder-4-ring-black/p1798

http://www.firstcall-photographic.co.uk/kenro-negative-pages-paper-35mm-25-sheets/p1801

http://www.firstcall-photographic.co.uk/kenro-negative-pages-paper-6-x-6cm-25-sheets/p1802

http://www.firstcall-photographic.c...ide-pages-35mm-archival-plus-pack-of-25/p1819

I guess standard polly pockets could be used to hold the CD's and perhaps post-it notes added to the negative sheets with the film info, although sticking a post-it note to the paper negative sheet doesn't sound like a great idea over the long haul.

I was just wondering if the above looks Ok as there seem to be a number of options like acetate, glossin, paper and if anyone had any other options/ideas.

Thank You,

Jason
 
I think this might be the folder I reviewed here...
 
Hi All,

Recently I've decided to make a shift towards film, the first test roll is off at the lab and the last film I probably shot would have been as a boy on a P&S in the 80's.

As the negatives, prints and CD should be with me next week I got to thinking about the best starter options for storage.

I've had a quick google and the following look Ok to me;
http://www.firstcall-photographic.co.uk/kenro-slipcase-and-ringbinder-4-ring-black/p1798

http://www.firstcall-photographic.co.uk/kenro-negative-pages-paper-35mm-25-sheets/p1801

http://www.firstcall-photographic.co.uk/kenro-negative-pages-paper-6-x-6cm-25-sheets/p1802

http://www.firstcall-photographic.c...ide-pages-35mm-archival-plus-pack-of-25/p1819

I guess standard polly pockets could be used to hold the CD's and perhaps post-it notes added to the negative sheets with the film info, although sticking a post-it note to the paper negative sheet doesn't sound like a great idea over the long haul.

I was just wondering if the above looks Ok as there seem to be a number of options like acetate, glossin, paper and if anyone had any other options/ideas.

Thank You,

Jason

I prefer the Clearfile brand storage sleeves, especially if you are ever going to do any darkroom printing because you can contact print without needing to remove the film from the sleeves, saving a lot of time and aggravation. Even if you won't do any darkroom work, it is easier to view your negatives while in those sleeves and the Clearfile ones are supposedly better for long-term storage (although I haven't been involved in photography for the number of years necessary to confirm this).

There are two types of Clearfile storage sleeves:
I wouldn't bother to store the CDs personally, as CDs aren't archival and that form of media is on its way out the door. I'd probably look into good hard drive and off-site storage options instead, but to each his own.
 
All you really need is the neg sleeves and something to store them in.
You don't need to store cd's but you can if you want, personally my life has enough clutter in it.
I dunno how likely you are to have slides mounted, they are only mounted if they are to be used in a projector, they can be scanned just like print film so maybe you don't need neg sleeves for mounted slides.
 
I no longer mount slides, old slides are kept in the boxes they came back from the lab in, in a shoe box (somewhere). All labelled on the top of the box and inside, but not individual slides (but the slide numbers are part of the scan file name, so in theory I can find them again).
 
Thank you for the info and links, I'll take a look at that alternative binder and the clearfile alternatives.

I guess the comments are right about the CD's, I just thought it best to keep it all together and didn't really think about it going to the remote backup service once it's copied to my HDD.

I'll probably opt for an old shoe box for the slides then, I presume I will shoot very little slide film to be honest.

Thanks,

Jason
 
what are you shooting exactly, you've got 6x6 neg sleeves, 35mm and 35mm slide mount neg sleeves linked in your opening post

and.......you have to shoot slide..........its the LAW !
 
The first roll of 6x4.5 is at the lab and I'm waiting on a few bits and bobs before I start shooting 35mm :)

I've got some slide film but I think that this will be the minority amongst everything else.
 
I've got some slide film but I think that this will be the minority amongst everything else.

Are you projecting your slides? If not, you can just store those in the negative sleeves as well, which is what I do.
 
I wouldn't be projecting them, if they easily fit in the normal negative sleeves then that's certainly the better option for me.
 
I wouldn't be projecting them, if they easily fit in the normal negative sleeves then that's certainly the better option for me.

It costs more to mount [EDIT] transparencies into slide mounts, but uncut/unmounted they are exactly like negatives (except for being positive, of course), so fit in the same sleeve.

Once you've got 35mm sleeves that take film cut in 6s, if you try a new lab remember to check that they cut in 6s. Filmdev will if requested, but otherwise (used to?) cut in 4s, as do Photo Express. You can however also buy sleeves that take 4s.

I did keep a few CDs in the same folder, but have now abandoned that. I'm guessing that more and more scans will come back via download rather than CDs anyway. Backup (inc off-site) is the thing!
 
Last edited:
I started out with Paterson negative files and their glassine inserts and the negatives are still fine after over 50 years, so glassine is probably OK. The Kenro binders are rather better (in my opinion) binders than the older Paterson ones I have, and I now use the Kenco ones. I don't think that the Paterson ones have been made for years....

Like RJ, I now use sleeves that I can leave the negative in for contact printing, in my case the Printfile brand. I bind the negatives together with a contact sheet to make for easy identification.
 
We send our films out in archival clear file sleeves. I thought everybody did.
 
We send our films out in archival clear file sleeves. I thought everybody did.

There's quite a variety of sleeves; the most annoying are those cut into strips of 4 with no ring binder holes, which need to be re-sleeved for a binder. Peak ones are nice. Some others are a bit more opaque.
 
I prefer the glassine opaque sleeves, much easier to use than the clear type.
 
Reviving a massively old thread, because it seems a better idea than starting another one with the same theme!

I'm attempting to reduce clutter by filing the negatives from old lab envelopes that have been sitting around in large boxes in the garage. All the ones from Peak and others who sent them out in strips of 6 with filing holes already in have been done. The rest are cut in strips of 4 and generally are not suitable for filing and need to be re-sleeved. I used some old Jessops sleeves that I think I got from @medwaygreen (?) years ago, until they ran out. Casting about for some more, I still wanted the clear ones (polypropylene??), but by mistake managed to buy a hundred Kaiser sleeves that are the opaque ones (and also over-sized). I've used some to finish clearing the first box-full, but I've noticed they seem to take up more space in the binder than the old Jessops ones. I guess they're quite a bit thicker. So I've been searching, and the only clear ones I can find are these from Firstcall. Does anyone know any others?
 
Reviving a massively old thread, because it seems a better idea than starting another one with the same theme!

I'm attempting to reduce clutter by filing the negatives from old lab envelopes that have been sitting around in large boxes in the garage. All the ones from Peak and others who sent them out in strips of 6 with filing holes already in have been done. The rest are cut in strips of 4 and generally are not suitable for filing and need to be re-sleeved. I used some old Jessops sleeves that I think I got from @medwaygreen (?) years ago, until they ran out. Casting about for some more, I still wanted the clear ones (polypropylene??), but by mistake managed to buy a hundred Kaiser sleeves that are the opaque ones (and also over-sized). I've used some to finish clearing the first box-full, but I've noticed they seem to take up more space in the binder than the old Jessops ones. I guess they're quite a bit thicker. So I've been searching, and the only clear ones I can find are these from Firstcall. Does anyone know any others?
That might be your only option for negs cut into 4's, I suppose you could always ask Jessops if they still do them.
 
Reviving a massively old thread, because it seems a better idea than starting another one with the same theme!

I'm attempting to reduce clutter by filing the negatives from old lab envelopes that have been sitting around in large boxes in the garage. All the ones from Peak and others who sent them out in strips of 6 with filing holes already in have been done. The rest are cut in strips of 4 and generally are not suitable for filing and need to be re-sleeved. I used some old Jessops sleeves that I think I got from @medwaygreen (?) years ago, until they ran out. Casting about for some more, I still wanted the clear ones (polypropylene??), but by mistake managed to buy a hundred Kaiser sleeves that are the opaque ones (and also over-sized). I've used some to finish clearing the first box-full, but I've noticed they seem to take up more space in the binder than the old Jessops ones. I guess they're quite a bit thicker. So I've been searching, and the only clear ones I can find are these from Firstcall. Does anyone know any others?

Any reason that you couldn't cut every other strip in half and just use the 6 strip version? I realise it may be a faff to scan in that instance, but if it is simply archive then may not ever be an issue?
 
Any reason that you couldn't cut every other strip in half and just use the 6 strip version? I realise it may be a faff to scan in that instance, but if it is simply archive then may not ever be an issue?
I did briefly think about that, but you'd have to destroy the sheet to get the "inner" strip out. I guess re-scanning is rare, but I'd want it to be possible. Plus, my 6-strip sheet s are the opaque glassine kind, too, so also doubly thick!
 
Back
Top