Pre-loading 4x5 Film Holders (?)

[cdholden]

i also leave film in my holders, my only problem tends to be that i don't remember what film is in which holders ...

Ziploc bags and a Sharpie are a small price to pay.

[Ian Leake]

I often leave film in holders. The only problems I've had have been when the film is in slightly dodgy glass plate holders (damn those pesky light leaks...).

[jnanian]

Ziploc bags and a Sharpie are a small price to pay.

yes, this is true.

i have a chart with my notch codes ( badly drawn on a film-box-card ) so
i can check the film from time to time, it keeps me on my toes ...
then again, these days i usually shoot everything ( color and b/w )
15S + 3.5 and ask questions later

john

[Phillip P. Dimor]

I remember reading something somewhere (helpful I know.. may have been on photo.net) of a man who spent years as a photographer in Guam.. or Vietnam (not doing so great eh?).. What I do remember is that he lived in near 100% humidity and his gear would develop fungus very quickly as a result. His solution was to keep everything (gear and film) in 5 gallon paint buckets with lids and newspaper inside. He kept these buckets inside a closet (gasp!) with a hanging incandescent lightbulb a few feet from the buckets which kept everything warm enough that it were dry I suppose.

The bucket idea is good if you are swamped with moisture in the air. Personally, I would stack holders loaded with film into a gallon ziplock with a bag of _dry_ silica gell inside, and then these would go into a big rubbermaid container/5 gallon bucket with lid, etc.
You could even get that dryrite stuff, the calcium chloride stuff they use to dry out closets before painting. Get the refill box and pour some into empty 35mm film cans with holes punched in it. I'm sure they must have something similar in Japan. Hope this helps some..

[Kent10D]

... near 100% humidity and his gear would develop fungus very quickly as a result. His solution was to keep everything (gear and film) in 5 gallon paint buckets ... I'm sure they must have something similar in Japan. Hope this helps some..

Hi Phillip,

We have to watch out for fungus over here as well, but we have slightly more advanced methods of dealing with that these days. Most large camera stores carry small dessicant-based dry boxes as well as electronically controlled drying cabinets with digital humidity readouts. I have one of the latter to keep my lenses, cameras, and other sensitive photo gear nice and dry and hopefully fungus-free during the really soggy months.

The problem I mentioned in the original post was condensation, which occurs when you take film out of the fridge into a high-humidity environment. One solution is simply to not keep film in the fridge, which is OK if you buy and use film quickly I suppose, but since I tend to hoard quantities of film for long periods I feel a little safer keeping it cool. It just means that I have to take the film out of the fridge an hour or two before I load it so that the film comes up to ambient temperature, which eliminates the condensation problem.

Cheers!

[OldBikerPete]

I shoot just one kind of film. My main stock is held in the freezer. My 'working' stock is held in the fridge. All the above is held in ziplocked freezer bags. I also keep loaded film holders in the fridge - each indiviidually bagged in a ziplocked freezer bag. The holder doesn't come out of the bag until I'm ready to put it in the camera, after which it goes straight back in the bag. I hate dust.