We have just found many cannisters of film that my grandfather took in the 30's and 40's. I am not sure if they are negative or positive, as I have not seen them yet. They are in rolls with sprocket holes on each side, but are not movies. We would like to know what is the appropriate way to view them and if we can have them copied to another media such as Video tape or printed for preservation purposes. Thank you for any information you can provide.

-- Diane Reppun (dreppun@att.net), December 19, 2000

Answers

I'd say there is a 99% chance they are negatives. You should be able to take them to a lab that offers black and white printing services and have prints made from them. This could get expensive, as black and white services are now harder to find than color. You may wish to have contact prints made first, just to see what is on the rolls, then decide which frames to have printed. Or you may wish to have a single roll printed, see if it contains anything of interest, and determine if it is damaged in any way. Then you can decide about the rest.

-- Ed Buffaloe (edb@unblinkingeye.com), December 20, 2000.

Old B&W film needs lots more cooking, so tell them the aprox date.

Dean

-- Dean Lastoria (dvlastor@sfu.ca), December 20, 2000.

Greetings,

If these images have value, sentimental or otherwise, you may want to consider a professional lab (check your local phone book.) They could perform a clip test, where they clip a small section off the roll and process it to determine what modifications may be needed to process the remainder of the roll. This costs more, but if it's something that has value to you, it may be worth it. Good luck!

Regards,

-- Pete Caluori (pcaluori@hotmail.com), December 20, 2000.