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Old 1st March 2020, 07:42 AM
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DaveInElland DaveInElland is offline
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Default Old slides - keep, treat or bin?

I recently stumbled across two forgotten boxes that came from my late fathers house when we were clearing it ready for sale. They have spent the last several years on the floor of a cupboard that also houses the central heating boiler. I cannot recall how they were stored prior to that. Inside are thousands of old colour slides and some old Agfa B&W slides. Mostly family snaps and the like.

I pulled a handful out and whilst some are amazingly still in decent condition many have signs of what I presume is fungus or at least a breaking down of the chemical components of the slide.

My question, should I dispose of the affected slides (after attempting a scan with some of the more sentimentally important ones) and will they “infect” other slides if left in situ?

Thanks in advance
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Old 1st March 2020, 09:12 AM
John King John King is offline
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Default Old slides.

I have boxes and albums full of them! They take up little space and some have not seen light of day for years. I would not get rid of them though, they are a colour record of my years, where I have been and most importantly my children in their early years. I didn't use colour negative film then. When I look at them when they were pre school and what they have achieved now. It always amazes me because they have always done better in the intervening 40+ years than I did.

Most of the slides are in good fettle, although some of them are extremely dusty and the colours have faded. (Especially Agfa ones) Holidays, motorcycle tours. pets, they are all - to me - priceless, irrespective of the condition.

I would say clean them up and preserve them for the future. Incidentally I have found that the ones stored in slide pages are in better condition, than in boxes or magazines.
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Old 1st March 2020, 11:38 AM
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B&W Neil B&W Neil is offline
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My Kodachrome slides have some issues but still useable as a family record. Whereas the Fuji slides seem to have faired better. The last time I had them out with the projector and screen was about 14 years ago!

Neil.
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Old 1st March 2020, 05:05 PM
John King John King is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by B&W Neil View Post
My Kodachrome slides have some issues but still useable as a family record. Whereas the Fuji slides seem to have faired better. The last time I had them out with the projector and screen was about 14 years ago!

Neil.
Me likewise. I seem to remember that at the time I put it away because the magazine feed kept jamming. Thinking back though, the last time I processed E6 was around 2005 but I never projected them
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Old 1st March 2020, 05:23 PM
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B&W Neil B&W Neil is offline
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Me likewise. I seem to remember that at the time I put it away because the magazine feed kept jamming. Thinking back though, the last time I processed E6 was around 2005 but I never projected them

Jon,

It's a pity we seldom project our trannies these days. I used to really enjoy getting the screen out and having a really good slide evening sitting in my armchair.

Neil.
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Old 1st March 2020, 07:18 PM
Mike O'Pray Mike O'Pray is offline
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Does anyone know the answer to Dave's last question, can slides with signs of fungus, if that is what it is, infect nearby slides. Do they have to be treated, if there is a treatment, or at least quarantined?

Mike
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Old 1st March 2020, 07:33 PM
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DaveInElland DaveInElland is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike O'Pray View Post
Does anyone know the answer to Dave's last question, can slides with signs of fungus, if that is what it is, infect nearby slides. Do they have to be treated, if there is a treatment, or at least quarantined?

Mike
Thanks Mike, just catching up on the forum and the same thought went through my mind. I shall be, slowly, scanning the most important slides over the coming months and the idea of quarantine for the worst had popped into my head. BUT, the other thought in my head is, is it possible for slides not yet showing signs of breaking down to actually be already infected?

Cheers all
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Old 1st March 2020, 08:51 PM
John King John King is offline
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Default Old slides.

If I were in your position I would scan them and save them on a high quality memory stick or preferably save them twice on different sticks. You could always save them in a size/resolution that would allow projection from a digital projector.

As for the fungus - yes it will pass onto anything that is favourably edible to fungus. I would not use anything to physically clean them in case the emulsion is removed.

By scanning them exactly as they are now will at least leave you with memories even if they are slightly degraded.
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Old 2nd March 2020, 01:14 PM
JOReynolds JOReynolds is offline
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One of the problems with d*** media is one of archival storage. Slides, as a storage medium, lasted from the 1930s until 2010. That's eighty years! The Compact Disc (1982) and DVD (1995) have lasted to the present day but only a tiny proportion of the trillions of images produced nowadays are stored on 'permanent' media. How many Smartphones are discarded each year, along with their records of families?
I am told that modern CDs are good for at least a century but I remember the scandal of a museum in Ireland that digitised its entire library because they were running out of space, only to find that the discs were degrading only a few years after many of the books had been sold, given away or destroyed.
I have 6x6 slides in glass from the late 1960s, process E3, which are still in good shape. There is an article elsewhere that describes removing fungus from Kodachrome with a weak solution of Hydrogen Peroxide. Anyone tried it?
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Old 2nd March 2020, 01:17 PM
JOReynolds JOReynolds is offline
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Default Digitising slides

My colleague is 'digitising' his slide collection with an enlarging lens, a cardboard tube and tape, using a mobile phone as a lightbox.
I've not seen the rig but the results look fine.
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