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Hi Folks - yesterday i spent what seemed like an inordinate amount of money (nearly 25 squid for 100) on nice cotton rag 5x4 negative sleeves from Silverprint; basically I've used Printfile (a tussle + staticky), Clearfile (OK but staticky) and Glassine (not exactly inspiring confidence) and I feel that I have enough negs that I want to store in a simple, highly archival, way. It works out at nearly 25p a neg, which I suppose in the longterm isn't too much, but I got to thinking that overall, storage is heading towards the same cost as film! The same applies to print sleeves too - crazy prices. So, what I would like to know (just out of plain nosiness) is how does everyone else store their stuff?
Hope you all have a nice weekend.
Phil

Hi Phil,

Secol AS202P4SE - see: http://www.secol.co.uk/ASPAGES.SHTML
£24.35 + VAT & P&P for 50 sheets of 4. So, 200 5x4's @ appx 17p per 5x4. I consider this to be a good price per film.

As for prints. I also use Secol - see : http://www.secol.co.uk/POCKETS.SHTML but I'd say these are relatively expensive.

Thanks for the info Steve - I did wonder about Secol stuff - the Transleeves looked about right for my purpose, but I just wasn't sure how they would be with regard to fiddlyness of getting the negatives in, abrasion of said neg, and static. Even with my ioniser, I find taking 120 negs out of Polyester sleeves charges them up something rotten . . .
P

Phil,

I’ve never had any static issues or scratching with Secol which I’ve been using for many years.

After my last post I had some other thoughts related to the cost of storage. In a year I probably spend i.r.o. £2000 on trips take pictures – typically one 3 week trip to the US and a total of say another 3 weeks’ worth of short trips or day trips here in the UK (it varies a lot but it averages out something like that). On average I take 250 5x4s a year and from that I probably make 50 to 75 keepers per year. This makes the cost of one keeper something between £25 to £40. So a few pence to protect a 5x4 can be seen in context. And of course this doesn’t account for the other huge cost – equipment. Against this background the costs of film, chemistry and storage are small.

I’m not suggesting you don’t realise that – it’s just that your question prompted me to do the sums to see what it is costing me.

I bought a 1000 box of the Kenro 4x5 bags quite a few years back - should keep me going for a while...

http://www.kenro.co.uk/product/NEGATIVE ... +Bags.html

It's possible to write details on the outside using a marker pen and I keep them in a standard storage card filing cabinet in some kind of chronological order. For slides, I use the sleeves they in which came from the lab.

Hi Steve and Apple - thanks for the replies.
Well this is the start of my second year of doing LF, so I'm still picking up tips etc etc.
I did find problems (although slight) with Printfile and Clearfile and the Glassine bags were only really a stopgap, hence my wish to use something a bit more substantial with things I was really happy with. I know, it's not a lot of money in comparative terms, but all the same it does seem expensive when your funds are limited!
I've been trying to do everything on an extreme budget (it's actually made a change to have some money to spend at Silverprint) which has been the way of my photographic life since I restarted; f'rinstance:
now using HC110 at Dil H
make my own plain hypo
also knock up other developers
just starting to use Adox 100 (cheaper than FP4)
1960's and '70's equipment (apart from the Toyo holders)
all gear stashed in an old 15ltr rucksack that I bought years ago
hillwalks limited to as and when
you get the drift!

I will have a look at the Secol stuff next time though - guess i should have asked questions first and purchased after !!
P

Apple wrote:I bought a 1000 box of the Kenro 4x5 bags quite a few years back - should keep me going for a while...

Same here. It cost around £30 for 1000 glassine bags.

It's a pity they don't make the KNF019 sheets anymore which held four 5x4 films per sheet.

Mike

The sleeves from Silverprint are unbuffered University Products sleeves and are actually really rather nice if you match them up with their 5x4 neg box. It certainly looks better than the glassines in a Ziplok bag which is what i was keeping them in!

Hi, which of silverprints sleeves would you recommend as the best? and which coding do they come under, are they good strong quality items, Cheers for the Info. Tombo ( :mr green: )