Velvia into the lake, now what

So I was able to get the velvia out of my camera before I shipped it out for

repairs. There was evidence on the leader that the film was wet, maybe not

saturated but wet nonetheless. It has been suggested that I cleanse the film in

distilled water, dry then process. I could do that, need some sound advice. I

could also just submit it for developing as it seems to be dry. I manually

loaded it back into the canister in a changing bag, no water was evident. Any

help would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

Gerry

If you were able to re-wind the film AFTER everything was dry, then just submit for normal processing. If it was wet when re-wound, then it would be best to carefully unwind the roll before processing. If the roll unwinds easily with a minimum of sticking, it will be ok for processing. If it starts sticking, then soak the roll in clean water for 20 or 30 minutes until you can unwind it easily.

 

I dunked a couple rolls in a creek a couble years ago. The film was in my pocket when I got into a deeper-than-expected pool. It didn't get completely soaked. I processed normally and got OK results. There were some water marks, but most frames were OK.

Gerry - did you not like the replies you got two days ago ? R.

This saga is spread out over six threads ?

Anyway what doesn't seem to be spelled out in any of the replies is how you pre-wash a film for later processing. In previous threads you indicated it rewound OK without sticking together and so maybe it should just be subbmitted for processing, you could indicate to them the concern, as previously said, and they could run it at the end of the run. Processing yourself, if you do the wash just before you process it will reduce the required process time slightly as the time is calibrated to include diffusion of liquid into dry film. (I never knew this years ago and always did a prewash with both C41 and E6 with distilled water to stabilise the temperature of the film, tank, and reel. I had predictable results however but never had lab quality with the Bessler kits back then. Now I know the reccommended way is to place the loaded dry tank in the temp. controlled bath and allow the air, film etc. in it to stabilise at the 100 degrees F.) So I would reccommend, if you deem it necessary, to wash in distilled water and then dry in the dark. Since most of us don't have a double darkroom door to leave film out to dry, you have to improvise. The last time I needed to wash and hang to dry, my darkroom was in the basement and I darkened the basement windows, (black trash bags) and waited til the middle of the night and so it was dark when I left my darkroom. I left the film until the next night and then re-entered the darkroom. In this house I would not be able to do that, but I have a closet off the darkroom and I could put the film dryer in there. Failing that I would have to construct something. Or put the air mattress in the darkroom and and take a nap until the film is dry and can be rewound.

I'm trying to weigh all my options as the film has some irreplacable pics on it. I can have the film processed by my lab or I can pre-wash the film in distilled water and process it myself or I can pre-wash the film, dry in the dark and have the lab process. I'm just trying to make sure I have all the necessary info/options to make a sound decision, which still does not guarantee that the images won't be tainted. I appreciate all the input and advice from everyone. I will keep you posted as to the final outcome.