Film that got a bit wet still OK?

[hugh_connerty_jr]

Did a moronic thing-while photographing in Arizona this past week, I

put 50-sheet boxes of Provia, Delta 100 & Tech Pan($!) in a Ziploc

bag and then immersed said bag in a cooler of ice to protect it from

the absurdly high AZ temperatures. Lucky for me that the bag's seams

failed on the last day it was needed, getting a fair amount of water

upon everything. All three of the triple boxes are sopping wet,

while the Delta 100 seems nearly untouched. The Tech Pan is kept in

paper inner bags, which were wet enough to permeate to the point that

the edges of all the sheets were stuck together. The Provia was a

bit wet, too-but not terribly so. <p>Will the exposed film which was

wet be still worth developing? Can the unexposed sheets still be

used? If I wrap the sheets in tin foil(they're totally dry now) to

make them protected from light for transport, will there be any

reaction between the foil & film? Anyone else have a suggestion for

an opaque transport container locateable in rural AZ & conducive to

airline travel? Thanx-I searched all the film threads & saw nothing

about wet film, and have never previously been dumb enough 2

encounter this problem.

[matthew_brain]

The outlook isn't good unless you were going out for some weird patchy color shifts (I had a flat mate you liked these odd patterns over the chromes).

 

If it is really important work, it is possibly worth developing. With 4x5 film, you may be able to get a couple of good sheets and a couple where enough can be cropped to be OK. Depends on how much development costs you I guess.

 

This is a much more economical thing to do to roll film (out of the camera).

 

Good Luck

[sean_mcentee2]

Please let us know what evolves from this experience.

 

It is a bummer, but I am curious.

[miles_feigenbaum___dallas_]

Sounds like the making of a new Corona Beer Commercial...are you sure it wasn't an errant brewski?

 

I've seen small opaque boxes at the local camera shop similar to the Pelican boxes that were very small in size and kinda cute too. nice dayglo type colors. Some of the shops that sell canoe equipment have these as well. Now , lets see.. a canoe shop in rural arrid arizona..

I'll check into these and get the name from the box, i've seen them on the web as well. I am fairly certain that they have a large o-ring that seals the lid making them water tight.

[r.l.__mac__mcdonald]

A sad story to say the least. But you are not the first to get film wet, before it made it to

the Darkroom. A few years back (before VIDEO) I was filming a college football game in

B/W 35mm it began to rain and snow and I thought I had my magazines all covered

and with the doors up so that if they got wet at least the contents would be dry and life

would go on. Well everything was going fine until I got to the forth magazine, by that

time everything was so damn wet that I failed to notice that the door of the forth

magazine was up( you would have thought that I�d notice the extra weight). So, I

mounted the Mag and pulled the darkslide which let about a gallon of water flood into

the camera. I found it when I opened the door to thread up. I was sixty feet up in the air

on a boom truck and I can assure that everyone in the stadium knew I HAD A

PROBLEM!

I went to the last mag(the back up) and put in place and proceeded to thread up like

nothing happened. After the game I cleaned up the Camera and filled it with fresh oil. I

then put the film on Greyhound and crossed my fingers. Three days later( yes the Bus

System used to have a Schedule) I headed to the Projection booth to see just how bad

the damage was. Well I was amazed, the only damage, was that the sound track was

gone and about a 1/16th of an inch of the image area was damaged. So I custom filed a

new aperture plate for the old RCA adjusted the Masking stops on the stage and

thankfully coaches provided their own live commentary, no sound track would be

needed, so nobody was the wiser. Ahhhh the benefits of being both photographer and

projectionist Two years later a Projectionist called me to find out just what kind of

�Format� it was because the Coach wanted to use it at an awards ceremony. So the cat

was out of the bag especially when they wanted the sound turned up.. So, I agree with

the previous poster, give it a try and plan on doing a lot of cropping and if you are really

concerned about keeping your film �on Ice� you need to throw a Tupperware Party in

the very near future. Best of luck and let us know how you turn out

[r.l.__mac__mcdonald]

SorryI missed the other questions. I would toss any unexposed film that was wet. You have no way of knowing where to crop on the glass.

But if you must... you may be able to feel the damaged area and adjust or take a sheet or two out and look at them to see how extensive the damaged area is. You don't say what format or if the film is dry now. Do not load wet or damp film into your holders the emulsion may stick to the holder and keep flaking off for a long time and reminding you in the form of large dust spots. The Foil works great just wrap in clean dry paper first and use two layers of foil the thin non comrecial works better. Post your location in AZ and see if you can come up with some fresh film. Most people around here are very helpful with these types of problems...

[nathanielpaust]

I think that everybody is right that you shouldn't try to use the film normally. It's been compromised, and it would be a lot cheaper to replace it than it would be to replace a once-in-a-lifetime photo.

 

With that said, I would probably shoot a sheet of it along with a sheet of non-wet "good" film each time you want to take a picture. That way, the "good" film will be sure to get the picture, but you might get an interesting picture from the previously wet film.

 

I have some great pictures that came about by accident (color shifting on old tungsten polaroid film). I definitely wouldn't just throw the film away.

 

Nathaniel