Best way to bring 4x5 negs to the lab.

zemzem · Aug 10, 2007

Well my home darkroom isn't up and running yet and I have a shoot on Sunday and may not be able to get the Negs to the Lab until Tuesday morning. I was wondering if anyone had any tips on storing the negs. I was thinking of taking them out of the holders and putting them back in the box and then in the fridge, but I'm afraid of scratching them. I'd appreciate any advice. Thanks.

Ian Grant · Aug 10, 2007

Well when I did a lot of LF E6 we just stuck them in an empty film box, and I've never seen scratches. Everyone else I know did the same. Just don't go throwing the boxes around.

Ian

Drew B. · Aug 10, 2007

I think you just have to send the holders w/exposed film in a big enough box to the lab. That's what I've done in the past. Now I send ready loads in their original box and of course, ask for the box back w/the processed negs.

David A. Goldfarb · Aug 10, 2007

Normally, I unload the holders to an empty three-part film box and rubber band it twice to give to the lab.

If you give them your loaded holders, they might charge you something like $1 per holder to "download" (yeah, that's really what they call it) your film.

Roger Hicks · Aug 11, 2007

Ian Grant said:
Well when I did a lot of LF E6 we just stuck them in an empty film box, and I've never seen scratches. Everyone else I know did the same. Just don't go throwing the boxes around.

Ian

Same here. Even throwing the boxes around seems to do little harm: we used motorcycle couriers all the time, and they assuredly do not use kid gloves.

In addition, in response to the OP, I'd not recommend putting 'em in the 'fridge: the box could go soggy and the films stick together, which really could be a problem. A couple of days at ambient will do no harm whatsoever.

Guillaume Zuili · Aug 11, 2007

In some labs they have a little darkroom to let you unload the film and put them in the box. They don't like to do it and I'm not surprised by the "download" charge...

radiantdarkroom · Aug 11, 2007

Well after working in a pro-lab for five years I found it was definitely easier to process 4x5 film from a box than from film holders. The biggest problem were people who didn't label the damn film or mislabeled the damn film. Tracing notch holes is a lot less fun than processing film.

Bob Carnie · Aug 12, 2007

We prefer to recieve the film in a box as others suggest with the notches all in the same orientation with emulsion down.
Most labs will have a room you can go to unload your film if you prefer.

zemzem · Aug 14, 2007

Thanks for all the advice. I "downloaded" the film into a three part box and rode over to the lab on my motorcycle and everything seems to be fine. Next time I'll keep them out of the fridge.

Best way to bring 4x5 negs to the lab.

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