just found a roll of developed 8mm kodachrome floating in seawater-how to preserve?

[Beth1]

Help- I just found a roll of developed 8mm kodachrome floating in seawater-(thanks Hurricane Sandy) how to preserve? wet, dry, wash? help! and thanks.

 

[Bill Burk]

I'd get a bucket of room-temperature distilled water and submerge it.

Unreel the film gently in the water, so it doesn't stick to itself.

Then standby for further instructions from more knowledgeable forum members...

 

[Beth1]

Thanks Bill. I have it under gently running tap water and will buy distilled tonite and do as you suggest.

 

[Bill Burk]

OK you are probably good for now. The distilled will be for final rinse before you hang it up to dry, so you don't have minerals drying onto the surface. To the distilled water you might add a few drops of wetting agent (Photo-Flo if you can get it from a local camera shop. It's similar to dish soap, it will just allow water to sheet off the film without leaving spots) and/or some preservative that someone here may know of.

 

[Nicholas Lindan]

As Bill says, just treat it as film. Rinse, give it a bath in some photoflo, run it between your fingers to squeegee off the excess and hang to dry. You will probably have to loop it over something - just make sure it is the back of the film in contact with the something.

Don't keep it wet for too long. Distilled water is nice but tap water works well too.

 

[Bill Burk]

How about rigging up a clothesline with a bunch of hooks made up of those green plastic-coated christmas tree ornament hooks?

Have the clothesline strung over a bathtub, and loop the film, hanging each few foot section by a sprocket hole in an ornament hook... Then the image area of the film itself won't touch anything.

 

[MartinP]

very good idea to use the perforations. A piece of string and a load of bent paper-clips would do the job, in case the Christmas decorations are floating in the Atlantic somewhere.

 

[MattKing]

Did Kodachrome require any sort of stabilizer as a final step? If so, you will need that as a final step in order to avoid deterioration of the film over time.

 

[Bill Burk]

Good luck, hoping by now you have done your final rinse in distilled water with couple drops dish soap and have the film hanging in loops to dry. After a few hours you can go in with a sponge and daub the bottom of each loop where there is probably a one last drop of water... just to remove the drop... Then it'll dry overnight. You should be good in the morning or mid-day tomorrow to re-reel the film and use the bathtub again.

Matt's probably right about long-term stability. But you should be good for now.

 

[EdoNork]

Any interesting image in it?