mounted slide storage

[dmtnkl]

I am curious as to how you store your mounted slides. I currently use small boxes that hold 20~30 slides... I am using this method for years now and my slides stay completely clean and dust free. However they are not easy to view as i always have to fiddle around with the boxes.

As a result i am starting to consider archival slide pages to make everything more manageable. I have been evaluating a few for a little while and i have some concerns, more specifically:

- As slides pages are pulled around for inspection and the slides themselves removed and re-inserted after projection, dust and other small debris eventually find their way into the individual pouches. Thus, slides cannot really stay completely clean.

- I noticed that even new, factory sealed sets of slide pages exhibit some kind of haze, like some material has settled on them after prolonged storage. This also holds for pages that are advertised as being PVC free and meeting archival standards.

From the 35mm ones that i evaluated, ClearFile seem to provide the best fit for 2mm mounts. For 6x4.5|6x6, PrintFile were the only ones i found and also seem to provide a very good fit for 3mm mounts.

I also tried transparent Kunze Journal 24 holders but they also exhibited dirt and material deposits even when new. Trying to clean them was almost impossible as static would start to build up and they would attract a lot of dust.

How do you deal with storage that enables cleanliness, easy inspection and good space management? Any people with large collections out there? Can slide pages result in dust buildup and haze/material deposits on slides or am i simply worrying too much?

 

[chip j]

I use little slide boxes at first and do multiple edits for a couple-3 yrs. The keepers go into archival slide pages for later louping or projection. Just blow'em off w/air!

 

[mshchem]

When the purge of Carousel trays occurred late 90's on I put everything in trays in boxes. I have the luxury of cool, dry storage. Kodak made a clip system for the Carousel stack loader. I'm too fumble fingered but you might look for that. Be careful, there's a lot of older PVC pages, not archival .

 

[PittP]

My 135-projector uses straight LKM trays, I use these to store slides, almost since day 1. 2 trays fit in a hard-plastic box - thats ready for projection. For the few MF slides I use cardboard "archival boxes", as projector doesn't take trays. The many boxes (both types) that have accumulated over the years are kept in well-sealed steel cabinets put up in the coldest place of the house. Humidity is controlled by both silica gel and CaCL2-container packs (beware, CaCL2 spills are corrosive) at ~25%. It's far from professional cold storage, but a working compromise.
I've tried to use folder pages of transparent plasic for some time: Not practical, too much of tedious manipulations before and after projection, involved risk of damage, and the plastic apparently evaporated whatever doubious stuff. A register of the slides is helpful in any case.

 

[AgX]

Aside of foil collective-pouches there still are these stiff cassettes, with mounts stored overlapping:

A common but bulky way in Europe to store slides is in their projcting trays as offered by Hama:

 

[dmtnkl]

I've tried to use folder pages of transparent plasic for some time: Not practical, too much of tedious manipulations before and after projection, involved risk of damage, and the plastic apparently evaporated whatever doubious stuff.

This is also my impression, hence the creation of this topic to ask about other's experience.

Aside of foil collective-pouches there still are these stiff cassettes, with mounts stored overlapping:

I have seen various sets of these. Very hard to clean, they build up static very easily and attract too much dust. Furthermore, i have seen haze and fungus develop on them (on almost every set i have seen.. maybe they were in storage for a long time without the box getting opened to get some fresh air?).

 

[Chan Tran]

I had a box from Kodak like this one
https://www.google.com/search?q=Kod...8KHX6vDSQQ9QEwAnoECAAQCA#imgrc=chflMQLI6jZ-2M:

I had all my good slides in it and when I moved I never find it again. I love the box but I missed my slides even more.