Posting films - Do red pillar boxes (UK) get too hot?

[Jamie Gray]

I have looked but have found no information on the matter. In the UK, if you post your films into a pillar box that sits in full sun all day, will the films go a tad bad and shift colour?

I would love to get a temperature probe and drop it into one, one day.

 

[Sirius Glass]

One day should not make a difference. Sitting there for a much longer period could make a difference.

 

[perkeleellinen]

It is very unlikely that British sunshine could heat cast iron to a temperature that impacts film colour balance.

 

[Ian Grant]

Check what time it's collected from, the two near me are 9am. Post close to collection of late in the day.

Ian

 

[koraks]

if you post your films into a pillar box that sits in full sun all day, will the films go a tad bad and shift colour?

No, don't worry.

 

[runswithsizzers]

After the mail is taken from the collection box, it is put into a truck. I cannot comment on conditions in England or the British postal system, but here in the US a lot of package delivery is done by UPS. Those UPS trucks are painted dark brown, and they have no air conditioning.

Once, I was enrolled in a wine delivery service that required the wine to spend a day in a UPS truck on its way from the warehouse to my house. I quit ordering wine when I noticed a case of wine just removed from the UPS delivery truck was well over 100*F (38*C). The UPS driver says the back of his truck can get up to around 140*F on hot, sunny days.

 

[pentaxuser]

After the mail is taken from the collection box, it is put into a truck. I cannot comment on conditions in England or the British postal system, but here in the US a lot of package delivery is done by UPS. Those UPS trucks are painted dark brown, and they have no air conditioning.

I can. Our problem may be lack of heating in such trucks for most of the year so some danger that the drivers end up with a blue cast but no such danger for the film film tho'

pentaxuser

 

[MattKing]

For those requiring translation - I certainly did initially - "posting" appears to mean "mailing", and "pillar boxes" appears to mean "mailboxes".
Just a public service supplement.
Isn't English wonderful in its variability?

 

[Sirius Glass]

For those requiring translation - I certainly did initially - "posting" appears to mean "mailing", and "pillar boxes" appears to mean "mailboxes".
Just a public service supplement.
Isn't English wonderful in its variability?

Divided by a common language.
lift : elevator
skip : trash bin
trolley : shopping cart

 

[pentaxuser]

For those requiring translation - I certainly did initially - "posting" appears to mean "mailing", and "pillar boxes" appears to mean "mailboxes".
Just a public service supplement.
Isn't English wonderful in its variability?

Yes it is. I often feel you may be harboring humor in those humor tanks of yours so tanks or is that tanx so as to distinguish vessels that hold and store things from gratification?

pentaxuser

 

[Taylor Nankervis]

Only a vague idea from the visions of memory of what UK pillar boxes look like, but if they are cast iron, I would not be concerned.

As a comparison, in Australia the big red post boxes are thin steel and hot to touch — you could put a neat dent in them with your big toe, or fry a barramundi on the top if you're really keen! If I was posting film, it would be lodged at the counter, not dropped into a proverbial hotbox on the street corner exposed to 43°c heat all day. Is direct lodging at a post office a better choice for you if there is a PO nearby?

 

[reddesert]

Finally an explanation for the idiom "from pillar to post" ...

 

[Agulliver]

In past decades when mail order photo processing was very popular, literally hundreds of millions of rolls of film were posted to labs via ordinary red pillar boxes in the UK (and other mail boxes globally). It wasn't a problem. It remains a non-problem. The 24 hours the film might experience inside the pillarbox will only include a few hours of sunshine and even on the hottest UK day that's not going to be any kind of problem. The film might spend a day in transit depending on what postal service you select and where it's going. It's never been a problem.

Storing a film on top of a radiator for a full winter season might begin to cause issues. Even then, it might need two or three years of this to actually be a real problem unless you're shooting professionally and need absolute consistency.

 

[loccdor]

Two years ago, we were in Greece on a day where the outdoor temperature reached 115F (46C). I had to leave my film bag in the car, in the sun, for an hour or two. I didn't notice any problems, and had quite a variety, from slide to color negative to black and white.

 

[Dr. no]

I left some E6 in the car, for a Texas summer...Some nights it might drop to the lower 90s (~31c). It suffered. If a postbox in the UK got hot enough to damage film, we wouldn't have any pictures at all from the Southern US (or much of Oz).

More fun:
kerb=curb
connexion=connection
diarrhoea=diarrhea

Brits decided to rationalise their spelling (a little) at some point, but didn't quite finish the job. Americans aren't rational at all, with language. Australians spout brilliant neologisms which no one understands but communicate perfectly.

 

[Sirius Glass]

Two years ago, we were in Greece on a day where the outdoor temperature reached 115F (46C). I had to leave my film bag in the car, in the sun, for an hour or two. I didn't notice any problems, and had quite a variety, from slide to color negative to black and white.

Occasional heat for one or a few days does not cause problems with film in my experience and as I have been told at Kodak when I worked there.