Life exptancy of exposed / unprocessed film in North Atlantic ?

[Luddite Frank]

Last night I got suckered into a Facebook post about "lost pictures from Titanic recovered" or something to that effect, purporting that there were images from a camera recovered from the wreck.

The images turned-out to be well-known professional photos from the shipyard and other locations before her maiden voyage.


But it did spark a question in my mind, how long would / could exposed film survive in the icy depths of the North Atlantic ocean ?

How would it deteriorate ? ( Any metal bits would quickly deteriorate, but how about the film itself, the latent image ? )


Thanks,

LF

 

[wes loder]

Underwater? Long gone. But note that dry, low temperatures might prolong a latent image. As a side note, when I received Hans Liholm's camera it contained a roll of film exposed in 1950. I had it processed and was able to recover printable images. Appeared black overall, but the images were there. WES

 

[Timmyjoe]

I purchased a camera that was last used in the mid 1960's that came with two rolls of exposed film. It was B&W and I was able to develop it and get images. Again, as Wes says, stored in a dry place. I think underwater, in salt water, they wouldn't last a week.

 

[Luddite Frank]

Would the gelatin / emulsion dissolve ? ( Dumb question, I guess if we're talking about a 114 -year soak...)

How about the nitrocellulose substrate ?

 

[tunalegs]

Would the gelatin / emulsion dissolve ? ( Dumb question, I guess if we're talking about a 114 -year soak...)

How about the nitrocellulose substrate ?

I don't think there'd be anything left. Heck, it'd more than likely be in pretty bad shape if it were kept dry.

Here's a blog post that is tangentially relevant, but should still be of interest: http://thelawlers.com/Blognosticator/?p=1263

 

[MrFujicaman]

First of all, the Titanic is about 2.5 miles down. Any camera would have been crushed by water pressure long before the Titanic hit the sea floor and flooded with salt water. I have to think that salt water wouldn't do film any good.

 

[Huss]

Sacrifice a test roll of film. Shoot it, soak it in salt water for a few weeks. Develop it.

Or dunk it in a cup of pee.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/01/brigette-bloom-_n_5639794.html

 

[Calzone]

I shot two rolls of color slide film just after September 11th the weekend just after the attack.

I am mostly a B&W shooter, but also I kinda was a mess dealing with a lot of my own personal unresolved grief, so for about 8-9 years I never got the film processed.

I went to Duggal and told them that my film had been stored after exposure in my refrigerator, and I was told that they would do some adjustments to the processing.

The resulting slides displayed a color shift that depicted less saturation almost like they were bleached by the sun and faded. It went well with the images of memorials scatter all over Manhattan and Brooklyn.

Tears...

Cal

 

[Sarcophilus Harrisii]

A few years ago there was a web page with details from Kodak (I think) with information about how to handle the film from Mallory and Irvine's long lost camera that has been the subject of several search efforts since they perished on Everest. I think it's no longer online but it had some fascinating information about optimising the results from long exposed film. Of course Everest is as far from the ocean depths as one can get whilst still on Earth.

 

[johannielscom]

A few years ago there was a web page with details from Kodak (I think) with information about how to handle the film from Mallory and Irvine's long lost camera that has been the subject of several search efforts since they perished on Everest. I think it's no longer online but it had some fascinating information about optimising the results from long exposed film. Of course Everest is as far from the ocean depths as one can get whilst still on Earth.

I'm thinking it might have been an article along these lines?

 

[Luddite Frank]

First of all, the Titanic is about 2.5 miles down. Any camera would have been crushed by water pressure long before the Titanic hit the sea floor and flooded with salt water. I have to think that salt water wouldn't do film any good.

While any camera needs to be light-tight, I would think that few, if any cameras around in 1912 were completely air-tight.

I would imagine that the pressure inside camera would probably equalize with the surrounding sea, as the water infiltrated during sinking. If it were a bellows-camera and it were opened-up at the time of the sinking, the bellows would probably have imploded...

 

[oftheherd]

Our own Keith had a long thread on developing several rolls from I think the mid-30s. He got some amazing results.

As long time members know, Keith was and still is down under ... the equator, not the North Atlantic. 😀 😀 😀

Kidding aside, that was a well followed and fascinating thread. I wish I still had the link to that thread.

 

[Sarcophilus Harrisii]

I'm thinking it might have been an article along these lines?

Thanks Johan, I've skimmed that and it looks like a good read, not least to me because it was written by someone in, of all places, Tasmania where I live which was a surprise. But I've found the page in question. The original link (in the Wikipedia article about Mallory) was dead, but fortunately there is a link to the archived copy of it, which you will find here.
Cheers,
Brett

 

[giganova]

While any camera needs to be light-tight, I would think that few, if any cameras around in 1912 were completely air-tight.

Its pitch black at that depth, not a single photon is reaching the bottom of the ocean. 😀

 

[Santtu Määttänen]

Woudn't the sodium chloride react with silver halides with in the film, forming possibly metallic silver on top of the film. Even if it doesn't soak away from the nitrate backing, it would likely be impossible to develop an image out of it.

 

[Santtu Määttänen]

Then again, I have no idea how much salts there are in those depths. Temperature is constant around 4 degrees celsius. So all chemical effects are prolonged quite a bit by it, but it has had 114 years time to react 😀