Tape decay
The biggest problem I see facing archiving of home movies isn't age...it's decay. I see cinefilm from the 1950s look as good as it was on the day it was processed, or within a few percentage points anyway. The real problem is Video Tape. To be more specific it is mould. I am seeing more and more tapes with the tell-tale white powder of mould spread over the top of the tape...viewable through the plastic window. Obviously it's best to get everything saved as soon as you can but if you have a mixture of archives across cinefilm and video tape...... strangely it is the tape you should consider saving first. Any videos from the millennium and before are really at the end of their stable life. So if budget comes into it and you have to make a choice...get your video archived first. Your cine will still be as good in a year as it is today...
Posted on Thu, May 25, 2017
by Chris Squires