Did you know that Pro8mm has a cold room to store all that delicious factory fresh / sealed film that we purchase from Kodak? The film we purchase goes  directly from Kodaks refrigerated storage in Rochester, New York directly to our cold room in Burbank.  When shipments arrive, we house it in a room we built that maintains a constant 68 degrees to maintain quality and freshness.  All Super 8 and 16mm Kodak film is re-packaged to include our processing and scanning services. 

We also purchase fresh Kodak 35mm to make speciality super 8 film stocks options available, like the Pro8-07!  Back in the 90’s and early 2000’s before Kodak introduced Color Negative Super 8 Film, we made over 20 different film stocks that way.  We do this by using special machinery that cuts and perforates the 35mm film into Super 8 strands and we load them into empty Kodak cartridges. This is a process we have been perfecting since 1992.  

Today, we are making the new Pro8/22 B&W stock from 35mm. We are also stocking custom stocks for specialty applications like Double Super 8 in both Ektachrome 100D and 50D Color Negative and Double perf 16mm in 50D.  These stocks help expand the possibilities of using film with unique camera equipment like the High Speed 16mm Cameras and UltraDS8. 

Fortunately for us, we have such a high volume of weekly film sales, that repacked film flies off the shelf, so our inventory is constantly being replenished with factory fresh film.

We can also store YOUR processed film in our cold storage room.  We now have this option available in Sprocket. One month is included free with all film we process. This is a great option for people shooting out of the country, or for projects being shot over a period time that will be scanned all together.

NO BRAIN FREEZE  HERE!  

We also keep our server in the cold room.  The “Brain Behind the Machine” is a  680 Terabyte machine gets hot with all those drives and computers.  Like most machines, our server likes it when its cold!  The machine is accepting encoding from two scanners simultaneously and can handle the bit rate of huge files, such as 4K DPX or 6.5K Pro Res 444.  It can also download the data to two host computers simultaneously which can either put the files on drives or upload them to the cloud.

Storing Film At Home

When we have our sales, clients like to take advantage of the discount prices and “stock up” on inventory.  Here are a few things to consider when purchasing film that you may not use for awhile:

1. Fresh film is the best for capturing ultimate images. 
2. To keep the film fresh, keep it stored at room temperature.  Film is a perishable product and does not like being exposed to high heat or humidity.
3. If you plan on storing film for more than 6 months, pop it in the refrigerator to slow down the  possibility of  degradation and protect it from humidity .  45 degrees is generally recommended.  We suggest putting the film in a box within your refrigerator to protect it from spills, or condensation that can occur in an older refrigerator.
4. For long term storage, you can store film  in the freezer.  Again, protect it in a zip lock bag or box to protect if from getting wet.  If you loose electricity for example , and your fridge defrosts, the water or moisture will ruin the film.
5. Don’t keep film for so long that you might not be able to process it!  We often see people sharing photos and  talking about their “refrigerators full of Kodachrome 40” for example which can no longer be processed normally because the chemistry does not exist.  
6. At this point we have every reason to believe film will still be with us for a long time, so get out and shoot  what you’ve got.  We’ve got plenty more for the foreseeable future!

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