...and no, I’m not talking about Fox News or MSNBC.
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Most of us have family memories floating around the house in some form or another, whether it be photos, VHS tapes, home movie film…even audio recordings.  Pull an old family photo album off the shelf and it’s almost guaranteed that your favorite photos have faded just a little since the last time you looked at them.  Your photos were created using a chemical process and those chemicals react to changes in light, temperature and humidity.  As a result, they slowly being to fade and change color.  What you may not realize is the box of family movies in the attic or that drawer of VHS tapes that you shot when your kids were little is going through a similar process.  Over time, the same environmental factors that are causing your photos to deteriorate are also taking a silent toll on those other forms of media you have tucked away.

Having said that, let me backpedal a little bit.  Your old VHS or Hi8 tapes didn’t go through the same chemical process that your photos did, but their slow decline can be brought on by similar factors…light, temperature and humidity.  Videotape is a magnetic media and deterioration can be caused by a number of other things as well.  The magnetic particles that created the image in the first place will gradually lose their charge.  They can also be accidentally demagnetized by a magnetic source…like storing them on top of your stereo speakers for instance.  There is also a lubricant on the videotape to keep it from binding with components of your VCR and when that lubricant dries up, it can create playback problems and information loss.  Even a poorly maintained VCR can have a detrimental effect on your videotapes each time you play them back.  

What about digital video tape formats like MiniDV?  Will they last longer?  While digital formats have much better initial quality and so their decline is harder to see, they are still a magnetic form of media and they will eventually feel the aches and pains of old age.  All forms of videotape media, whether they are analog or digital, require contact with components within the VCR or camera for playback and over time, that friction will begin to affect their quality.  

Studies have shown that VHS tapes start to suffer 10 to 20% signal loss after 10 to 25 years.  Generally, that means a shift in color as well as a loss of picture detail and this degradation will only continue.  Naturally, I’m a proponent of having your videotapes transferred to a digital form such as DVD, however, there are a few things you can do to help preserve them.  Keep them cool, ideally, about 60 degrees Fahrenheit.  Next, keep your tapes dry.  Finally, do what you can to prevent big swings in temperature and humidity.

Unfortunately, home movie film (8mm, Super 8 and 16mm), although more durable than videotape, will eventually fall prey to age and environmental factors, not to mention wear and tear from projectors such as scratches and broken sprockets.  Film will commonly see varying degrees of color shifting and fading as it ages.  Even worse, since film was developed using a chemical process, it is also subject to the breakdown of those chemicals to create something commonly known as vinegar syndrome where the film generally becomes brittle and warped, smelling of vinegar.  When a film reaches this stage, it is often unsalvageable.  I have personally witnessed this on a handful of occasions and it personally makes me sad knowing that someone’s family memories are gone forever, never to be seen again.
 
Film deterioration can also be slowed by following a few storage recommendations.  Keep film cold; the American National Standards Institute suggests 35 degrees Fahrenheit.  Keep it dry, but not too dry…about 20 to 30% relative humidity.   Avoid attics (temperature extremes) and basements (excessive humidity).  Finally, avoid airtight containers as that only accelerates chemical reactions like vinegar syndrome.
 
If you have any questions about anything in this blog post, I’ll do my best to answer them.  Thanks for reading!