I go on several extended (2-4 day) hiking trips every year and was curious what container(s) most people use to store their exposed 4x5 film. I will mostly be using Fuji QuickLoads of Velvia and Provia. Any suggestions on storage and care in the field would be greatly appreciated.

-- Thomas W. Earle (twade@bmi.net), July 01, 2000

Answers

Try those air tight boxes for storing food in, though I'm not sure there is one that is a good fit.

-- David Kirk (David_J_Kirk@hotmail.com), July 01, 2000.

If you have enough of them, they are very stiff and won't bend. I put around 20 per large ZipLoc bag.

-- Carlos Co (co@che.udel.edu), July 01, 2000.

I just put them into the box (out of the foil bag) as I expose them. When I complete a box, I put them back into the foil bag and tape it shut. I keep the holder and the film in the box in my backpack for protection. When I send the film off for processing, I just wrap the Fuji box and mail it. It usually comes back in the same box. If I really go nuts and expose a lot of film, the bulk of the boxes does add up. I try to carry in my pack only what I need for the day. The rest of the film (exposed and unexposed) stays in camp. I've heard of floating the film in a plastic bag in a stream to keep it cool, but I'm not brave enough to try that trick! Happy trails!

-- Ray Dunn (raydunn@mcn.net), July 01, 2000.

I put them back in the foil pouch in the quickload box, but place them in the opposite way as the adjacent sheets. In Japan, Fuji offers a slightly different QL holder (has a thing where you can inprint a red "E" on the top white part of the sheet to mark it as exposed [redundant, since they still have the exposed stickers] and a soft storage pouch...this, for twice the B&H price of a QL holder). I've seen this soft pouch used to store exposed quickloads (but they were does the holder go?).

-- James Chow (drjchow@earthlink.net), July 01, 2000.

i use box they come in. I also use emptied boxes to carry Polaroid materials in.

-- Ellis Vener (evphoto@insync.net), July 03, 2000.

Thanks everyone for your suggestions. I believe, I will try the same box they came in as most other suggested. It seems this would be the most "light-tight" solution.

-- Thomas W. Earle (twade@bmi.net), July 04, 2000.

If you carry a small changing bag (or can make-shift one), you could unload the exposed quickloads into a standard 4x5 film box. This would be extremely light-tight, secure and compact.

-- Larry Huppert (Larry.Huppert@mail.com), July 05, 2000.