Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1996/07/05

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To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us (Leica Newsgroup)
Subject: Re: Film choice: Durability...
From: Wolfgang Sachse <sachse@msc.cornell.edu>
Date: Fri, 5 Jul 1996 09:15:01 -0400 (EDT)

> From: Arthur Wouk <awouk@nilenet.com>
> Date: Thu, 4 Jul 1996 11:27:42 -0600
> Subject: film choice: durability

> i wish to warn all of those cheering various forms of the E-6 color
> process, that the transparencies do not last. thirty years is about
> it.
>
> my agfachromes from the late 40s and early 50s are gone. mt
> ektachromes from the late 50s through about '65 are clearly
> fading.
<snip> ...    ... And ...
> From: Eric Welch <ewelch@gp.magick.net>
> Date: Thu, 04 Jul 1996 10:51:25 -0700
<snip> ...

> And for those truly worth preserving, some day there will probably
> be a truly archival digital medium to store pictures with. Right
> now CDs are not the answer. They dont' even last 20 years from
> what I've heard.

	Arthur is absolutely right.

	Just two months ago I discovered that all my E-4
	processed Ektachromes from the mid-60's are either
	fading or have fungus on them. What a shame!

	For by now, I'm sure that Muff, wherever in the world
	she is, has outgrown her mini-skirt! And the Baltimore
	railyards. Well, they've been recycled. Ah! Memories.
	Only they get better with time!

	Eric's comments are also on the mark. No one really knows
	how long the CD-R (recordable CD's) will last. They
	only came on the market five or so years ago. Possibly
	super error correction codes can correct some of the
	decay and resulting read errors that will surely occur
	as the dye layer ages.

	Anyhow, it just seems that the suggestion made by Arthur
	is probably right on:

> .. if you want archival results, and you must use an ektachrome, etc.,
> then preserve your really valuable transparencies via the three color
> separation process (this IS archival.) ...

	Alternatively, just shoot large format B&W. Then you'll
	have such redundancy of information that loosing a bit
	here or there won't matter much. Look at some prints made
	from old glass plate negatives shot 100+ years ago. WOW.
	They still look great.

	In the meantime, just keep shooting and YOU enjoy the images
	you get. Possibly no one will care about them N-years from
	now anyway. Who, besides Muff or me, care about her 60's look?

	-- Wolfgang

	(Actually, this question is unfair to readers of this Group.
	The photo was taken with a Nikon F and Nikkor 105/f2.5.)
|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|
|                    Wolfgang Sachse   Phone: +1/607/255-5065              |
|                      WWW Home Page   http://www.msc.cornell.edu/~sachse  |
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