[Leica] Kodachrome Blues

["Rod Fleming" <rodfleming@sol.co.uk>]

Hi

Nice to see Ted's gone back on his assertion than no-one will want to see
his pictures in a hundred years- the interest in heritage stuff is expanding
and shows no sign of slackening pace.

Good archival technique is important, therefore.

I have just pulled my files from 1971, the first year I used colour tranny
film. There are examples of both Ektachrome and Kodachrome, and the colours
appear as bright and sharp as they should. There is no midtone fade that I
can see, and though I have not put them on the desitometer, I can't see any
appreciable loss of Dmax. While the colours in the Kodachromes are punchier
than the Ektachromes, they were that way in 1971, and I'm pretty sure the
difference has not become more pronounced.

Now, okay, so a quick deek on the lightbox  is not a scientific study, but
these images are nearly 30 years old, and if we were going to have real
problems, I'd expect to see evident deterioration by now. And remember that
the Ektachrome was the old E4 stuff, which is reckoned to be less permanent
than E6.

So I wonder- could longevity be more to do with storage than we assume?
These images have very rarely  (if ever)  been projected, and they have
always been stored in the dark, in either closed boxes or archival
pocket-type pages. But other than that I've done nothing special. Could it
be that even a few exposures to the intensity of the projector lamp starts
and accelerates the deterioration process much more quickly than I thought?

I must admit I am somewhat surprised myself by this finding, but the slides
are there, and they speak for themselves.

Speaking quite personally, though I love the look of tranny film, I was
coming increasingly to the viewpoint that the best solution was to originate
on C-type and then dupe or print as required- the manufacturers seem happy
with the permanence of C-type, and colour shifts due to age could be
corrected in the print/dupe.......Now I'm not so sure.

Confused



Rod