Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/04/01

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Kodak Safety film not so safe.....
From: "GPYLE" <gpyle@netnitco.net>
Date: Sat, 1 Apr 2000 16:34:53 -0500

My did was quite the "classic old style" photographer also and he too
produced hundreds upon hundreds of sheet film negatives with a Speed
Graphic.  It is indeed interesting that you should mention this quirky
deterioration of old negatives because I, and quite recently too, had been
pouring over a lot of dad's negatives and I noticed what I now assume to be
the very thing that you are talking about.   Some of the oldest ones are
very brittle and I think that they would literally snap in half if you
flexed them too much.  I believe the new film bases are much better....at
least I hope so.  _____ George Pyle

- ----- Original Message -----
From: Harrison Mcclary <harrison@mcclary.net>
To: LUG <leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us>
Sent: Saturday, April 01, 2000 5:04 PM
Subject: [Leica] Kodak Safety film not so safe.....


> This past week I was visiting a friend and fellow photographer at his
studio
> in Murfreesboro, TN a town not far from where I live.  While there we
began
> discussing how a lot of his dad's old negs are rapidly deteriorating.
>
> Let me insert here that his dad, Dick Shacklett, was a photographer in the
> classic old style.  Shot with the big old cameras used Graflexes, Speed
> Graphics, he created much of the visual history of Rutherford County
> Tennessee with his photos. Some of you may have seem his most famous photo
> "strike" a shot of a rainbow trout as it takes the fly...an incredible
photo
> considering it was made in the days of sheet film.
>
> Anyway almost all of his old photos shot on "Kodak Safety Film" are
rapidly
> destroying themselves.  It seems that the acetate used in the base on
these
> films is chemically unstable and is beginning to shrink.  This is making
the
> negs extremely crinkled and such.  The official term is furrowing (sp?).
>
> This is not due to poor storage or handling, but with the stability of the
> acetate itself.  They are trying to learn how to stop this and have heard
of
> one or two methods, but one is about $100 per neg.....kinda high when you
> consider the thousands and thousands of negs from that generation.
>
> Hope the film makers have this problem fixed for current
emulsions.....guess
> the best thing is to either shoot on Glass Plates or make archival prints
of
> everything.
>
>
> --
> Harrison McClary
> http://www.mcclary.net
>