Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/04/01
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]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 >