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RE: filmscanners: Film base deterioration (was Digital Shortcomings)
Before
anyone goes off the deep end on this, it should be remembered that this does not
necessarily hold true for contemporary films but only for films from around the
1960s and 70s or before for the most part. Thus, for images on that film
stock, scanning them to CD may be a good idea; but there is no need to panic and
rush to archiving on CD-R for images on contemporary films since the newer film
bases may last as long or longer than the CD-Rs.
The
problem was also recognized with respect to video tapes. The U.S. National
archives were given video tapes of the various space adventures in the 1960s and
70s by NASA, which were recorded on acetate bases; when the Archives opened the
sealed cannisters with the video tapes, they found clear accetate wound around
the cores with metalic iron dust on the from the tapes on the bottom of the
cannister. They were totally and permanently lost.
The
conclusion that one can draw is that there is no totally permanent archival
materials that last forever or, in the case of photographic images, the with
certainty will last for centuries no matter what you do.
Thanks very much, Tony. That was quite an education. I guess that has
to be factored into the discussions of the merits of CD-R archives vs relying
on the permanence of the original negatives and slides.
Hersch
At
11:47 PM 06/26/2001, you wrote:
On Mon, 25 Jun 2001 13:10:33
-0400 Isaac Crawford (isaac@visi.net) wrote:
> .
B&W
> film has far better archival qualities than the color
stuff.
Oh, you might think so ;) - but see below
Nishimura is
based at the Rochester Inst. of Technology Image Permananence
Institute,
so appears to know his stuff.
It will give anyone who has been taking
photos over the past 30yrs the
heebie-jeebies...
========
INDUSTRY NEWS
Warning: Negative
base deterioration
If you haven't been using polyester based film
(such as Kodak Estar
base films), then I expect that most of you won't
have any negatives
left within a few decades. Let me give you the sad
story first before
I talk about the whys and hows. I got a call around
1992 or so from
Evelyn New York photographer known for her coffee
table books in the
1950s and 60s of European cities. She called because
she went into
her negative collection and found that they were all badly
distorted
and the emulsions were lifting off. We had been researching
this
problem since 1988 and were very aware of what the problem was. I
had
to tell her that her life's work (other than what books and prints
were already out in the world) was gone and there was nothing that
could be done. A few could be saved by special methods, but it's so
labor intensive that of her thousands of negatives, it would only be
worth treating a couple.
(snip)
Douglas Nishimura
Research Scientist, Image Permanence Institute
Regards
Tony
Sleep
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