Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1996/07/06
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]On the duping of slides I apparently live in another world, and I'm puzzled by that. A few years ago a pro in San Francisco sent a batch of slides to a publication; when the publication sent the slides back, Federal Express lost them and they were never recovered. The photographer brought a lawsuit against FedEx and lost, as FedEx is limited in its liability for photos (including slides), jewelry and other valuables. That pro, of course, lost the slides of which he had no dupes. In the San Francisco Bay Area, for example, New Lab does a great job duping 35mm slides -- also duping them into larger formats. As does the Professional Color Lab where I have my slides duped. As for slides being second generation, I cannot dispute that fact. However, duping slides by good pro labs has become a staple in pro processing and from what I have seen done, I don't think pros could tell the difference between some dupes and the original. New Lab does 35mm dupes onto 70mm and 4x5 and I don't think anyone would be disgraced by such duping. The fact remains, however, that I'd rather have a very good "second generation" dupe of an image rather than have it lost forever. I am now in the process of duping my valuable slides every three years (yes, dupes of dupes). Costly, but not that costly. That's a lot of work and takes a lot of tracking, but with computers such tracking is not that difficult. The alternative, of course, is to use only black and white film. That alternative is precisely what many photographers have chosen. I like color. I also await electronic means that will preserve my images more efficiently that slide duping. In a 10-year period I would have to dupe a slide three different times; cumbersome but better than losing that slide. Also, I presume that within five years -- perhaps much less -- we will have electronic means to preserve images permanently and accurately. Therefore, if you dupe, as I dupe, you probably won't have too long before you could stop such a practice.