Re: [Leica] Slide Preservation

[chucko@siteconnect.com (Chuck Albertson)]

I don't shoot a lot of color, but when I do it's usually Kodachrome,
primarily due to its archival qualities. The E6 films have really closed the
gap in terms of quality---I shot a roll of Provia 100F a few weeks ago, and
was really impressed with it. But, like a lot of other people who have
posted on this topic, I've had a chance to go through my dad's
transparencies from the late 40's and early 50's, and it's the Kodachromes
that have held up. Accelerated aging tests and the like have been cited as
proof of the new E6 films' longevity, but I have yet to be convinced. But my
work is strictly personal, and a few days' turnaround time is merely
annoying. People like Ted, who do this sort of thing for a living, face very
real deadlines and for them the 2-hour processing time for E6 films
understandably makes them a no-brainer.

Not every photograph has to last forever, but you never know which ones. I
visited Berlin in April 1989. The Wall, etc., seemed to have an air of
finality at the time, and no one dreamed that it would come down six months
later. I'm glad I still have pictures of what the city used to look like,
and that I shot then on Kodachrome. A stint as a volunteer printer of some
old glass-plate negs (of really old Seattle) at a local museum left me with
a lot of respect for the photographers of the time, both for the results
they got with the materials at the turn of the last century and for taking
care that their negatives would last. A lot of those pictures weren't taken
for any grand purpose, there was just someone there with a camera. Without
them, I would have never seen a picture of the cow pasture that is now
Portage Bay (my backyard).

For the same reason, I've had a deep lack of interest in digital, either for
imaging or storage. CDs are a lousy storage medium (figure about a dozen
years), even if you can deal with file format changes down the line. Every
time someone suggests moving my archives, such as they are, onto digital
media, I think back to the fun weekend I spent helping a friend retrieve the
manuscript of his novel (originally written in WordStar, and stored on a
5-1/4" disc), or the continuing process ongoing at our law firm in
converting ten years' worth of  WordPerfect 5.1 filings to Word 2000. And
then I reach into the fridge for another roll of K64.

Chuck Albertson
Seattle, Wash.

- ----- Original Message -----
From: "Gib Robinson" <robinson@sfsu.edu>
To: "Leica List" <leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us>
Sent: Monday, February 07, 2000 6:13 AM
Subject: [Leica] Slide Preservation


> Maybe I missed a bit of the Kodachrome/E6 debate but I didn't hear any
> mention of photo CD's as a way to preserve slides you want to keep.
Whatever
> the life span of current E6 is, there are still many ways to lose slides
> besides the aging process. Now we have pretty good digital means to
preserve
> them. For around $2.00 per image you can get a digital file that will
> produce a good print up to 8x10. For about $15 you can get a BIG file for
> big prints. Those prices will clearly drop. Since disk storage is pretty
> cheap and getting cheaper, you can transfer those CD images to a hard
> drive/JAZ drive, optical disk or whatever and keep them around for many
> years.
>
> I have photographs that my grandfather took on his honeymoon. He was a
> wonderful photographer and he kept photographing printing until he was
near
> ninety. The photos are priceless and I assume most of us have photos our
> grandchildren, nieces and nephews would want to see and preserve even if
no
> one else does. Since we all put good $ into equipment, processing, etc.
> Seems we should take care of our investments.
>
> --Gib
>
>
>