[Leica] Re: Archival storage

[lrzeitlin at optonline.net (Lawrence Zeitlin)]

On Aug 15, 2006, at 12:13 PM, Richard wrote:

> I read somewhere recently that archival storage of motion pictures is
> done on three-strip (one for each color) black and white negative
> stock.


That is correct, but I suspect that very few films are stored that  
way. The whole idea is based on the concept of the tri color, beam  
splitter camera which used red, green and blue filters to form images  
on B&W film. The original Technicolor movie technique exposed three  
strips of B&W film in a beam splitter movie camera and made the  
release prints by a dye transfer process.  Silver emulsions are far  
more stable than the dyes used in color prints or negatives. Kodak  
says that Kodachrome it its most long lived color film and estimates  
that slides kept cold and in the dark will last 100 years. Since the  
process was invented in 1936 we still have 30 years to find out if  
they are right. B&W glass negatives taken during the Civil War are  
still useable and show little degradation.

During the 50s I was involved in a project that was looking for an  
image storage technique that would retain images for 1000 years - to  
be used in time capsules and/or attached to space probes. The only  
thing we could come up with in that pre digital age was to engrave  
the image on a stainless steel plate. Gold might be better but the  
agency sponsoring the study balked at the estimated cost.

Larry Z