Archival permanence of color negative film

I have read extensive discussions on several forums concerning the

archival permanence of transparency films as well as C-41

versus "true" black and white emulsions. However, I have not seen

much concerning color negative films. Someone mentioned that NPS was

more archivally stable than Reala but provided no evidence to support

this conclusion. Is this in fact true? I'd appreciate any

information anyone may have concerning this issue. Thanks very much.

AFAWK genuine b&w films are the most stable ones, i.e. you may wish to check their condition every 100 years or so. (Provided you've fixed them correctly and washed out all chemicals.) Kodachrome may come close, but we've got data only for 60 years, so we don't know for sure yet.<p>E6 films are considered more stable than C41 ones, but I still miss data to support this. In the worst case, a colour negative's saturation might drop by 10 per cent within 10 years; a chromogenic film will behave in the same way, i.e. its density will drop.<p>But humidity and especially light make a considerably greater difference! If you want your film to really last, make sure it's stored where absolutely no light can reach it; if it has 30-50 per cent humidity, the better; if there's a little air circulation, it's almost optimal. I'd also keep it outside megacities. If you've ever seen stone façades literally being eaten by pollutants, you know why. Perhaps there's no scientific proof, but you'd feel very uncomfortable storing your films in a climate that makes your lungs fail. (With one exception: you won't like a 100 per cent nitrogen athmosphere, but film may.)<p>Summary: environment makes more of a difference than archival stability.

C-41 color negatives seem to be a lot more stable than the older C-22 process. Those would often be unprintable after 8 to 10 years. I recently found a bunch than were so faded that I doubt Photoshop could have found an image! Old Agfacolor negatives had about the worst storage life of any, but their transparency films didn't hold up more than a few years either. A shame because I really liked their neutral color rendition.

 

I seem to remember reading that Hollywood stores motion picture negatives under refrigerated conditions to help preserve them. The original Technicolor process used a special camera that made three color seperation negatives on B&W film at the same time. The release print was pretty much the same as a Dye Transfer print, quite stable, and of course the three B&W negatives were extremely stable. I'm not sure if it's still done, but for a long time Technicolor release prints were still being made. The original was shot on Eastman Color Negative but along the way B&W seperations were made from it.

 

It's a damned shame that all those pix of kids and weddings and vacations from the 60's, 70's, 80's are now badly faded memories in peoples' albums. If the negatives are still available they're even more faded than the prints. Of course the technogeeks are going to jump in and brag about digital recordable CD's. From what I've read, they start developing "noise" after about 5-7 years and eventually become useless. You'd have to copy them every few years to maintain the information. Shoot Kodachrome! My parent's honeymoon pictures still look good on 1941 Kodachrome.

Al

 

In the what it's worth department on CD's. The only one's to buy are the GOLD colored ones, preferably in this order Kodak, then IBM, finally Staples. I haven't a clue as to why the Kodak ones work the best but they do.

 

However do NOT under any circumstances depend on RW format disks, they are very unstable.

 

Gerry

Someone on another thread mentioned Mitsui Gold CD-R's as the best for archiving.

 

See <a href="http://www.mitsuicdr.com/products/gold/Mitsui_Gold.pdf">http://www.mitsuicdr.com/products/gold/Mitsui_Gold.pdf</a>

The best method to preserving any film is to stop smoking, use seat belts, and exercise.

Kodak still recommends tri-color B&W separation copy negatives for archival preservation of motion-picture film, and still makes a direct positive 35mm film to do it. I assume you could archive your C-41 stuff with it too.

 

A good resource for archival issues is:

 

http://www.wilhelm-research.com/