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Time before color negatives fade?


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I'm a photography newbie. I've heard people talk about color

negatives not lasting forever and fading over time. What I haven't

seen are comments about how much time goes by before this starts to

happen. Anyone care to enlighten me?

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The oldest Color negatives we have here are from February 1944; they are about 90% gone in color. The image is still there; but the color dyes have little color. <BR><BR>The Kodacolor negatives from the 1960's are only fair; the Kodachrome slides still look great.<BR><BR>The late 1970's color negatives of mine are a mixed bag; some look ok; so are alot gone and appear all washed out; ie little color dyes/color. This is when local processing labs started printing color prints; and their controls must have been spotty. Most my color negatives from the mid 1980's on look good...
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My Dad's color negs from 1958 to 1962 are all faded badly.

 

My 126 color negs from the 70's are better but most show some fading.

 

My 35mm negs from 1982 on all still look good.

 

My 120 VPS negs from 1976 on all still look good.

 

All of my color negs have been stored in PrintFile pages in my homes in Chicago & Atlanta.

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  • 6 months later...
  • 1 month later...

Technology: I thnk the color negative films have improved greatly over the years, and i wonder how much color the older negatives had in them in the first place.

-as far as the long-term permanence of the negs, I have no idea how much the film manufacturers even bother with the subject.

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