While on the subject of various chromes, I have just finished a project of
sorting, editing, and re-storing a lot of old slides, both my own that date
back to about 1970, and some of my grandfather's, from the late forties to
the early sixties. My observation is that not all is cut and dried.
Everything was dark stored, although not in what we now know as archival
containers. Let's just say that everything was kept in average conditions
and containers, probably a more realistic test than under the most optimal
conditions.
Most Kodachromes are in quite good condition, but there are some that have
faded. Some have faded A LOT. This would make me think that there were some
processing variations. The color balance is generally what I would believe
was the same as when new for the best, and the faded ones have gone to the
redish brown. From observation of the good ones, those that showed a magenta
shift originally still do.
Can't say the same for Ektachrome. It's all over the map. Some have faded to
a different color balance, others have lost a lot of density, and others
look really, really good. Simply no way to say that they will all do this or
that, but it is obvious that the old E4 stuff doesn't hold up as well as
Kodachrome.
Early Fuji seems to hold up better that Ektachrome, but still not perfect. I
suspect that the newer Fuji stuff will have better results.
Agfa is also uneven. When it's good, it's great. Grainy, yes, but fine,
sharp grain, more like Kodachrome than Ektachrome. It's easy to see that
this stuff came out of the same plant as Rodinal. A lot of it has faded, to
the very warm, brownish look as one might expect, but again, some looks just
as good as new.
The worst? Ansco. What in the world was I thinking? I suppose that the high
speed tungsten film was my main interest, but this stuff just doesn't hold
up. Don't miss them!
Just my non-scientific study.
Bill Pearce
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