Just finished reading a somewhat forgotten Leica book entitled "Leica 35mm Color Magic" by Walther Benser. Great color photo tips, 1956 style. Charming in that "Bygone era" sort of way. He stresses that projecting chromes not enclosed in glass will ruin them. Is this true with today's E-6? Can any of you experts advise what to do. I have been told that encasing chromes in glass is a total waste of time and money. Experts??

-- Steve Hoffman (shoffman2@socal.rr.com), November 16, 2000

Answers

Today's E6 films can take projection very well, Kodachrome, unfortunately, and older E4 films will shift noticably with projection. If you are using Kodachrome and older E4, and they will be projected extensively, then make and project dupes. For casual amateur use, say ten to twenty seconds of projection every two years, I would not lose any sleep over it. However even with this light use, by the time you go to the great darkroom in the sky, Kodachrome and the older E4, will have shifted noticably.

Cheers

-- John Collier (jbcollier@home.com), November 16, 2000.

Equally, of course we should add that E6 films are generally thought not to archive as well as Kodachromes in the dark, so you cannot win really. The only real way to get "lifetime plus" archivability is perhaps to shoot black and white silver emulsions. Personally I have been shooting and projecting Kodachromes from 1976 and have not noticed any appreciable change since then, so I do not worry at present. I agree that putting slides into glass in general is a waste of time and will only increase your chances of fungal growth, but on the other hand it is the only way to get real edge to edge ultimate sharpness in any projector and that includes my Leica Pradovits CA2502 and P2000, which are the best projectors out there in my experience. I do not mount in glass generally myself.

-- Robin Smith (rsmith@springer-ny.com), November 16, 2000.

I've read all the statistics about how much projection Kodachrome can take, but from a practical point of view, this is pretty much a fade proof film (over a lifetime) unless you view your slides month after month through the years. My Dad has 50 yr old Kodachrome slides that look as good as new, and people I know have slides from the late 1930s that look fresh as they day they were taken...

As for archiving slides, as I understand it, the best solution is cold storage, which will greatly extend their life, to centuries. This is now routinely done for movie film and for some important collections. A simple home implementation, would be to buy a deep freeze (the ultra cold type) and put everything inside in water/humidity proof packaging.

More information at

http://www.wilhelm- research.com/Cold_Storage/cold_storage.html

Be sure to read/download the .pdf file.

-- Mani Sitaraman (bindumani@pacific.net.sg), November 16, 2000.

Steve, according to The Source Book: Kodak Ektagraphic Slide Projectors, Eastman Kodak Co., 1984, "For most viewing purposes, pictorial slides made on properly processed Kodak color films will be acceptable through 3 to 4 hours of total projection time. This is true when the slides are used in an EKTAGRAPHIC III or EKTAGRAPHIC slide projector that is equipped with a tungsten-filament lamp and had unrestricted air circulation, even if the projector is operated with the power-selector switch set at HIGH." (p.154).

But, this is only a generalization, because slide life is roughly proportional to light intensity. It is difficult to give an exact figure, because "there are too many variables, such as proper processing, adequate projector ventilation, ambient temperature, and so on. However, the film types . . . does not make a significant difference . . ."(p.153)

And note: > ". . . [slides] will change somewhat less if projected continuously for a given time rather than intermittently until the same projection time is reached." (p.154).

Hope this helps.

-- Bob Fleischman (RFXMAIL@juno.com), November 17, 2000.