From: b_duibhirz@yahooz.comz.auz   
      
   Martin 'Martinland' Schemitsch wrote:   
   >   
    I'll share a little anecdote.  When I was a kid I got my first 16mm   
   > projector; something my dad saw at a garage sale.  It came with a little   
   > 400' sponsored film which is what I used to tinker with before I started   
   > borrowing features from our local library system.  The film, color print   
   > stock from 1960, was, at almost 20 or so years old, extremely faded but   
   > still had some cyan left so not totally gone.   
   >   
   > In 1980 Weekly Variety published their story about the color fading   
   > crisis headlined "OLD PIX DON'T DIE, THEY FADE AWAY," building upon an   
   > earlier story in Film Comment.  I was very interested and I was quite   
   > sure that in the few years I had my little film roll it sure seemed to be   
   > getting more and more red (magenta).   
      
   Was it red or magenta? Magenta is one of the three primary emulsion   
   dyes, and red is actually a blend of yellow and magenta.   
      
   >   
   > Even though the film is a worthless piece of junk I liked to think maybe   
   > it's the only print left and the negative is long gone (it might be a   
   > reduction from 35; I've never been sure.  Columbia produced it).  So I   
   > wrapped it up in plastic and aluminum foil and more plastic and stuck it   
   > in the freezer for what was supposed to be a brief period.   
   >   
   > The brief period went on for years before I finally retrieved it and   
   > checked it and it was fine.  Then back in the freezer.  And all but   
   > forgotten.  Probably a decade went by before I looked at it again.   
   >   
   > It's been kept frozen now for somewhere between 25 and 30 years.  Before   
   > posting this I pulled it out and let it warm up before unwrapping it.  I   
   > just screened it now and it looks just as it has in the past.  Still some   
   > cyan there and essentially unchanged since the last time I saw it.  No   
   > issues with the general condition of the base or emulsion either.  I am   
   > absolutely convinced that ordinary storage would have resulted in a   
   > totally magenta image by now.   
   >   
   > So yes, in my very limited personal experience with what is admittedly   
   > something nearly worthless I would say it was highly successful.   
   >   
   > I wish I could turn back the clock and store my 35mm print of "Blade   
   > Runner" (original release) in a freezer.  Mint condition and gorgeous   
   > when I got it, it was on non low fade stock and all those rich blacks are   
   > now see-through magenta.  It's enough to make you want to cry.  It used   
   > to be so great to dazzle people with the images and pull the aperture   
   > plate and point out (from differences in the frame edges) what shots were   
   > 65mm.  I guess I can still do that until it goes vinegar--but to actually   
   > view one would be better off with the Blu-ray.   
      
   The first dye to go is usually cyan - hence the reddish appearance.   
   S'funny, my photo-chemistry explained it thus: "cyan turns to   
   leuco-cyan, which is almost transparent, so the cyan doesn't disappear,   
   it just turns into a transparent version".   
      
   I wonder if there's a way to turn it back? Don't suppose there's much   
   money in photo-chemical emulsion research these days....   
      
   --   
      
   Bernie Dwyer   
   There are no 'z' in my address   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)