Is RPL claiming that Portra 160 and Ektar are not archival?

[Photo Engineer]

Hi PE, this is really quite a stunning piece of information. Could you expand upon this point please, one of the reasons why I started shooting Fuji E6 was for the long held belief that colour negative film degrades much quicker than slide film. I shoot a fair bit of Provia but its got me thinking that it still isn't really a general use colour film, and perhaps I should be using Ektar instead as it benefits from much wider latitude IMHE than Provia (I do project but have more interest in prints + we often find interesting subjects with colour in them that have to greater SBR to work on Velvia or Provia). Bizarrely despite all the criticisms of Ektar colour, I find looking back through my old scans its often easier to colour balance than Provia due to the strong shadow casts on that film, so I am a big fan of how Ektar looks.

Also is there going to be a difference with commercial processing in general due to the technology and process steps vs ideal processing of C41 v E6

Thanks, Neil.

Neil, I cannot speak regarding Fuji film stability. I have not been involved in testing image stability personally for years and I hesitate to quote current workers directly. I was speaking of Kodak E6 films and some older or less advanced third party reversal films. Kodak overhauled all couplers for negative films in about 2000 or thereabouts to eliminate Formalin from the process and to improve image stability. They are among the most stable dyes possible, especially those in RA4 products.

Silver does NOT impact image stability. The Silver metal is in the gelatin, but the dyes are isolated in particles of oily material, protecting them from silver. All products retain some Silver metal and this is imagewise, more being in the maximum dye areas.

PE

 

[NJH]

Thanks Ron, your point about retained silver, really the key to this whole thread. Thanks again.