Using DVD disc as Photograph Film and Paper

[Mustafa Umut Sarac]

DVD disc is cheapest gadget we can buy . And its emulsion is ready for expose. Is it possible to use it behind of a pinhole camera as photograph film or paper ? I have a pinhole camera and I can expose light for days.

If it is exposed with intense uv light , we can contact print a negative with uv light. Than a dvd player could be hacked and scan the surface for revealing the exposure.

I need to know the photo characteristics of these films and their capacity to record tones also.



Mustafa Umut Sarac
Istanbul

 

[MartinP]

Isn't the dye in dvd disks a heat-sensitive vegetable based dye? In other words, not light sensitive?

So far as cheapest everyday heat-sensitive material is concerned, the main one might be thermal-fax paper, but again that's not really light-sensitive. At a commercial outdoor exhibition I have seen, there was a large (several metres) image formed in normal grass. By shading it in different ways the yellow-to-green range of typical grass colours had been made to form a corporate logo. There are many strange ways of forming an image!

 

[edcculus]

From what Dead Link Removed, DVDs are read with a wavelength of 780nm (Red light/infrared light barely within visible spectrum). UV is actually on the entirely opposite end of the spectrum. Normal DVD's are pressed to create different indention in the plastic that cause the reflectivity of the laser to differ. Recordable DVDs have a dye layer that is heated to make pits that react the same way as a pressed disc. So its not really UV light, but heat. I suppose for recording, the wavelength doesn't matter as long as the heat is correct. The webiste says that recording lasers often peak at 200mW.

I'd say you could not just put a DVD behind a pinhole and get an exposure, no matter how long. I mean, DVDs don't go bad if you leave them in light. Also, since the dye on recordable DVDs is manipulated by heat, contact printing the negative would probably melt the negative first.

 

[Mustafa Umut Sarac]

Thank you Ed,

If the laser focus on half an square milimeters area with 200mW , if the 35mm negative is 800 square milimeters ,its possible to use 320 watts to contact print your 35mm negative on to dvd. Is that right ?

Umut