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  #1  
Old 28th December 2013, 07:40 PM
Collas Collas is online now
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Default Frozen negatives

Some negatives left around a century ago have been discovered in the Antarctic ice and have been successfully developed.

http://www.imaging-resource.com/news...-antarctic-ice

Nick
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Old 28th December 2013, 10:25 PM
Mike O'Pray Mike O'Pray is offline
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Interesting. The report says" exposed but unprocessed" which I presume to mean that in that state the negs are still sensitive to further doses of light light.

It begs the question of how light was prevented from getting to them when in the block of ice that eventually must have been exposed to light. It may be that somehow in total or near total darkness it was possible to ascertain that there were negs in a block of ice and then precautions were taken but this seems unlikely to me.

It may be that such negs in the second decade of the 20th century weren't as susceptible to light as now so when discovered in semi-darkness, precautions could be taken. I just don't know.

The other explanation is that what we read in the report is subject to "journalistic licence" although I have never known of "press embellishment", journalism being such an honourable profession

Thoughts on an explanation anyone?

Mike
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Old 28th December 2013, 10:28 PM
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If the folks on the Russian ship currently stuck in the ice should happen to leave behind some digital images I wonder how long they would last. I myself do not have a clue as to what freezing digital images does vs. freezing film negatives.
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Old 28th December 2013, 10:48 PM
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Mike, the article says the films were in a box which would explain why the light did not reach them.

Interesting though as it does show how long a latent image lasts in the right conditions.

Bill
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Old 28th December 2013, 11:42 PM
Eriktheviking Eriktheviking is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by howfilm View Post
If the folks on the Russian ship currently stuck in the ice should happen to leave behind some digital images I wonder how long they would last. I myself do not have a clue as to what freezing digital images does vs. freezing film negatives.
Electronics and water never mix well so my money is on good old film
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Old 28th December 2013, 11:56 PM
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I imagine being frozen actually helped the latent image survive. It would be interesting to see if glass plates left for 100 years at room temperature would fare worse.
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Old 29th December 2013, 12:36 AM
Mike O'Pray Mike O'Pray is offline
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Quote:
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Mike, the article says the films were in a box which would explain why the light did not reach them.

Bill
Quite so, Bill. I should have noticed the word "box". Presumably something on the box indicated that they were not processed negs. I am in new territory here but if there was nothing on the box to indicate this then is it the case that the only safe method would have been to attempt to process one neg to be sure it wasn't ruined by light if it was in an unprocessed state?

I wonder if these were glass negs? If they were can you tell by feel if they are unprocessed?

Presumably enough info remains from processing chemistry in those far-off days to decide on an appropriate processing regime.

If not did the finder ask for advice on APUG and if so how the finder decide on which 999 replies to follow

Only kidding. Not trying to cast aspersions on another site.

Mike
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Old 29th December 2013, 09:41 AM
Eriktheviking Eriktheviking is offline
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Maybe chemistry plays a part in this if the emulsion on the plate has deteriorated over time to become inactive surely the original image would be retained and respond to developing without light exposure fogging out the image?

or

It's possible the exposed plates were in light-tight boxes stored in the outer box as we didn't witness things and nobody has said much about the storage there are endless probabilities. Lets just admire the fact that after nearly 100yrs these have survived which far exceeds the survival time of an SD card under similar conditions.
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Old 29th December 2013, 09:45 AM
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Incredible . . wonder what developer they used
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