29th June 2007, 10:48 AM
The problem of film against digital medium is not just a straightforward choice between the two mediums but rather how you treat them. Conventional film has a proven track record, images shot by Roger Fenton for the British Museum in the 1850âs can still be printed yet B&W film shot shot ten years ago and machine processed may be unuseable. The problem is most machine processing is designed for a rapid turnover, using high temperatures and shorter washing times but leaving traces of the processing chemicals in the film which eventually have a detrimental effect on the film. The soloution is hand processing to archival standards trouble is this will increase costs. The next major problem is storage if films are not stored in inert material and suitable conditions the film will deteriorate, this can even mean the cupboard the films are dumped in, wood can give off vapours which will affect film. Tempreature and humidity also need to be controlled to ensure archival permanence.
The B&W conventional Silver Halide film is the most stable photographic medium if treated properly this includes films such as Ilford delta 100, delta 400, FP4, HP5 , Fuji Neopan 100 asa and Kodaks Plus-X 100 asa, Tri-X 400asa still available from Jessops although for how much longer is not certain. As Historic Building mentioned there is another other type of B&W â this is a chromogenic film eg Ilford XP2 in reality a colour film with the colour layers removed that is machine processed using the same C41 chemicals as most colour negative films, as this has to be machine processed it again is not as suitable for archival use as conventional film.
As for slides most slides are processed using the E6 chemistry which is reasonably stable if processed properly and stored correctly but it is not archivally permanent it does deteriorate. Films such as Kodachrome that do not have colour couplers in the film are more suitable for archives but cost more. The main factor that affects slide film is the storage conditions if the slides start to deteriorate they can always be duped with only a slight loss in image quality if done professionally.
With the digital medium the problem is the file type many digital cameras produce JPEG images, a format that uses lossy compression meaning that some detail is sacrificed each time the image is saved to allow the compression of the file, the higher the compression the worse it gets â for archival purposes the files should be converted to a non lossy file type such as Tiffs, although the file sizes are larger and may create storage problems in that sense at least you donât loose details, you do however need to back up several times to make sure you donât loose any images as the result of a hard drive failure.
I doubt if this makes the choice any clearer, Iâd suggest perhaps the easiest option is to shoot a B&W film for archival purposes and get it hand processed to archival standards â and shoot a digital image for the colour record and store in a TIFF format suitably backed up.
The B&W conventional Silver Halide film is the most stable photographic medium if treated properly this includes films such as Ilford delta 100, delta 400, FP4, HP5 , Fuji Neopan 100 asa and Kodaks Plus-X 100 asa, Tri-X 400asa still available from Jessops although for how much longer is not certain. As Historic Building mentioned there is another other type of B&W â this is a chromogenic film eg Ilford XP2 in reality a colour film with the colour layers removed that is machine processed using the same C41 chemicals as most colour negative films, as this has to be machine processed it again is not as suitable for archival use as conventional film.
As for slides most slides are processed using the E6 chemistry which is reasonably stable if processed properly and stored correctly but it is not archivally permanent it does deteriorate. Films such as Kodachrome that do not have colour couplers in the film are more suitable for archives but cost more. The main factor that affects slide film is the storage conditions if the slides start to deteriorate they can always be duped with only a slight loss in image quality if done professionally.
With the digital medium the problem is the file type many digital cameras produce JPEG images, a format that uses lossy compression meaning that some detail is sacrificed each time the image is saved to allow the compression of the file, the higher the compression the worse it gets â for archival purposes the files should be converted to a non lossy file type such as Tiffs, although the file sizes are larger and may create storage problems in that sense at least you donât loose details, you do however need to back up several times to make sure you donât loose any images as the result of a hard drive failure.
I doubt if this makes the choice any clearer, Iâd suggest perhaps the easiest option is to shoot a B&W film for archival purposes and get it hand processed to archival standards â and shoot a digital image for the colour record and store in a TIFF format suitably backed up.