Kokak's 100 Year Paper
2004-02-08 by Joe Davajon
More observations..... First of all, one problem with Kodak's claim of 100 years for their new paper is that their testing criteria measures light fading and estimated print life at 120 Lux at 12 hours a day. In their white paper on this product, they state that twice the level of light results in a 50% reduction in the estimated print life. The American Meteorological Society's Glossary of Meteorology states: "A level of illumination between 200 and 1000 lux is generally considered to be adequate for homes and offices. Secondly, in the premiere issue of "Great Output" a publication of the professional digital imaging association, an article by Dr. Ray Work entitled "Will My Inkjet Prints Last As Long As Traditional Photos:", the author interviews Mr.Henry Wilhelm who explains that the light-stability test standard exposure is 450 lux for 12 hours a day which Wilhelm states would be the equivilent of a fairly brightly lit room. Wilhelm states that almost every major manufacturer in the world uses almost exactly the same criteria. If you factor in the Kodak's criteria, Wilhelm says, you would need to multiply all other manufacturers ratings by a factor of about 3.75 which would mean, to illustrate his point, that if Wilhelm rates a paper at 73 years, using Kodak's criteria you would get 273 years on that paper. So, if we take Kodak's paper rated at 100 years at 120 lux and double the light intensity to 240, we shorten Kodak's paper to 50 years. Then, if we double the light intensity to 480 lux to match the usual manufacturer's standard, we shorten Kodak's paper's life to just 25 years. Not so spectacular given the Wilhelm life estimates of a lot of other papers which exceed a mere 25 years. However, in all fairness to Kodak, we need to remember that Kodak's estimates are for prints unprotected by glass or plastic. Protected, Kodak's paper may well last far longer than their estimates. Again, in fairness to Kodak, we need to also consider that they are talking about dye inks. If we use the dye inks we save costs of ink, and we get a wider color spectrum. Very desirable indeed! This is just one photographer's observation and I urge that some of the very knowlegeable photographers on this forum contribute their own observations. Joe D.