Proof Agfa fades

[Brian Fretwell]

Most stock was edge marked with manufacturer and often the variety of emulsion also with some production date codes, I have only a few that aren't.

I assume airline prints were made with whatever was cheapest with no thought about fading as they were intended to be destroyed after they were replaced with newer films.

[Osi Osgood]

Brian and Mike are entirely accurate, sadly, when it comes to the optical sound features. You will find Kodak SP being used for optical features all the way into the end, in 1988, as I had a 1988 feature, and it clearly had the tell-tale Kodak SP fade. However, there were prints being released on all sorts of low fade. I have late 70's optical features on Fuji that are gloriously unfaded, like Future world and Hooper. I also know that depending on the lab of origin, some features ended up being printed on different film stocks. An example of this is "The Earthling" which, in the U.S., was printed on Kodak SP, but elsewhere in the world, it was printed on another more low fade stock that held up well.