Polaroid Life

[Rockslinger]

Does anybody know the life expectancy of a Polaroid? I have some candid Polaroids (you know what I mean) that are 20 years old. They still look pretty good and are irreplaceable.

 

[Robio]

Try Scanning them at High Rez. you may want to digify them and put them on a CD just incase it fades.

 

[osanowo]

i would surely follow Robio's advice.

Just know that it's better stored in a dark environment, with steady temperature and steady humidity. And try to put a protection sheet between every picture.

New polaroids are supposed to have a protective layer to prevent damage over time but most of the time the pigments of the inks are low quality and hence don't last long...

 

[Anynym]

A quick scan of online references suggests that "days, not months" is the expectation for polaroids exposed to (bright) lights; other sites seem to suggest that when kept in ideal conditions (don't ask me what those might be), they can last for many years.

If yours look great after all these years, I'd scan them, take pictures of them with a new camera, anything to try to preserve the image without additional damage.

 

[WoodPeckr]

Does anybody know the life expectancy of a Polaroid? I have some candid Polaroids (you know what I mean) that are 20 years old. They still look pretty good and are irreplaceable.

I've got a few of them 'type' pix also. They are slightly over 30 yrs old and they still look great. They were always stored in a safe dark place with normal house temperature & humidity. Some pix stored in normal photo albums show slight fading but these 'stored' pix show little loss over time.

 

[Rockslinger]

Thanks guys. Wow, someone said he/she has some that are 30 years old! Mime are still really good quality. I went to a couple of photo stores and they said that they could scan them and put them on a "100 year" CD, but the cost is $2 a pic. Alternatively, they suggest I buy my own scanner.

Another alternative is to use the Kodak picture maker and make a new photo of the Polaroid.

Being somewhat frugal, I simply put my Nikon digital camera on macro and took a picture of each Polaroid and then transferred the images from my memory card to a CD. Quality is still pretty good especially when viewed on a TV.

 

[Papi Chulo]

I have a bunch which are about 30 years old as well. The colours are not as brilliant as they once were. I have heard that Polaroids never actually stop developing and will eventually blacken.

About 3 years ago, I scanned them all at the highest resolution, and burned then to a DVD, and this year, I transferred then from the DVD to an archive grade (100+ year) DVD

 

[Rockslinger]

About 3 years ago, I scanned them all at the highest resolution, and burned then to a DVD, and this year, I transferred then from the DVD to an archive grade (100+ year) DVD

How did you do the scanning and transferring to DVD? Was it done at home? What is the equipment required?

 

[Papi Chulo]

How did you do the scanning and transferring to DVD? Was it done at home? What is the equipment required?

I bought an HP scanner and used the DVD burner that I had previously installed in my computer, both items can be purchased for about $200 + blank DVD's

 

[Rockslinger]

I bought an HP scanner and used the DVD burner that I had previously installed in my computer, both items can be purchased for about $200 + blank DVD's

Many thanks. Boy, do I have a lot of questions. Is the quality of the reproduction really good? Can you get a print from a DVD?

 

[osanowo]

Many thanks. Boy, do I have a lot of questions. Is the quality of the reproduction really good? Can you get a print from a DVD?

The printing quality depends on the resolution you used for scanning. The better resolution, the bigger is the file but the better it will look on a print (also depends a lot on the quality of the paper/printer...).

let's say that if you intend to scan already printed pics, then consider 300dpi for printing at 100%, and consider 600 to 1000 dpi for enlarging the picture.
If you plan on scanning negatives it is a whole different world...

My advice, knowing the prices of DVD, is to scan at a high resolution as you never know... 600 to 1000 would be a good start, and please do not use any compressive format unless you use a lossless format (TIFF lossless or JPEG over 90%).