The lab could have processed your film perfectly and you'd still have faded 'chromes. After the abandonment of potassium ferricyanide bleach in colour processing (the last ferricyanide bleached processes were C22 and, I am guessing, E3) there was a period of a few years during which the film manufacturers (mainly Kodak who created E4, E6 and C41) perfected the new processes. The main failing was apparently the "oily globules" that bonded the dye couplers to the silver granules, which were prone to becoming dissociated from their original locations once the silver was gone, allowing the developed dye to diffuse away over the years.
The complete answer is far more complicated, but this is the limit of my understanding of the process. And the lab might have screwed up, too. Regards, Anthony Farr ----- Original Message ----- From: "Collin Brendemuehl" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > I've found that about 1/2 of my > Ektachrome slides from the 70s are > now faded. But I have no idea why. > Might have been the lab. It is strange. > > Collin - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .