Using vesicular/diazo film for service copies

I am relieved to see that vesicular duplication got first nod in
response to the inquiry from Elayne Bond at Northwestern U.  Vesicular
is also the film of choice here at the State Historical Society of
Wisconsin.  We can make silver positives but the high cost makes it more
of a luxury than anything else. That leaves vesicular or diazo.  In my
opinion, vesicular gives a superior image, much closer to what you can
achieve with a silver positive.  Given the durability of vesicular, the
relatively low cost, and the fact that it is an end use product, I see
no reason for using diazo.  Our patrons also prefer looking at a
positive vesicular image over the negative diazo copy. Unfortunately I
feel I am in the minority on this issue as far as lab supervisors are
concerned.

The biggest problem we have with vesicular duplicates is obtaining parts
for our duplicator.  They are slowly but surely drying up.  To my
knowledge, only Houston Fearless and Anacomp manufacture vesicular
duplicators today.  These are for the most part, set up for 16mm
production (with no pre-expose station). Hopefully interest will rise to
the point where a new duplicator like the old Xidex 1260 will be back on
the market.

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                   Conservation DistList Instance 8:1
                   Distributed: Monday, June 13, 1994
                        Message Id: cdl-8-1-004
                                  ***