The use of gelatine

[EmergentFungus]

My sister has been a vegetarian all her life and is soon heading off to university where she has decided she will embark on a strict vegan lifestyle. She's giving up a lot of things, cameras included. She said to me that gelatine is used a lot in cameras but the only thing I could think of was the filter.

She wants to get herself a digital. Is gelatine used in digitals?

Cheers.

 

[darin3200]

Most (all?) print paper in darkroom contain silver-halide in a gelatin coat on the paper. I guessing film does for the emulsion layers although I'm not sure. Its extremely doubtful that a digital camera would contain gelatin or any organic matter at all. I did have the same concerns with gelatin however the film industry is so small I doubt darkroom paper demand is keeping the meat plants running.

 

[Mitica100]

Actually they do. In the lenses, that is. The coating of the lenses is done with the help of a form of gelatine. That's why in more humid climates you run the risk of having fungus on the lens (coating).

So, no matter what you use, film or digital, chances are you will use something that has some form of gelatine in it.

 

[Christie Photo]

My sister...will embark on a strict vegan lifestyle. Is gelatine used in digitals?

You can reassure her that unless she starts eating camera parts she can be true to her vegan diet and that using a camera is not the same as wearing leather.

My daughter adopted the vegan diet and continued for ten years. She's now 3 years out of school and has realized it's necessary to relax her restrictions a bit as she continues to develop a more advanced understanding of nutrition.

Wish her "good luck" and congratulations on a benificial choice.

 

[fadingaway1986]

I envy her.

Maybe suggest to her that both camera have it in some form - but digital is only a once off thing. She isn't constantly buying gelatine products.

 

[Hertz van Rental]

I always understood that lenses were coated with rare earth metals, which are applied by vaporising them in a vacuum. I didn't think gelatine played any part in that process.
Both traditional film and paper use gelatine as a transport for the light sensitive silver halides. In the early days of Photography many substances were tried as a replacement for collodion (some of them quite bizarre) before Dr Richard Leach Maddox developed a workable process for using gelatine in the 1870's.
Gelatine actualy works in conjunction with the silver componds to improve their performance. The mechanism is still not fully understood.
As gelatine is an animal by-product it's use does pose a bit of a dilemma for Vegan's. I used to have a friend who was a Vegan, and she worked as a film editor for Ken Russell. I commented about gelatine and she got very upset as she hadn't realised the connection. She got over it by looking at it as a similar product to plastic (which is made from oil which comes from dead animals).
As far as I know, gelatine is not present in digital cameras.
Eastman Kodak take gelatine so seriously that it has it's own company to make it for them:
http://www.eastmangel.com/

 

[EmergentFungus]

Interesting...

So some of you reckon gelatine is used in lenses of digitals, others don't.

Christie - Tee hee!

I showed her that link to the gelatine website and she can accept that gelatine is a small by product of the meat industry, but even so, using any animal product defeats the object of veganism.

Digital SLRs use removable lenses and filters which use gelatine so would she be better off with a little digi cam? Say a Canon S60?

 

[Don Simon]

Fungus, I wish your sister good luck - my sister is not vegan but vegetarian; even so the range of vegetarian food and products available is remarkably poor. If your sister is not only concerned with consuming animal products but coming into any contact with them - well, like I said, good luck there's bits of dead animals everywhere. Personally I can overcome most of the ethical issues of the carnivorous lifestyle by imagining a medium grilled rump steak and let's face it, who doesn't look good in a leather jacket? Er, anyway - nevertheless I have respect for people who stick by their principles (um, except for Nazis) and sympathy for anyone who tries to get through life without eating or otherwise using dead things - it ain't easy

P.s. Hertz... your friend worked for Ken Russell? :shock: Poor, poor girl - has she made a full recovery?

P.p.s. whatever your views on gelatine, Eastman are clearly evil - check out their website; they got schoolkids to advertise them. Corporate indoctrination of kids and encouraging them to become advertising executives when they grow up - evil evil evil evil evil evil evil!

http://www.eastmangel.com/sections/03_Community/Sponsorships/NewspapersInEducation/imgs/kidFull/chosenAdLg.jpg