[Giklab]

I've successfully self-developed expired Kodachrome from 1978! : photography

Guy apparently found a way to develop it. Process and images are linked to in the OP. The costs are a bit prohibitive though...

[Dartmoor Dave]

It's hard to tell from the photos if he's really managed to get the true Kodachrome colours, but in my deepest dreams I hope he has. If going back to shooting Kodachrome was to become a possibility again, my DSLRs would hit the bottom of the trash can so hard it'd ring like a bell.

No doubt some killjoy will come along and say that's it not really the authentic Kodachrome process, but for now I'm going to enjoy this moment of hope at the end of a dispiriting year.

[pathdoc]

Why ever did they kill it, anyway? Insufficient demand? (We have only ourselves to blame.)

Surely some small chemical house could pick it up? Or do Kodak still have a proprietary clamp on the process?

[WPRESTO]

I suspect Kodak still owns the process, and never released even small details of how to do it. I'm not sure that 1978 Kodachrome, presumably the ASA 25 version, used the identical process used for original (ASA 10). Those of us who started on the original version were a little hesitant to accept the "improved" version with its lower saturation and contrast.

[monochrome]

It isn't even close to economical to make small batch runs of the film or chemicals. Film runs were millions of feet; the plant ran 24/7 for weeks in total darkness. Plant workers had learned to walk around by counting steps and perform their tasks by feel. They're gone now and new workers won't be trained. It took a week to set the plant up for a product run, and as long to shut it down.

Chemicals are a similar story. You're not just mixing specialty compounds from off-the-shelf chemicals. There is an actual, specific, complex process that can't be replicated in small batches in a general plant. The manufacturing plant itself is specific.

[pathdoc]

It isn't even close to economical to make small batch runs of the film or chemicals. Film runs were millions of feet; the plant ran 24/7 for weeks in total darkness. Plant workers had learned to walk around by counting steps and perform their tasks by feel. They're gone now and new workers won't be trained. It took a week to set the plant up for a product run, and as long to shut it down.

Chemicals are a similar story. You're not just mixing specialty compounds from off-the-shelf chemicals. There is an actual, specific, complex process that can't be replicated in small batches in a general plant. The manufacturing plant itself is specific.

I see. Thanks for clearing that up.

[monochrome]

I see. Thanks for clearing that up.

There's a long article - like 35,000 words - on the ending of Kodachrome in The New Yorker, I think. Really good, detailed, academic explanation of social change, Kodak's collapse, analog manufacturing processes and scale constraints - and then ti d up with how all these forces together killed Kodachrome.

Can't find the link. If I dig it up I'll come back and add it. gaweidert is another good source for an explanation. He worked at Kodak for a quarter century or so, to near the end.

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Last edited by monochrome; 12-31-2016 at 06:19 AM.

[pathdoc]

Makes me think that D76 and Kodak Fixer will be the last to go. Even then, we will probably have Caffenol... but we need a way to fix it at home. There are many home developing recipes, but very few home fixing, and the chemicals are harder for me to get locally than professional fixer is.

[Not a Number]

Nothing new. Stephen Frizza in Australia reports doing this in 2012

Reports of (Colour) Kodachrome Home Processing Emerge from Sydney | APUG.ORG

And why not process by hand? It was invented with hand processing by two musicians who used to hum Beethoven to keep time.

[UncleVanya]

Makes me think that D76 and Kodak Fixer will be the last to go. Even then, we will probably have Caffenol... but we need a way to fix it at home. There are many home developing recipes, but very few home fixing, and the chemicals are harder for me to get locally than professional fixer is.

I have a 1928 Handbook that gives formulas for film and developers etc. I will look - I think fixers are in there.

[AquaDome]

I don't think anyone is going to start making Kodachrome film again, so enjoy this anachronistic relic for what it is.

[a5m]

I've successfully self-developed expired Kodachrome from 1978! : photography

Guy apparently found a way to develop it. Process and images are linked to in the OP. The costs are a bit prohibitive though...

It's hard to tell from the photos if he's really managed to get the true Kodachrome colours, but in my deepest dreams I hope he has. If going back to shooting Kodachrome was to become a possibility again, my DSLRs would hit the bottom of the trash can so hard it'd ring like a bell.

No doubt some killjoy will come along and say that's it not really the authentic Kodachrome process, but for now I'm going to enjoy this moment of hope at the end of a dispiriting year.

He's actually a she

[Dartmoor Dave]

He's actually a she

Thanks for the clarification. My bad.

[gofour3]

Interesting however processing old Kodachrome is one thing, but getting new Kodachrome film manufactured with someone to batch process it is another.

Most film shooters today don't want to spend the extra time and money to shoot E6, so I can't see many folks even buying new Kodachrome with yet another developing process and continuing to shoot it.

Be happy that Ferrania in Italy is actually getting "close" to having some new E6 in the market and if you read their updates it's been a looooong and hard fight.

Phil.