[stevebrot]

When you could buy a good camera body and not have to upgrade for decades.

...and the camera just kept working, year after year after year after year.


Steve

[Xmas]

That would have been Fairlawn, NJ. Processing Kodachrome was not like processing any other film. It required custom made processing equipment. There were only a few places in the world where it was done. All Kodachrome processing for Europe was done in Spain.

Kodachrome had no color dyes in the film itself. Instead, color pigments were added to the individual color layers during the processing cycle. These pigments were extremely stable and the reason why old Kodachrome slides still look so good after sitting for decades in less than optimal storage conditions to downright awful storage conditions.

So if you have any old Kodachrome laying around your darkroom, just treat it like a B&W film and have some fun with it.

The European processing moved around before finally being sent to Dwanes, via Switzerland
For a while it was processed at box 14, Hemel Hempstead,...

I've been in the Hemel factory while it was intact. Alas gone now.

If you are really keen you should be able to process it yourself it merely needs three steps of processing ie one for each layer, as well as a rem jet removal, hard work.

[gaweidert]

The European processing moved around before finally being sent to Dwanes, via Switzerland
For a while it was processed at box 14, Hemel Hempstead,...

I've been in the Hemel factory while it was intact. Alas gone now.

If you are really keen you should be able to process it yourself it merely needs three steps of processing ie one for each layer, as well as a rem jet removal, hard work.

It is a lot more complicated than that if you are going to process several roles. You have to be able to maintain the pigment concentration of the developing solutions as they get used up when processing and you have toe replenish them accordingly. Kodachrome film manufacturing and processing was a dark art that never was able to be completely computerized. The people who did it were real wizards.

Many years ago a Kodak manager had the bright idea that these people were not longer needed and anybody could do it. The old timers were laid off and took retirement packages. Suddenly over half of the film going out the door did not meet spec and the pros were screaming bloody murder because customers were suddenly rejecting their work. A new VP was appointed and he pulled the plug on the coating lines, begged the old times to come back as consultants to get thing right and pass on their knowledge. Then he hit the road to apologize to the pro photographers and beg them to be a little more patient. It took six weeks to get things right again. Since Kodak always operated with a six week film stock buffer a lot of people in high places were very concerned as things were worked out. It was a major embarrassment involving their banner product.

I actually worked on a project where a Kodak developed a "minilab" to process Kodachrome. It worked pretty good too. It was an attempt to keep the product going as studio professionals used a lot of it, but amateur use dropped pretty fast once Fuji coming out with their false color reversal films. Professional nature photographers went for Fuji Velvia too. Velvia had absolutely horrible color reproduction characteristics, but it had a strong emotional appeal. People went for it big time. I remember thinking about all those years of striving to reproduce colors accurately and Fuji come along with a false color film that blew all that work away.

Think of it this way. The first time you look at the Grand Canyon in real life you go WOW!. Then you look at your Kodak "True Color" photographs when you get back home and go. Yep. That's the Grand Canyon alright,

Another person goes to the Grand Canyon for the first time and goes WOW! Then that person uses Fuji Velvia to capture the scenery. But the Fuji film has a color pallet designed to intensify everything. So he gets the film back and projects it on the screen and goes WOW! That's exactly how I remember it. In reality the intense colors are all wrong, but they evoke the same emotions that they saw when they were there. It was a brilliant move by Fuji that recognized the emotion behind a photograph rather than the technical accuracy of it.

[ChrisPlatt]

I never liked the Fuji slide films. I shot slides for many years, but none at all since
the demise of Kodachrome. My Pakon scanner can't even handle mounted slides.

Chris

[Xmas]

It is a lot more complicated than that if you are going to process several roles. You have to be able to maintain the pigment concentration of the developing solutions as they get used up when processing and you have toe replenish them accordingly. Kodachrome film manufacturing and processing was a dark art that never was able to be completely computerized. The people who did it were real wizards.

Many years ago a Kodak manager had the bright idea that these people were not longer needed and anybody could do it. The old timers were laid off and took retirement packages. Suddenly over half of the film going out the door did not meet spec and the pros were screaming bloody murder because customers were suddenly rejecting their work. A new VP was appointed and he pulled the plug on the coating lines, begged the old times to come back as consultants to get thing right and pass on their knowledge. Then he hit the road to apologize to the pro photographers and beg them to be a little more patient. It took six weeks to get things right again. Since Kodak always operated with a six week film stock buffer a lot of people in high places were very concerned as things were worked out. It was a major embarrassment involving their banner product.

I actually worked on a project where a Kodak developed a "minilab" to process Kodachrome. It worked pretty good too. It was an attempt to keep the product going as studio professionals used a lot of it, but amateur use dropped pretty fast once Fuji coming out with their false color reversal films. Professional nature photographers went for Fuji Velvia too. Velvia had absolutely horrible color reproduction characteristics, but it had a strong emotional appeal. People went for it big time. I remember thinking about all those years of striving to reproduce colors accurately and Fuji come along with a false color film that blew all that work away.

Think of it this way. The first time you look at the Grand Canyon in real life you go WOW!. Then you look at your Kodak "True Color" photographs when you get back home and go. Yep. That's the Grand Canyon alright,

Another person goes to the Grand Canyon for the first time and goes WOW! Then that person uses Fuji Velvia to capture the scenery. But the Fuji film has a color pallet designed to intensify everything. So he gets the film back and projects it on the screen and goes WOW! That's exactly how I remember it. In reality the intense colors are all wrong, but they evoke the same emotions that they saw when they were there. It was a brilliant move by Fuji that recognized the emotion behind a photograph rather than the technical accuracy of it.

Really keen ... Hard work ...

But I used Kodachrome for 30 years exclusively and yes Fuji was different but I never believed the colours of either were 'real',

Colours are subjective things.

I did prefer Kodachrome though, when they stopped 25, I switched to Fuji, and single coated lenses.

[gofour3]

Ferrania is supposed to be releasing six versions of their new E6 film in 135, 120 and two movie formats:

For market strategy reasons, the first film produced by FILM Ferrania will be a color reversal film in the following speeds: 64D, 100D, 200D, 400D, 640T, 800/3200T.

The first film will be initially available in only 4 standard formats: 135 and 120 for still photography, as well as Super8 and 16mm (30m spool core and 122 meters) for motion pictures.


Nice to have another choice now than just Fuji, though I have to say Provia 100F is pretty good. Still would prefer to be shooting E100G, but I guess Kodak is out of the E6 game for good.

Phil.

[ChrisPlatt]

It's still vaporware. FILM Ferrania has yet to market a single emulsion.

Chris

[Xmas]

It's still vaporware. FILM Ferrania has yet to market a single emulsion.

Chris

Sure they are on the ropes taking punches but they are still ducking and weaving.
Dispatches from the LRF-The CINE 8-16 Interview

[gofour3]

Sure they are on the ropes taking punches but they are still ducking and weaving.
Dispatches from the LRF-The CINE 8-16 Interview

Yeah I think it will happen, I have supported them so I get some freebies when they start production. (six rolls if I remember correctly)

Phil.

[vics]

28, 50, and 135.

Chris

Exactly the kit I'm assembling now for my Eric-rejuvenated K1000 bodies! Only the 135mm is missing.

---------- Post added 04-20-16 at 08:37 AM ----------

My Kodachrome 64 mailers always went to an address on Manor Way in Dallas. I often just drove over there and dropped them off!

[stevebrot]

It's still vaporware. FILM Ferrania has yet to market a single emulsion.

Chris

Yeah...they have been spending the seed money I gave them on beer.


Steve

[Nesster]

Yeah...they have been spending the seed money I gave them on beer.


Steve

better than beer money on weed.

---------- Post added 04-20-2016 at 04:51 PM ----------

Ah the old days... here's what it took


A sample page from a zine, Nowak's Photographic Magazine. "This solo effort by the Woody Allen of photography is brilliant and funny as hell. In long-hand, spiral bound, in a printing of 100 copies, it comes out, unpredictably, twice a year. No back copies. Unique and bawdy." is the review in The Photography Catalog.

Still good advice: How to become a Photographic Superstar:
Acceptable 35mm cameras: Very New Canon F2. Old black Nikon F, with a lot of brass showing through the black (sandpaper if necessary). Black-taped Leica M-2. Two Dented Pentaxes, with leather coming unglued. Nikon SP.

PROP BOX - No photographer who ever made it big neglected this all-important piece of equipment. When ideas just won't come, the prop box will save your skin again and again. The contents of top photographers' prop boxes are remarkably similar:

1) BROKEN DOLLS
2) GAS MASK
3) BRA, GARTER BELT, and NYLONS
4) VAMPIRE BLOOD

[GarageBoy]

Remembering to pull the dark slide and then remembering to put it back in place.

Remembering if you had already exposed that sheet of film/frame yet or not - when in doubt, advance

[ChrisPlatt]

Remembering if you had already exposed that sheet of film/frame yet or not - when in doubt, advance

For 35mm film I have always found rewinding the leader of the exposed roll completely into the cassette helps avoid confusion.

Chris

[Davep]

Using as little leader as possible to thread the film and guessing how many extra shots you could squeeze from a roll of film.