my last roll of Kodachrome in my M6

[XK50]

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Mentioning Steve McCurry, Birmingham (England) Museum and Art Gallery are running an exhibition of his work, until October. I went on Monday and my jaw dropped at the sheer quality of the very large colour prints on show, all made from Kodachrome originals (and, sadly, another brand of camera - but that really is incidental).

 

Just two points:

 

1) if you are near, I urge you most strongly to go and see this exhibition You may know the images from the Press but nothing can prepare you for them "in the flesh". Simply stunning!

 

2) I find it a great pity that such a technically superb process should be abandoned, firstly by the market and subsequently by its manufacturer.

 

Best wishes,

 

John

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[NB23]

Mentioning Steve McCurry, Birmingham (England) Museum and Art Gallery are running an exhibition of his work, until October. I went on Monday and my jaw dropped at the sheer quality of the very large colour prints on show, all made from Kodachrome originals (and, sadly, another brand of camera - but that really is incidental).

 

Just two points:

 

1) if you are near, I urge you most strongly to go and see this exhibition You may know the images from the Press but nothing can prepare you for them "in the flesh". Simply stunning!

 

2) I find it a great pity that such a technically superb process should be abandoned, firstly by the market and subsequently by its manufacturer.

 

Best wishes,

 

John

 

 

Yes yes yes! McCurry's images in the unguarded moment are so great, I think they reached photographic perfection. A 100 more years of practice couldn't take me near that level. But luckily for us, a part of that magic is brought by Kodachrome. The tones, the subtleness, the rendered modeling, the tones in the shapeliness, the depth, it's all there! All incredible!

 

Dan,

I am no computer and my eyes are not as sensitive as optical devices measuring light to perfection. What I meant by 1/32 of a stop, and it really sounds crazy, but there are some of my Kodachrome slides that are opaque, just like a printed photograph. I have never seen such depth and such rendition in a well exposed slide, and not all my Kodachromes are like that. It occured to me that when well exposed down to its core, something magical happens with Kodachrome.

You say 1/4 of a stop but I can't agree. If a cheap sensor sees past 1/8th and 1/15th of a stop, then a film will, too.

Anyhow, I don't care about this technical aspect, really. I only care about shooting and looking at the special colors Kodachrome brings. It's almost the end.

 

I find it a great pity that such a technically superb process should be abandoned, firstly by the market and subsequently by its manufacturer.

 

I agree!!!

This is such a pity. Some people will never know what good photography is, colorwise. No sensor can go near well exposed Kodachrome images. McCurry's images testify this 100%.

What I find even more pitiful are the people who have 2,3,5 or 10 rolls left and don't foresee the day where they will have time to use those rolls and so they sell them. There are 5 months left and many people simply won't bother shooting another roll of Magic before it's gone forever. They probably think they can easily post-process their images in photoshop to look like Kodachrome.

This is where photography stands today. And its sad. Progress has its nasty sides.

[chrism]

I just checked on the options in Alien Skin Exposure - there are three Kodachrome simulations there.......seems Ned says it and it comes true.

 

Chris

Could I interest you in saying Kodak decides to bring it back?

[NB23]

Again, Kodachrome's maximum saturation threshold is not 1/32nd of a stop but 1/4, it a good photographer can nail it very consistently. You might have to venture out of this website to find that out.

 

I have to debate this.

1/4 stop is very loose, even for negative film.

 

Let's take a skylight filter (1A), which has a slight pinkish hue. Its stop coefficient is about 1/32nd of a stop. Altough extremely minimal, the color hue Versus an unfiltered image is present.

This alone supports what I have been saying all along.