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I miss Kodachrome


Joachim123

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I have Kodachrome slides that are 50 years old and look like they were taken yesterday. My Ektachrome slides have not fared so well.

I have a few prints from Kodachrome slide from 40 years ago that are really saturated. Some people may think them too saturated. They are really realistic looking though. I don't have my Nikon D 80 set to vivid so I don't get those colors. I guess that is why the Fuji digital cameras are fairly popular since you can set them for Astia, and also other film color effects. I wish someone would come out with a Kodachrome color option on digital.

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Miss it, absolutely, I see in it every day, that's the result of shooting tens of thousands of images on it over a lifetime.

 

That film taught me about light better than anything. A lot of failures that lead to brilliant mistakes that lead to a deep sensitity and contemplation of converging colors, tones and the insatiable pursuit of the fleeting luminance it would reveal. Alex Webb misses it too, his wonderful style intertwined with that tiny band of perfect exposure that is more narrow than you may realize....the place I call the "Maximum Saturation Threshold".

 

Kodachrome was the film for many an enthusiast....

 

But more than anything, it allowed the highly talented to lay claim to true mastery in color photography.

 

My remaining 65 unexposed rolls of the last batch rest in a deep slumber under hundreds of rolls of other film at -20F. If the day ever comes that I can shoot and develop actual Kodachrome again, I would do it in a heartbeat.

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The first shot with the horse facing the camera is Kodachrome, the second Fuji. Apart from the obvious cardboard curved border the Kodachrome shot looks just like you are looking out of a car window (but wound down), it's so clear and life like. The second one has not so good DOF and none of the horses are really in focus and none of the foreground either, so perhaps not a fair comparison.

 

Yes on the best Kodachrome shots I tend to underexpose a bit. On shots that didn't look so good they tend to be overexposed and not so saturated. Some would recommend setting KC64 to iso80 to give 1/3rd stop of underexposure. (Not quite sure how that works on a camera system with 1/2 stops but on average I guess it does).

 

I miss Kodachrome a little but Velvia 50 is good for landscapes too, with a similar MTF boost via extra contrast to make bold blacks, and Provia 100 is good for everything else.

 

I'm trying Kodak E100G but I think that is now killed off too. Again a tendency to underexpose E100G seems to happen more than with Fujichromes in the same camera?

 

Of course the best film is the one in your camera at the time of shooting.

 

Fuji X10 does seem to make a good effort at mimicking their Provia, Velvia, Astia films.

 

I'm not sure if the filters on digital sensors let through the same wave bands of light that film does or that the colour space of film is the same as Adobe1998 for instance. That might explain why digital blue skies look like the Simpsons while slide film skies look like you remember (= imagine) a blue sky was (should be).

 

Anyone trying shooting Kodachrome with an M2 and no meter would need to have a very good eye for light. But then I also find that to get the best reproduction from B&W film you also need to get the exposure very close +/- 0.5 stops, just like slide film so a meter is helpful.

Lincoln

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I grew up on diet of Kodachrome slide projections, do i miss that particular emulsion not sure, still do odd roll of Fuji or Ectachrome for my legacy portfolio for when all digital storage fail miserably.

 

Here is truly yours circa 1964. I believe Kodachrome was only slide film available to my father at the time, rather poor scan, original slide is more punchy.

 

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Yes, I'm sure there were strong regional differences. Kodak had a factory in the UK (Watford?) and a very strong marketing presence.

 

Ian - it was in Harrow it was a massive site but has shrunk drastically over the years and most of it is about to be redeveloped. When we moved from there last year it really was a shadow of its former self. It was also the biggest employer in the area for years. It still struggles on though.

 

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Wow, were they selling/processing Kodachrome behind the Curtain? First time I heard that.

 

Former Yugoslavia existed in a grey zone between West & Iron Curtain. I can't comment on availability in 1960s but in late 1970s and 1980s when my interest into hobby took off I could buy Kodak, Ilford & Agfa products despite economic crisis where other essentials were in short supply, local Efke and Orwo films were also widely available and more popular due to lower price.

 

Part of growing up was joy of seeing little yellow packages arriving by post from processing either in Switzerland or UK. About 1971 my father neglected still camera and developed interest in Super 8, again Kodak film reigned supreme, thinking about it he may still have couple of unexposed films.

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