where there’s smoke there’s forum fire
There will be no more Kodachrome.
http://www.kodak.com/eknec/PageQuerier.jhtml?pq-path=15359&pq-locale=en_US
http://homepage.1000words.kodak.com/default.asp?item=2388083&CID=go&idhbx=kodachrometribute
On a bit of a side note, do any of you guys use/used Kodachrome? What film do you guys use if you don't?
I've used it couple of times, but preferred slides from fuji, both velvia and provia
I'm really surprised that Kodak is still in business.
S
I thought Kodachrome 64 Film was negative not reversal like Fuji Velvia.
And Kodak is still very much alive, they currently produce sensors for medium format cameras for example.
snaketail - they are still in business and for sure will be, as apart from medium format they also gain a lot of income for selling patents - as they R&D is one of the strongest
mb - kodakchrome is reversal
Uh, yea...humm, where should I start.
No Kodachrome was the industry standard for years - the transparancy film that set the standard for all other films to follow. It gave us those bright -sharp colors" that Paul Simon sang about. There was a run of ISO 200 Kodachrome in the mid 1990s that was great when shot at EI 640. In the late 1990 Kodak hired a "bean-counter" as CEO, he and his bunch shought to "revise" Kodak. "Momma don't take my Kodachrome away..." Soon afterwards photo labs began to turn away customers with Kodachrome film - just too expensive to process, when compaired to E-6 processing. The only way to get it processed was to send it directly to Kodak and wait, and wait, and wait. Most of us simply switched to Velvia and never went back.
Is Kodak making the medium format sensor used in Mamiya cameras? These are quickly gaining a bad reputation for excessive noise and poor reliability.
I was under the impression that Kodak was a marketing company now - and not manufacturing any photo products.
In any case Kodak should be allowed to die...just close the doors and let the roaches have the place - they stopped being photographer friendly years ago.
Just my opinion (been pissed since they killed Tri-X 15 years ago).
Snaketail
@adamz - You are probably right, i never actually used it ... and I never will as things are going
Yes Kodak is still very much alive thanks to Leica and several medium format producing companies. The new S2 Leica with it's Kodak sensor imaging area of 45mm X 30mm and the Hasselblad kodak sensor 48mm X 36mm have set new standards in medium format camera resolution. I believe the Leica M8 and 8.2 also have Kodak sensors as well. So Kodak itself is still prospering to say the least. I'll always love Nikon products for life though. I used to shoot Kodak film in an F4 Nikon body before making the jump to a digital D40x >>>> D80 >>>>>>> now D300, by Christmas I hope a D700. However, quite often I miss the look of film.
First my Polaroid SX-70 film and now my Kodachrome. Damn you digital files, damn you!
snaketail: "Just my opinion (been pissed since they killed Tri-X 15 years ago)."
I just shot rolls and rolls of Tri-x that I picked up at my local shop.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kodak_Tri-X
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/29168-USA/Kodak_1590652_TX_135_24_Tri_X_Pan.html
It's sad, there really has been a lot of great work done on kodachrome but I, too, tend to shoot on fuji films, so I guess I'm part of the reason it's gone.
jjreason:
You shot a roll of the "new" Tri-X. Too bad you didn't have the opportunity to use the "original" stuff - it was much better. I shot it exclusively through two tours in Vietnam and loved it. The "Tri" name means three Exposure Index levels(it was ISO 200 film, but you could exposue it at 100, 200 or 400) The old stuff was great at ISO 125/160, with PMK developer it was...ask Ansel Adams. The old stuff was good, the new stuff is crap.
I'm not going to address the issues concerning Kodak digital products. These you can look up and not have to argue with me.
Amen Adamz, Provia and Velvia are the bomb. I beleive velvia was made to combat Kodachrome and I personally much prefer Provia over Velvia.
Kodachrome was a good legacy film, but newer slide films were much easier to work with, and had more accurate colors. You can find a K6 processor in most any bigger city.
QuadraPixel - in most cases I preferred provia too, as it's much more forgivable than velvia, however for this few percentage of my slides velvia really rocked
I consider Kodak to be a dead company walking. A quick look at their balance sheet tells me that they have a couple of year's cash and then they are probably going to chapter 11. They will have to sell most of their IP to pay down creditors and will eventually cease operations. Currently they are losing nearly a billion $s \ year. Can they turn it around? Sure... but where's the growth going to come from? Increasingly dated intellectual property royalties? Film Sales (OK mayber if KR gets his way), niche market digital sensors? Even most of the X-Ray film sales have given way to digital.
Kodak is an amazing company with a rich history of innovation, but they missed the boat on the digital revolution, and I'm not sure they have the will to adapt their business. At least they out lasted Polaroid LOL.
I heard that Dwayne's Photo was not going to be processing it anymore. I had recently got back into film and so I bought a few rolls on ebay and shot them using my nikon FE. I live in ann arbor and I went to detroit for a day and shot the "ruins". It was amazing, a dying city shot with a dying line of film :/
http://alessandrastudio.com/2011/04/kodachrome/
The camera didn't really have the correct ISO setting but I was surprised that they turned out halfway decent. Most of these were taken in a huge rush or from moving cars
Kodachrome processing ended back in December 2010 from Dwaynes. No one in the world can process the kodachrome any more unless you just develop it as black & white film in basic chemicals
I wonder what you would get running kodachrome film through an E-6 process?
I have seen a lot of developed kodachrome in various processes on Flicker. It is an Artistic take on it for sure.
You can't develop Kodachrome in E-6 or cross-process it in C-41. Kodachrome is basically a B&W film where color was added in the K-14 process. You can still develop it as a B&W film but it's not an easy process. You have to treat the negative very differently than traditional B&W film. Very easy to ruin your film otherwise.
I think it's pointless to develop it as B&W. The whole point of shooting K64 was for the colors!
I know Dwayne's stopped developing it in December, it just took me a couple months to post them on my website. :)
I shot Kodachrome 25 (image that and ASA or ISO of only 25!) extensively back in the 1960s. It was the sharpest and strongest color slide film you could get in 35mm back then.
Kodak just filed for bankruptcy.
Pretty sad stuff, but hey, they had it coming. Other than their film, I don't really buy any other products made by them, and even then I've only bought three rolls of ultramax 400 for just around the house shooting.
It's just chap 11. Not really the same as out of business.
They have a huge, very profitable chemical division and a few others that do really well that they have or are spinning off and letting the debt hit some of their most unprofitable divisions. Standard business practice in that regards. Their end has not been written yet - but who knows how many chapters are left.
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