Actually... Kodachrome Sucked

[Luddite Frank]

If the look of Kodachrome was "surreal and bizarre", at least it was a warm and friendly look.... I find the Fuji and Kodak VC films to be more saturated, but somehow cold and artificial-looking.

In the right hands, Kodachrome was simply magnificent.

I shot the bulk of my K-chrome in the mid 1980's, with a Kodak Retina IIIc outfit...

The bulk of my shots were average in terms of color, but some were absolutely glorious.

I will post some of my "last fling" Kodachrome shots from this fall when I get them scanned.

 

[dave lackey]

In general, reality pretty much sucks. That is why I have been described as a romantic.😛

 

[KM-25]

The term I've been looking for to describe the look of Kodachrome was finally used by another person on another system. "Stained Glass."

That person shot the very last frames of Kodachrome ever on Tuesday, the full term he used can be found here:

http://www.newsweek.com/video/2011/01/04/kodachrome-a-little-stained-glass-window-of-truth.html

I found that the only time Kodachrome sucked is when I sucked.

 

[cidereye]

In general, reality pretty much sucks. That is why I have been described as a romantic.😛

Hence why *realistic* films over the years have never really sold well, many have bombed in no time since their launch. (Apart from film used for portraiture, weddings, skin tone etc obviously)

People rave about Velvia, I love it too for certain things, but can anybody honestly say Velvia is realistic? It's got a Walt Disney cartoon colour palate! 😀

And B&W, oh come on! We see in colour for goodness sake, so how realistic is B&W? It's totally surreal when you think about it yet we LOVE it, rave about it and firmly embrace it in all it's glory!

Reality? Nah, you can keep it because most of the time it sucks and is most of the time not what photography is really about! 😛

 

[dmr]

People rave about Velvia, I love it too for certain things, but can anybody honestly say Velvia is realistic? It's got a Walt Disney cartoon colour palate! 😀

Explosion in a paint factory. 🙂

 

[mikhail33]

I just regret not using film earlier and not getting to try this famous film..

 

[hatidua]

I recall a similar discussion that came up shortly after the advent of Velvia. The best response I heard at the time: "People don't buy reality, they want Disneyland".

In the pre-Photoshop days, Velvia, and the original RF50 (which made Velvia look like B&W) were the only way to really cheaply pump up colors. Sure, you could have the press run a promo piece through twice on the reds, but for work being published in magazines and such, using those punchy films was the only way to keep many art directors happy.

 

[rogerzilla]

I used to shoot Kodachrome all the time. The 25 was too slow to be useful and had washed-out colours. The 64 was pretty good, probably sharper than Ektachrome 100 of the same era, but still a bit slow unless the sun was out. The 200 was terrible; it took them about 40 years to develop it and then it turned out to be a grainy horror. I think Velvia killed off 25 and 64, and 200 should have been strangled at birth.

The best thing about it was the consistent processing and the little yellow envelope.

 

[steveyork]

I liked it, although it was hard to scan. I think a lot of the "odd ball" coloring may be due to poor scans.

 

[roboflick]

Kodachrome 25 shot in my RBT S1 and Stereo Realist stereo cameras has a sharp super realistic quality nearly grainless. Looks as good as fuji astia in medium format. Good for people but not objects or landscapes. I got to shoot a few rolls of it before dwaynes stopped processing it and I am glad I did. Sad that it is a relic of history now. Fuji astia is now also discontinued, but I managed to stock up on expired film from ebay
Nik
Now go shoot some slide film!

 

[gdmcclintock]

What's this about photography and reality? Since when do photographs represent reality? Photographs are about vision. Cameras and film (or digital sensors) are a technical means to represent (and perhaps attain) vision.

 

[Ted2001]

I loved Kodachrome 25 (with my F3HP at ISO 32) until Velvia 50 came out and I wanted the extra speed! Wonderful stuff, just got to be too expensive.

 

[DanOnRoute66]

"Washed-out"? Is that another way of saying "Overexposed"?