Kodachrome 64

[snaggs]

I was thinking its time to try this film myself before it vanishes. Anyone know the cheapest mail order outfit to buy it from? Since Im in Australia, I'd prefer to buy the film without the pre-paid processing, since thats only valid within the US.

Daniel.

 

[Trius]

I just sent a roll off to Dwayne's yesterday. The prices are the most reasonable I've found, and it's where Kodak sends you in North America, while a lab in Switzerland is for Europe. I'll post my results once I have the film back.

Just to be clear, though: there was no Kodachrome 64 in the WWII era. It was just "Kodachrome", and the ASA was 10, IIRC. Somewhere I have a Kodachrome print (yes, there was a Kodachrome print material at one time) from my parents' wedding (ca 1947) and it looks very nice. The colours are more muted than what we think of as Kodakchrome, but I don't think that has much to do with fading, but more with how Kodachrome looked at the time.

Agfa had invented a commercial/consumer colour material around the same time, but with the result of WWII, they never could achieve market dominance on a global basis.

Trius

 

[dmr]

Somewhere I have a Kodachrome print (yes, there was a Kodachrome print material at one time) from my parents' wedding (ca 1947) and it looks very nice. The colours are more muted than what we think of as Kodakchrome, but I don't think that has much to do with fading, but more with how Kodachrome looked at the time.Trius

For a while when I was younger and wanted to shoot color (getting a roll of then-20 or 36 developed and printed was costly for somebody in high school) I tried taking slides and having the few I really wanted printed, printed. This I could afford. I mostly shot what was then called High Speed Ektachrome, but occasionally Kodachrome, and I do remember taking a few slides up to the Spiratone store on 31st. (anybody else remember Spiratone?) 🙂 and getting "Genuine Kodachrome" prints. The 5x7 prints were spectacular and not that expensive, IIRC. These were (supposedly) done at the Kodak lab in Fair Lawn.

I remember the Kodachrome of that vintage being warmer than Ektachrome. Both had vivid colors, but the Kodachrome had a quality to it that no other color film had.

Oh well ... now I'm almost itching to try Kodachrome once again before it goes totally bibi. 🙂

 

[StuartR]

Yeah, it really is amazing to see that stuff in color. At my parents' house we have color prints (probably made in the 80s) on the wall of my grandparents when they were just married. One is of a picnic on a lake somewhere and taken right after world war II. The colors are slightly muted, but in a more "Astia" type way than in a faded sense. The photograph is gorgeous. There is also a picture of my grandfather holding my father as a 2-3 year old (he was born in 47), and other than the hair and clothing styles, it looks like it could have been taken a few years ago. Color photography really brings a sense of immediacy that I think is often absent from B&W. When you see a color photo, you think "NOW", since it is so similar to the way we see the world. B&W seems to have less of a temporal cue...at least for me. I certainly don't think "old" when I see black and white, so maybe that makes me strange.

 

[pshinkaw]

My father's Kodachromes from the Korean War still hold their color (the old ASA 10 version) while shots he made on Fujichrome and Ektachrome in the same period (1952) have turned blue and then faded away. And yes I remember Spiratone, but only from its mail order catalog. I still do an occassional search for "Spiratone" on e-Bay to see what has surfaced from state sales.

I used to have "Genuine Kodachrome" prints made at Sunset Color Labs in Hollywood. They had a separate price list for Type R prints. Does anyone recall how the processes differed? The Kodachrome prints were terrific.

-Paul

 

[SolaresLarrave]

Somebody should take up Eric's offer... Sure, it's a 64, but it's the good 64. 🙂

 

[dmr]

And yes I remember Spiratone, but only from its mail order catalog.

They had 2 walk-in shops in the NYC area., one right across the street from Willoughby Peerless and another one out in Flushing. I don't think they sold cameras, but they had all kinds of film and accessories and gadgets. My brother bought what he called his "beach lens" there (never guess what he used it for) 🙂 which was a dirt-cheap 400mm (IIRC) telephoto for his old pre-Spotmatic Pentax.

They did have one thing that I always thought might be handy for street photography, and it looked like a circular telephoto lens but had a right-angle mirror in it so you looked like you were shooting one way, but were actually shooting (a reverse image) off to the side. This really was not practical for the Mamiya rangefinder, and when I did get a SLR I never thought I needed it enough to get it, but I haven't seen anything since.

Oh well ... 🙂

 

[pshinkaw]

These have rather small openings, 37mm. for video cameras. The Spiratone version was larger. It was called a Mirrotach. It still apears on e-Bay from time-to-time and typically sells for around $50.

It should be pretty easy to make one out of PVC tubing or an oatmeal carton. I think Surplus Shed has inexpensive front surface mirrors.

-Paul

 

[snaggs]

I wonder if the Kodachrome prints were basically like Cibachromes or something? I wonder if you could still do them yourself?

Daniel.

 

[StuartR]

Just having read up on Ilfochrome/Cibachrome, it seems that the difference between the Type R and the Kodachrome prints is that the dyes are in the paper in Ilfochrome and in the chemistry in Type R. Having it in the paper is supposedly better for sharpness and color fidelity, but both are a long way ahead of other color processes.

 

[Doug]

I wonder if the Kodachrome prints were basically like Cibachromes or something?

Back in the 60's-70's whenever I had prints made from transparencies, there was an internegative made. The larger the print I ordered, the larger the internegative, up to 4x5. Then they'd make regular C-prints from the interneg. Kodak offered a special interneg film for this purpose.

 

[dmr]

Back in the 60's-70's whenever I had prints made from transparencies, there was an internegative made. The larger the print I ordered, the larger the internegative, up to 4x5. Then they'd make regular C-prints from the interneg. Kodak offered a special interneg film for this purpose.

The way I remember it, and this is really taking pain to dust off some very rusty brain cells, there were indeed 2 types of "Genuine Kodachrome" prints. One, as you say, was a copy of the slide on some kind of Kodacolor-like negative film and then printed. These were more expensive, and I don't think I ever had any of those done.

The other kind was on a reversal type paper I remember these were cheaper, and could be identified right away by the rounded corners of the image, as opposed to squar corners of the regular Kodacolor type prints of that day. I still have some of these 70's vintage prints and they have actually survived quite well. The one thing that used to fascinate me was how they did the white border of the print, which was the style of the day. If it were truly a reversal paper, and they printed on a standard enlarger and developed it reversal style, the border would be black. I guess they had a mask to expose-saturate the border, making it white in the final print.

This one here isn't Kodachrome, but ...

http://www.rangefinderforum.com/photopost/data/4963/medium/waterf.jpg

... is (probably) the High Speed Ektachrome of the day. This print does show age, and the scan does not show the brilliance of the reflections in the water, but it's one that I've always liked. I do wish I had a larger or archival print made of it. I have the slide somewhere, but I'm sure it's faded more badly than the print.