Kodachrome in 2008

[jasperamsterdam]

Hi all,
still preparing for my NYC phototrip and still feeling a bit scared to leave my canon 5d at home for this long awaited visit..😱

for the b/w i think i'll go for trix and plusx after good advise here on the forum.

but since i'll be going in june, there might be some cool colors to capture aswell. i know i probably should take my 5d for this stuff.. but what about kodachrome? it seems we are in the last years to enjoy this classic, and since i bought the m6 to get back to basics, why not shoot with some good old k64?

I know this stuff is hard to scan, but i'm thinking this route;
buy in NYC, send to Dwaynes photo and hav them scan to roll (6mb jpg) for exhibition grade stuff send to drum scan.

Anyone with some tips? Is the scan from Dwaynes (7$ a roll) any good? Does a drumscan does justice to the greatness of the k64 emulsion? Or is k64 wasted on any digital scanning and only great in a projector.. and can i better use a modern negative film (160nc) or a modern slidefilm (astia) film like i did when i still used film..

 

[dmr]

I know this stuff is hard to scan,

A well-exposed Kodachrome slide is no more difficult to scan than any well-exposed slide, or negative actually. That's been my experience anyway.

 

[lewis44]

I have not scanned Kodachrome at least in the last 2 or 3 years, however I believe the scanning is not the problem, it's using Digital ICE with the scan. If you don't mind cleaning up the dust in Photoshop or other, it should be fine. My Nikon software for the LS5000 has a Kodachrome setting. You question has made me wonder, so I think I'll dig up a few Kodachrome slides and give it a go. If I run into problems I'll try and post what they were if nobody comes up with anything before then.

 

[aparat]

Kodachrome scans really well with my Nikon Coolscan 9000. I would image any modern coolscan would do just as well. Drum scanning should be even better, provided the scan operator is good. The best deal of Kodachrome processing is the Kodalux mailer, which can still be found on the auction site. Dwayne's lab processes those mailers. I use them a lot.

aparat

 

[40oz]

I scanned a bunch of old kodachrome on an old HP S20 film scanner, and it came out as good as anything else I use it for. The projected slide is still so much better.

If you have a shop scan them, I'd suggest 16 bits per color. They can still save it as a jpeg, but 8 bits per color, which is standard for jpegs, can give a very bad impression of the colors. 16-bit is more accurate. Since it is 16 bits per color, some call it 48-bit color. I have no idea how the rates compare when having a shop do, but it makes a very real difference, IMHO. I would expect something like a drum scan to be even better, but I wouldn't expect to find one you'd like blown up on the standard 8-bit scan. The difference is rather amazing on certain photos.

If you aren't likely to project them on your wall to enjoy them, you really ought to have good scans. Even if you just want something to email, starting with the better scan will result in a better jpeg.

New York is cool. I think I had four cameras with me for five days 🙂 FWIW, I think shooting Kodachrome in NYC is a good idea. You can show a whole gallery on a wall for a group of people. And a wall covered in a New York City street scene is so much more than a 4x6 of the same.

 

[David Goldfarb]

Use it while you can. A drum scan will pull the most out of it.

 

[jbf]

I've scanned some kodachrome recently and it works great.

 

[mackigator]

Scans fine on a Coolscan 5000. From my last roll March 2008:

 

[splitimageview]

I have had no problems scanning.

I've got 19 rolls plus Dwayne's processing for sale in the classifieds as we speak. 🙂

 

[eavis]

I suggest over-exposing any shots where light is on the low side by half a stop. That seems to make the world of difference when it comes to scanning. Easy to do with an M camera.

 

[varjag]

Jasper, by all means try at least some Kodachrome. Astia is a great film, my favorite among E6 by far, but Kodachrome is special. My only regret I was late to the party too, hence missed K25 and so far managed to pick up only one roll of K200 for my autumn project :/ So try it while you can.

I can only concur that well exposed Kodachrome not particularly hard to scan. Make sure you disable ICE. Also, common trick of underexposing it at EI 80 does indeed increase saturation but makes extracting shadows with scanner hard. So now I underexpose it only in high-contrast situations (e.g. sunshine with solid shadows) when I know the deep shadows will black out anyway but want to have extra safety margin for highlights and good, non washed-out colors. On a dull day I rate it at box speed.

 

[Particular]

I shot some kodachrome a year and a half ago. I got it at b+h including the mailers, and kodak scanning. The slides were beautiful as expected, but the kodak scanning was horrendous. I didn't expect a drum scan, more like a reference scan, but it was barely useful as that. One roll was scanned totally out of focus. The others were so contrasty that the shots looked grainy and under exposed even when they were perfect. I just couldn't believe that kodak would not be able to get a half decent scan from their own products.
I have never used dwayne, I don't know if their scan to cd service is any better.