Kodachrome (KR64) and pre-ASPH M lenses ...

[maddoc]

Mark, I don't have my 50mm Summilux pre-ASPH anymore but would like to see some KR-64 photos taken with this lens !

35mmdelux, that Noctilux is a heavy beast but also my "walk-around" lens in most of the cases, second is the 35mm Summilux pre-ASPH. In some cases, I was glad to have f/1.0 because around dusk there wasn't much light anymore ...

BTW, I have exposed all these KR-64 photos with an ISO setting of 80ISO.

 

[robert blu]

exposure

exposure

BTW, I have exposed all these KR-64 photos with an ISO setting of 80ISO.[/QUOTE]

I'll try this film and of course I'll make some test. Is exposing 80 ISO usefull in all lights or is it suggested only in special conditions? Of course a for slide filme I should expose for the light. Or am I wrong ?
I ask because the cost is quite high and even making some test I woul like not to waste too many frames...
robert

 

[maddoc]

Robert,

with setting to 80ISO I followed a tip (might have been originally from KM-25) and found the colors to be slightly better (intense) than with ISO64. Also, the meter of the M7 (M6 and M5) helped a lot.

Gabor

 

[benkelley]

i shot kodachrome for years & always exposed at 75/80, using a handheld meter on my m3

 

[robert blu]

Thanks for suggestions, I'll try 80 iso on the m7. Hope to have opportunity to tryi it next week, regards
robert

 

[varjag]

Robert, bracket some shots to box speed too. I found that while EI 80 saturates colors, it also makes my scanner struggle with shadows needlessly. YMMV.

 

[robert blu]

I'll use one roll for testing in various light bot 64 and 80 iso. When shooting slides (provia 100 F) with my F100 I always prefer to set 125 instead of 100. With the M7 I usually find nominal exposure works well. I'll give a try next week in order to have the slides back befor summer vacations.
robert

 

[sepiareverb]

Underexposure and Kodachrome don't mix well in my experience- slightly more pop, but lots of thick black shadows with it. It can be a very fine line.

 

[KM-25]

Great exposures Doc! Good strong black shadows and great contrast.

As for exposure, I shoot Kodachrome so it will last and so that people can enjoy it for what it is, a nicely exposed slide to view 50 years from now without the aid of a scanner.

If you are exposing Kodachrome giving preference to scanning, then you really ought to just shoot another film or even digital.

Otherwise, let Kodachrome be brilliant in it's own right and worry about scanning later...

 

[varjag]

You make it sound like shooting Kodachrome 64 at 64 is a cardinal sin.

 

[Lilserenity]

Your mileage may vary as they say, but I have never had much luck with KR64 at ISO 80, especially if it has to be scanned, projected it can be fine but ISO 80 blocks up those shadows too much for me.

At ISO 64 exposed right it can give a unique balance of colour that Provia, EBX/E100VS and Velvia can struggle with (ie: warmth in the yellows and reds, but sincerely sharp and accurate but punchy greens and blues)

I won't hijack from Maddoc's fine photos (and they truly are, well done, fab work) but this shows what I mean: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lilserenity/3551867645/sizes/o/in/set-72157618590943732/

I tend to find using E100VS/EBX or Velvia/Provia will take parts of a scene like that and it will do them well but at the expense of the balance in other colours. Kodachrome is unique in that it when exposed accurately for the scene, will give a very good colour balance with good DR.

A joy to work with and I hope KR64 is around to shoot for a couple more years. I have a stack of 10 boxes waiting to be used (not much but I'm not rich.)

 

[KM-25]

You make it sound like shooting Kodachrome 64 at 64 is a cardinal sin.

No, I shoot it at 64 if the light is cooler, 80 if the light is warmer. I am just saying shoot Kodachrome for the film's sake, not for the sake of digital output.

The attached image was shot at ISO 80 with dead on ambient metering, I rarely bracket. It was then scanned using a 9000ED with Silverfast Ai Studio .

I just see a lot of flat Kodachrome shots on the web that lack the color the film is famous for. The reason for this is the exposure is usually too hot, so the maximum saturation threshold has been exceeded by the exposure being outside of the range of that particular trait of the film. Too dark and it goes muddy, the range is less than 1/2 a stop, more like a 1/3rd.

Maddoc's shots look like he metered correctly and got nice scans to boot.

Slide film by and large is a film to expose for the highlights and where the shadows fall is where they fall. if you look at the work of great slide shooters like McCurry, Allard, Abell, Rowell, Lanting, Maisel, Meola, Turner and Harvey, you will see that the shots are not overexposed. They instead, work almost like a color version of Kodak Technical Pan film in that the contrast is a trait of the film that appeals to the artist using it.

I just don't like flat, washed out color in a slide film, I like color like this and I have trained my self to see light and color distribution like this as well:

http://www.magnumphotos.com/Archive...ge&l1=0&pid=2K7O3R13ZOQY&nm=David Alan Harvey

 

[varjag]

I am just saying shoot Kodachrome for film's sake, not for the sake of digital output.

I think it is obvious that anyone who gets at pains of sourcing and mail-odrer processing K14 films these days does it for specific qualities they find in the film. Whether they want it just to project, to reproduce in print or on the Web, or all of above, is entirely their business.

EDIT: OK, I see your point in your last edit. However, a lot depends on your approach to metering. You just about never get blown highlights at daytime with incident metering, so overexposure at box speed is a lesser issue. Many photographers underexpose the chrome to have a safety margin for in-camera metering, which is not a concern for me; or to deliver more color punch, which I don't find essential (personal preference, no absolutes implied). But again, your mileage may vary.

 

[Damaso]

Lovely images...

 

[maddoc]

Thanks again for the nice comments also the interesting discussion ! 🙂 From my - small ! - experience using this film, the first 12 rolls had less keepers color-wise and were taken with a setting of 64ISO.

As KM-25 mentioned, with this film correct exposure is essential, otherwise one gets a "nice" and also colorful slide but the colors that KR-64 is famous for are missing.

I have only 4 rolls left in the freezer so when I sent the next batch over to Dwayne's for development, I will order the next 20 rolls.

 

[Al Kaplan]

I'd still like to see Kodak bring back Process K-12 Kodachrome II. If they could also reinstate picking up film at select locations in the Miami area late in the afternoon, fly it to and from Atlanta, and deliver finished boxes of slides to the same locations by late in the morning. A lot of photographers thought that Kodachrome II with K-12 processing had the best combination of color and contrast. It was worth putting up with the slow ISO 25 for results like that.

Of course we didn't have aspheric lenses at that point in time, and multi-coating was just coming in to general use. Whatever the reason, those K-II slides from the 1970's were the ones I like the best.

I have vague recollections that a 120 size Kodachrome was briefly marketed back then. Did anyone here ever try it?

 

[KM-25]

I have vague recollections that a 120 size Kodachrome was briefly marketed back then. Did anyone here ever try it?

On a road trip with some buddies to Rosarita Beach, Mexico in 1991, I had a Hasselblad with me and photographed seascapes with 120 Kodachrome 64.

At one point, I had a 30 x 30 Cibachrome made that was simply stunning. I know where those slides are, I just have to dig them up.

As for K-12 / Kodachrome-II, I too hear more people lamenting that as the best Kodachrome ever. Now, while I agree with it being pretty phenomenal, you bring up a good point about lenses. I really do believe that any color gamut we lost when Kodachrome 64 and K14 came about has been re-gained with ease with newer lenses.

One can never be sure, but I don't think Kodachrome is going to last much longer. I think we have succeeded in keeping it around for us to all celebrate it at 75 years, but not much beyond that. So what we need to do is focus on what we have, it is one serious opportunity and several people I have engaged in the idea of this project, well.....they *fully* get it, they sense both the urgency and the opportunity in it.

Maddoc, I would assume, understands what is at stake: Regret of a lost opportunity, or pride of a job well done, nothing in between.
So he has dedicated him self to the arduous task of getting Kodachrome to and fro across the globe so he can do his best not only to shoot as much of the film as he can, but to use this project as an opportunity to make a statement of personal growth.

I have taken this project seriously from day one, but never as seriously as I do now. We are in somewhat dire times as developing nations. The economy at first glance, seems like a huge blow, but all it really amounts to are symptoms of a bigger picture coming off the wall and the unavoidable changes that lie ahead for all of us.

And America, we have lost our sense of who we are. We have been beaten, bruised and we have beaten our selves clean out of the prior definition of the American Dream.

We need a mirror...we need our pride back. We need to know we are OK. We need to vault the American corporation back into a place of innovation and yet prudent financial responsibility. We need GM, we need Kodak, we need to take a new direction but to celebrate our selves again by truly giving the past it's due. Kodachrome is the world's mirror, has been for generations....

The Kodachrome Project is only one way of many to mirror our lives and our lands in, I am sure there are others. But we are here in a photo forum, not trying to change the world, but perhaps help shape the future by celebrating that even though our future is uncertain, our resolve to overcome is not and our achievements many.

And I truly believe that the celebration of the 75 year Kodachrome Era is just the thing a lot of us need to see happen.

I hear a clock ticking and yet my fear of anything, totally vanishing....