Kodachrome. Why isn't it a bigger player in the film market?

ibcrewin

ibcrewin

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Why is there only one place to get it developed? Why isn't it more prevalent in today's marketplace? What about the process is different from E6?

I want to shoot some kodachromes. I'll probably look into doing that after the bonus comes in 😀
 
Kodachrome used to be THE slide film. Ektachrome and the other companies' similar products weren't as good in quality and the slides didn't hold up nearly as well over time.

But Kodachrome is an expensive and complicated process, and the other types of slide film have improved greatly over the years in all respects, so the E-6 films have become much more popular. I understand the Kodachrome is basically a black & white process to which color is added, which makes for tremendous stability, but also makes it very hard to do correctly. The E-6 process is a lot easier to do, and the K-14 process does only Kodachrome, so it's an expensive proposition to be geared up to it.

If the E-6 films were still markedly worse than Kodachrome, then you'd see a lot more people using it still. But the others have caught up in many respects.

Buy the Kodachromes and shoot a lot of it while you still can -- K64 is rumored to be on the way out. K25 we lost a few years ago.
 
For me the biggest difference is the dark keeping qualities of Kodachrome. In dark storage Kodachrome excels. It has likely fallen from favor because not 'just anyone' can process it due to the complexity.

Thanks, bmattock, for the links to the processes. It all comes to light when you lay eyes on a Kodachrome machine. Pardon the pun.
 
I just bought some slightly expired K64 to try out, before it eventually disappears.

What convinced me was the cheap mail-away processing (via Dwayne's, of course) available through Wal-Mart; a search will turn up the details. Processing E6 also takes about two weeks and there's not much difference in cost between the two, so I figured I'd give Kodachrome a try.
 
bcostin said:
I just bought some slightly expired K64 to try out, before it eventually disappears.

What convinced me was the cheap mail-away processing (via Dwayne's, of course) available through Wal-Mart; a search will turn up the details. Processing E6 also takes about two weeks and there's not much difference in cost between the two, so I figured I'd give Kodachrome a try.
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Seems totally reasonable to want to try it out before it goes away forever. I've done enough Kodachrome and other sorts of slide film. I even have some left from my last major purchase, all outdated now. I really don't know what I'd use it for at this point.
 
Ivan, do it. I did it out of curiosity and to my disbelief, the roll came back to the Wally's that I dropped it at the week before and I was hooked since.

Something about the color of the Kodakchrome photos, it's not vivid, but it's "sparkles", like seeing a fond old movie.
 
bmattock said:
I've done enough Kodachrome and other sorts of slide film. I even have some left from my last major purchase, all outdated now. I really don't know what I'd use it for at this point.
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You could sell it for a good cause Bill 🙂
 
varjag said:
You could sell it for a good cause Bill 🙂
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Been there, done that. I got dragged through the mud for trying to sell film. Never again. I'd throw it in the trash first. Sorry!

Hey, it's expired anyway, and God knows how it has held up - it's been in high heat and locked in a storage locker in subfreezing temperatures all this winter. My guess is it's worthless.

But I will never sell any photographic anything again. I'm done with that.
 
Think you're too big for me to drag, but it's OK, your choice - and I still have plenty of time to get it somewhere 🙂 Maybe just go and shoot something memorable on it then.
 
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