The Kodachrome Revival Project

[umboody]

I was recently given 23 expired rolls of Kodachrome 64 at work. I discovered the magic of Kodachrome last year, and although I shot quite a few rolls of Kodachrome towards the end of it's life, it was the beginning of my fascination with this beautiful slide film. I now have more Kodachrome than I ever had before and I am looking to document how to make the most of it.

I'm sure a lot of you will have a few rolls of K64 still lying around. Have any of you tried processing it in black and white chemicals, or even gone as far as trying to emulate the entire K-14 developing process itself? If so, how far have you got and what results have you achieved. Any help you can give me is absolutely essential for the success of this project.

You can follow progress on this project via twitter: twitter.com/k64revival

There will soon be a website once I have gathered enough research and information.

 

[JayGannon]

K-14 is essentially impossible to replicate without a 7 figure investment in the process equipment.

Kodachrome can be dev'd in B&W chems to give a faint image with some good success.

 

[umboody]

K-14 is essentially impossible to replicate without a 7 figure investment in the process.

I wonder if anyone has actually done that though... I've heard stories of people buying Kodachrome processing machines, but they never really seemed to do anything with them. Perhaps they have and I've not been looking hard enough...

 

[healyzh]

Aren't the chemicals involved extremely hazardous as well? Sadly the only option is probably to shoot digital and buy "Exposure 3" from "Alien Skin Software".

 

[JayGannon]

I wonder if anyone has actually done that though... I've heard stories of people buying Kodachrome processing machines, but they never really seemed to do anything with them. Perhaps they have and I've not been looking hard enough...

Anyone can buy a K-Lab Processing machine thats the easy part, theres always a few floating around. The investment is needed to produce the dye's for the processing chemicals, which were made by Kodak only via a complicated process and thats a huge investment that could only be done as a loss making hobby by some rich millionaire 😛

I'm taking my references from PE on APUG who is a former Kodak Emulsion Engineer and who worked on Kodachrome for much of his career (His name is on the patent for the K-14 process so I assume he speaks with some confidence).

Thats not to say it could never come back, but the level of investment needed would be very high, much higher than for example the revival of Polaroid (Impossible Project) which makes it quite unlikely that it would be an option.

 

[Chuck Albertson]

I wonder if anyone has actually done that though... I've heard stories of people buying Kodachrome processing machines, but they never really seemed to do anything with them. Perhaps they have and I've not been looking hard enough...

Well, the processing machines are about as useful as a disconnected phone booth without the processing chemicals, which Kodak manufactured and no longer does. Are you a full-time chemist, perhaps?

 

[umboody]

Well, the processing machines are about as useful as a disconnected phone booth without the processing chemicals, which Kodak manufactured and no longer does. Are you a full-time chemist, perhaps?

Unfortunately, no. But I just need to find one that would be happy to hand out dangerous chemicals to me. Sure they've got no issues with handing out cyanide-based chemicals to the general public...

Unfortunately, the black and white option seems like the only way forward. Has anyone tried this with any success. Photos please!

 

[gb hill]

Why waste your time when there is Velvia 50. This looks better than Kodachrome. Check out this W/NW thread. If people don't buy & shoot this, it too will go away.
http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=100264

 

[sevo]

Well, the processing machines are about as useful as a disconnected phone booth without the processing chemicals, which Kodak manufactured and no longer does. Are you a full-time chemist, perhaps?

Colour coupling toning once was widely used for proofing and scientific photography applications, and there are plenty of recipes around. The key materials are part of every colour process, including RA-4 (which is used for the majority of digital photo prints), so their availability is not at risk.

Building a accurate three-colour process is harder than toning - but a number of small or third-world companies have in the past reverse engineered just about every process ever invented by the major players, so it obviously is not impossible.

Whether reverse engineering without Kodak documents is feasible on a limited budget within the short timespan left until the remaining Kodachrome footage fogs over is another question - and so is whether Kodak will provide any help. Even worse, Kodak might still have parts of the latest Kodachrome process patented, so that they could even prevent attempts at a revival.

 

[Spleenrippa]

Kodachrome can indeed by developed as a B&W film with excellent results.
I posted a link right after Dwayne's stopped their K14 development

RFF Thread

 

[JayGannon]

Yeah I'm in the shoot it and it'll stay around ideology also, and Velvia is a special film also, not Kodachrome but special in its own way.

 

[gb hill]

Here is your flickr group for Kodachrome processing in B&W. I think it's a waste of good B&W chemicals. This film just isn't made to be processed in b&w.

http://www.flickr.com/groups/1608796@N23/

 

[JayGannon]

Whether reverse engineering without Kodak documents is feasible on a limited budget within the short timespan left until the remaining Kodachrome footage fogs over is another question - and so is whether Kodak will provide any help. Even worse, Kodak might still have parts of the latest Kodachrome process patented, so that they could even prevent attempts at a revival.

Anyone can make K-14 if they wish, Kodak rescinded their rights to the process about 10 years ago and gave full permission for anyone to replicate it, its just a cash intensive process unfortunatly and wouldnt fit into any business plan. So the cash just aint there to do it.

 

[umboody]

Why waste your time when there is Velvia 50. This looks better than Kodachrome. Check out this W/NW thread. If people don't buy & shoot this, it too will go away.
http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=100264

Oh yeah, Velvia is a gorgeous film. It's just that now I've got 23 rolls of Kodachrome and I want to see what I can with it...

Kodachrome can indeed by developed as a B&W film with excellent results.
I posted a link right after Dwayne's stopped their K14 development

That's pretty good, just what I was hoping for from the black and white prospects of K64. Have you tried anything other than Diafine?

 

[mooge]

this guy bought a K-lab and plans to get it running again...

 

[JayGannon]

this guy bought a K-lab and plans to get it running again...

As I said about, getting a k-lab isnt that difficult, its the chems which are impossible to get, and impossible to basement engineer, according to a guy who made the orginal K-14 chems.

Aside: I spoke to my father who is a Chemical Enginner by profession and he examined the patents and the formulas and he agreed that the process was very cash intensive and even with the required equipment it would be a process that may take years to refine to the standards that Kodak were producing at.

 

[David Murphy]

I'm not a chemist, but I did see somewhere once the chemical process for Kodachrome processing detailed-out and it did not look that intimidating (it's online or used to be). Perhaps we have a member or two who's a wet chemist and can offer a learned opinion? (After all we are talking essentially about 1930's technology)

 

[Pickett Wilson]

Why not let old technologies die? If there was any significant demand for Kodachrome, Kodak wouldn't have killed it.

 

[bwcolor]

It is dead. Gone... Use the film that is here or we will lose that also. Slide films are particularly at risk. Velvia 50, which is a gorgeous film, will be gone if we don't use it. It will probably go in the near term, even if we do use it, but I plan on doing my part. Kodachrome will never return.

 

[batterytypehah!]

What I have been wondering is this: Isn't the color information still "there," even when it's developed as b&w? Not visible to the human eye without the dyes, of course, but could it be retrieved electronically in some kind of advanced scanning procedure? The scanner would read each layer separately as shades of gray, but the software would know which color each layer represents and calculate the final image in color.

Just musing. I'm probably overlooking something basic.

I am not nostalgic for the stuff or anything, it's just that I keep hearing that it's unsurpassed for archival purposes. This way, the image could be kept safe and scanned again and again as needed and as technology improves, as opposed to recording something now in digital and forever being stuck at that resolution.