Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1996/12/06
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]At 02:54 PM 12/5/96 -0500, you wrote: > >>Well, OK, but it took them years and years and years to do so, while >>Kodachrome went down the tubes. They have handled Kodachrome so badly >>(including failing to do any upgrade work on it for years) that it almost >>seems they are trying to get rid of it. > >"Upgrade"?? We're talking film here, not software! >What changes would you like to see made to Kodachrome? Well, films are "upgraded" all the time. Kodachrome used to be, too--or maybe you would still like to be using Kodachrome 10! Perhaps you have failed to notice the new film technology--T-grains and the like--that has made films finer and finer grained, giving a sharper and sharper appearance. In particular, K25 used to be far and away the finest grained slide film--not any more (e.g., your loathed Velvia, which has twice K25's speed). K200 particularly suffers from this problem, in comparison to its competition. >I for one have always loathed Fuji's Velvia and have been well depressed by >the herd mentality of both the stock photo industry and the film >manufacturers. Buyers, it seems, won't look at anything that doesn't have >incredibly high contrast coupled with nauseatingly lary colors and the >manufacturers all leap over themselves to supersaturate their palates in >the quest for their very own Velvia clone. Well, to each his own. But Velvia has improved, and has better detail rendition and more accurate color than it did at first. I haven't seen this with Kodachrome! > Kodak's efforts in the Ektachrome line have been hilarious. Their >succession of (W) warmer films looked to me like someone releived their >bladder into the emulsion bucket. Quite vile stuff. Maybe so. But those films are actually a success. They are used in great amounts by fashion photographers shooting in the shade--they reduce the blue, and give a natural skin tone rendition. Check out Miami Beach sometime to see this. Those films are also not intended to be competition for Velvia (which is unusable for fashion photography, since it produces ruddy skin tones). Where Velvia is dominant--and Kodak not a player--is landscape photography. > Surely there's more to colour photography than trying to burn your >retinas out? > Leave Kodachrome alone and bring it back in 120 format, please. >"J" > Well, the question is why it was dropped in MF! I think my comments in my other posts get at part of the problem--low quality control, lousy processing, and a failure by Kodak to pay any attention to the Kodachrome line. Because it requires unique processing, Kodachrome will need special care, or it will die. It starts at a disadvantage, for pros, because it cannot be processed overnight in most locations. Charlie Charles E. Love, Jr. CEL14@CORNELL.EDU