[Leica] Re: kodachrome

[Summicron1@aol.com]

ambrose wrote:
The downsides are the cost and time factors - 4 days and about $20.00 
shipping expenses plus processing fees. I can't see using the film for a 
job and only rarely for myself given this situation. 

I can get E6 processed in 2 hours and only one block from my studio. 

Is Kodak trying to kill Kodachrome?  Whats the deal?

Henry Ambrose


no, they aren't hank, not intentionally. Kodak has always said it will 
support its products as long as there's enough demand to make it profitable, 
and considering how long they hung onto some old formats long after they quit 
making cameras that used them (116 and 828, for example, although they did 
drop disk like a hot rock), they may be telling the truth.

What you're seeing is the result of different technologies at work. 
Kodachrome is a process invented in the 1930s and involves adding the dyes to 
the film AFTER the film is exposed and sent to the lab. What you put into 
your camera is actually black and white film with several layers designed to 
be sensitive to different colors and to which the dyes are added later on. It 
is a complex, costly, temperature critical procedure but the upside is that 
you get colors truer than anything else anywhere, fine grain, and archival 
staying power that is still being measured. I've seen kodachromes from the 
40s that looked pretty good.

Ektachrome, Agfa and so forth are a simpler process stolen from Germany's 
Agfa company during World War II (spoils of war) that involves dyes that are 
in the film when it is made and activated by the various layers being exposed 
to light. It is a simpler process, able to be done in a local lab for less 
bux, so the local lab can turn E6 around in two hours.

Bt the downside is color some say is not as good, more grain (some say), and 
less archival staying power, although some say it is about equal now. This 
LUG will now proceed to debate this point for the next two weeks, somehow 
getting single malt whiskey and Canondale Bikes tossed in (Bianchi are 
better). We'll know for sure in 100 years when samples can be checked.

So, you pays your money and you takes your chances. Keep your eyes peeled at 
yard sales and flea markets for old PK 24 and 36 Kodak prepaid processing 
mailers. They never expire, ever, and if you're lucky you can do what I did 
and buy a dozen or so for about five bucks. The mail order houses in New York 
also have them for about $5 each, more or less. Be sure and get the new 
mailing address, though -- the lab in New Jersey is the only one still doing 
Kodachrome.

charlie trentelman
Ogden, Utah