Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/11/16

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Subject: [Leica] Re: 'chrome stability
From: "Bill Lawlor" <wvl@infinex.com>
Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2001 15:38:04 -0800
References: <200111160614.WAA27112@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us>

Some boxes of old slides were passed to me recently by a relative. They were
in dirty yellow boxes "stored in the garage". All were Kodachromes and
Ektachromes taken by my father from 1958 through 1972. The Kodachromes are
stunning! The 1958-64 version of that film is awesome. They scan beautifully
and print on the Epson 1270 with minimal corrections. I'm shooting plenty of
K64 this year and it doesn't compare with the old film.( I can't remember
what version was in production in those years. I should know because I spent
college summers then working on a big Kodachrome processor line at Drewry
Photocolor in L.A.)

The Ektachrome slides are less true to the originals, faded, and in a few
instances severly discolored toward yellow. Some Ektachromes are good enough
to project and many can be cleaned up in Photoshop. Those in Kodak
processing mounts are in much better condition than slides in independent
lab mounts. The worst are from the lab I used to work at! (I don't have any
of the Kodachromes from that lab in this batch of slides.) None of the
half-frame slides have faded??

It is interesting to match the images with the cameras I know my Dad was
using. The earliest Kodachromes 1958 correspond with a Contaflex he bought
in 1957. Exposures are right on,Tessar quality in every slide. It was stolen
in 1961 and replaced by a Pentax h1a which I still own. A string of
Spotmatics followed through 1972 when he died. Exposure was not so good.
None of those slides have the Zeiss signature. He also had a Olympus Pen F
kit which yielded beautiful half frame images. I have a photo of him holding
a Leica in 1938, but I never saw the camera.

Nostalgic,
Bill Lawlor

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Replies: Reply from "Dale R. Reed" <dale-reed@worldnet.att.net> (Re: [Leica] Re: 'chrome stability)
Reply from "David Kieltyka" <daverk@msn.com> (Re: [Leica] Re: 'chrome stability)
Reply from Feliciano di Giorgio <feli@d2.com> (Re: [Leica] Re: 'chrome stability)