Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2002/04/04

[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]

Subject: [Leica] Re: Leica Users digest V22 #139
From: David Prakel <dgp@btconnect.com>
Date: Thu, 04 Apr 2002 22:15:52 +0100

on 4/4/2002 4:25 pm, Marc Attinasi at
owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us wrote:

>> The Kodachrome process was invented by a couple of musicians who did all the
>> R & D in an appartment in N.Y. in the 1930's. Simply amazing!
>> 
> Does anybody know the story of these guys? I have been searching for a
> book or other information sources on them and their 'process' for
> several years now.

Hi Marc

Rochester public TV produced an hour long documentary about Kodachrome some
years ago. They showed how it was kept alive by people within Kodak who
believed in it as a product and produced the compact computer controlled
K-Labs to overcome the problems mentioned below.

This unique film from the 1930s - originally developed as a motion picture
stock - was researched by two musicians Leopold Godowsky and Leopold Mannes
- - they used to time parts of their kitchen sink process by humming Beethoven
sonatas I believe! I also believe there was a connection to Ira Gershwin
through marriage.

Kodachrome is unique because it is non-chromagenic and has no colour forming
couplers. Colour is added by separate development of ultra thin dye layers
which gives it its unsurpassed sharpness. The process was originally
spectacularly complex with over 400 chemicals to be QCed on a daily basis
(requiring an onsite analytical chemist) and a plant of nearly 10,000 sq ft.

Kodachrome was the darling of the picture library as it was the nearest
thing we had to archival colour slides. Today's E6 emulsions offer nearly as
fine quality and something approaching Kodachrome's longevity. A 'second
front' opened up when picture libraries went digital and Kodachrome is such
a pig to scan on many film scanners.

David Prakel

- --
To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html