Reports of (Colour) Kodachrome Home Processing Emerge from Sydney

[Steve Smith]

didn't we discuss taking three shots with a tri-color separation on panchro film, then processing the three emulsions as the three layers in Kodachrome, and placing them in registration to create a full color transparency.

Not quite the same thing but still of interest: http://www.apug.org/forums/forum45/1...ml#post1327473



Steve.

[hrst]

Magnificent! Any chance of copy-pasting everything posted on Facebook here? In things like these, reviving dying information etc., I believe in "open source".

Hey, it would be simple to build a very small re-exposure device. It would include a small stepper motor to advance the film strips at a constant, adjustable speed, and selectable red/blue LED light source very close to the point where the film is driven from. This way, the exposure can be controlled to very high precision with very small lab space requirements and easy&quick operation, with no limit for film length whatsoever. I bet there are many electronic/mechanical tinkerers like me at APUG who could do this.

[hrst]

Here, to elaborate on the re-exp device mechanical design.

[Photo Engineer]

Either one would probably work.

Remember that the top two layers are not red sensitive and so the top two layers would not be very sensitive to leakage. Then again, the bottom two layers cannot see blue light but are sensitive to it so that might be a consideration there.

PE

[Nzoomed]

Kodachrome film is a B&W film with at least 9 different emulsions sensitive to Red, Green and Blue light and these emulsions are able to tell them apart and reproduce the original colors. The coatings are very thin to give good sharpness and the emulsions are very fine grained but still give good speed and grain. The coating is so complex than only Kodak remained active in this field even though Fuji once made a compatible film, as did Konica in Japan.

PE

Very interesting to learn this!
Its quite surprising they would produce a film that could only be processed in their competitors (kodak) labs!
I take it they did not have any processing labs of their own to send the film?

[Photo Engineer]

Fuji and Sakura had many many labs that processed this film all over the far east. A roll of Kodachrome in 1959 was $10 processing included, and a roll of the Japanese variety was about 1/2 that or less. That was a lot of money back then.

When K-14 came out, Fuji and Sakura bailed out in favor of E6 even though Kodak ended up giving the patent away.

PE

[Brian C. Miller]

Fuji and Sakura had many many labs that processed this film all over the far east. A roll of Kodachrome in 1959 was $10 processing included, and a roll of the Japanese variety was about 1/2 that or less. That was a lot of money back then.

According the BLS inflation calculator, that $10 in 1959 is $78.23 today.

And people think that film is expensive now! Wow, I'd never shoot color at that price.

[wblynch]

Back in 1959 typical American families shot, what, 4 rolls of film per year? That was black and white. Color was too expensive. Color slides were for rich people that drove Jaguar sports cars, wore Berets, smoked pipes and owned Leica cameras.

Why do you think the neighbors bored so quickly of their African Safari or Paris Vacation slide shows?

[MattKing]

According the BLS inflation calculator, that $10 in 1959 is $78.23 today.

And people think that film is expensive now! Wow, I'd never shoot color at that price.

The thing to remember is that the price essentially stayed the same right through the mid 1980s at least, so effectively it got cheaper every year.

And just think how much extra money you would have had available without cel phones and cable TV

[Photo Engineer]

Ummm, minimum wage in the US was about $0.75 / hour in 1959. There was not much disposable income even though things were less expensive. Hamburger was $0.25 / lb and hamburgers were the same at most places. Color prints were $0.28 each but B&W were $0.08 each.

PE