Kodachrome discontinued

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I haven't shot slides for a decade... and I was one of the last holdouts.

Stuff was a nightmare to process, I thought it was sent overseas due to environmental issues but in fact the whole world's film was sent to Kansas for developing.
 
Originally Posted By: eljefino
I haven't shot slides for a decade... and I was one of the last holdouts.

Stuff was a nightmare to process, I thought it was sent overseas due to environmental issues but in fact the whole world's film was sent to Kansas for developing.

Talk about the end of an era. It's probably been closer to twenty years for me...
 
Originally Posted By: eljefino
I haven't shot slides for a decade... and I was one of the last holdouts.



I shot slides exclusively until getting a DSLR last year, however I last used Kodachrome in 1999. I started dabbling in Fuji Provia in 1995 and was using it pretty much all the time by 1997.

My experience was typical. People were lured by the vibrant colors of the Fuji and made the switch, and as fewer and fewer people shot Kodachrome there were some complaints that the "chemistry wasn't kept fresh" and thus there was growing inconsistancy in the finished slides. And when they outsourced the processing to Qualex the turnaround time and quality of processing/mounting became an issue.

Back in 1980 I could drop off a roll of slides on the way to school and pick it up the next afternoon. Processed right here in Chicago! Not anymore; I have to look far and wide nowadays to find a place that still has daily film pickup. A week turnaround on E6 slides (ie, Fuji) would be a dream come true but in reality its more like 2 weeks. I'm sure Kodachrome is similar.
 
I was reading on the Zapruder film and he got it developed while he waited... then copied, processed (again), and returned to him later that same evening!
 
Kodachrome RIP.
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I've pretty well lost interest in photography these past few years- but from about '95 til ~'06, my informal(yet near bulletproof!
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) test for a "new to me" camera with automatic exposure, was to shoot a roll of Kodachrome 64. I always deliberately took many of the shots in "difficult" conditions- and with one of my favorite cameras(a sweet little pocket-sized Olympus Stylus Epic), it adjusted for ASA 50 instead of 64!

Anyhoo, my yardsick was simply this- if it would expose Kodachrome 64 properly, it would probably expose *anything* properly, & modern color print film should be almost foolproof. And FWIW- those exposed-at-ASA(ISO)-50-settings from the little Epic came out beautifully. Of course, the difference was only 1/3 stop. (ASA = showing my age!
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It's a shame, but I'm surprised it lasted as long as it did. We have slides my Dad took in the late 1940's- some are on a different film brand(begins with "A"? can't think of the name), they've all faded badly, almost turned browntone. The Kodachrome slides are still bright & beautiful. It's also worth noting that even though the last estimates of image life on Kodachrome were something over 200 yrs if kept frozen, the fact is that if kept frozen, they're virtually certain to last that long- and may last *much* longer. (If the power doesn't go out, of course!
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) They'll certainly last much longer than the people in the photos, even when stored in the proverbial shoebox.
 
autochrome or agfachrome?

My Mom is still stuck in the era where she wants prints made on Kodak paper, b/c nothing else is "archival". (But she makes her own inkjets.
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Originally Posted By: eljefino
autochrome or agfachrome?

Years ago, I used a lot of Agfa products and was quite pleased with the results. It didn't hurt that my dad worked for a Bayer AG sub-contractor and could buy the stuff in bulk at an amazing price.

Considering virtually everyone I knew was using the ubiquitous Kodak products, and an adventurous few were "trying out" the Fuji stuff, I was decidedly the odd man out. Now I'm not even sure where my old Pentax SLR ensemble is...
 
Originally Posted By: rshunter
Originally Posted By: eljefino
autochrome or agfachrome?

Years ago, I used a lot of Agfa products and was quite pleased with the results. It didn't hurt that my dad worked for a Bayer AG sub-contractor and could buy the stuff in bulk at an amazing price.

Considering virtually everyone I knew was using the ubiquitous Kodak products, and an adventurous few were "trying out" the Fuji stuff, I was decidedly the odd man out. Now I'm not even sure where my old Pentax SLR ensemble is...


I can't find my old Canon A-1 either (the stolen F-1 I had is another story...).

I have not shot Kodachrome since the mid-80s. From the late 80s until the late 90s, I didn't shoot much of anything. A few years back (2000-ish, IIRC), I got a very nice Olympus 3.1 MP digicam (when that was good resolution). Now, I'm using two Canons, a G10 (pathetically small sensor, but 14.7MP) and a DR XSi (CMOS sensor and "only" 12 MP of resolution).

As we push upward from these resolutions, I'm getting more and more comfortable concluding that film of any sort is an archaic ancient technology whose time has passed. I've even got a Photoshop plug-in that simulates (very well) the characteristics of various films. Whether you want the image to look like you shot it with Tri-X, K-25, Fuji Velvia, or whatever, it will do it. Sad to hear that Kodachrome is going away, but I really don't see the need for it any more.
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When I compare photograph from news items from the early 90-s on film and the digital photographs of the present day, I also think that film is archaic.

There could be some applications for art purposes that film is suitable but for journalists and regular lay persons shooting family pictures, modern digital cameras yield far better results.
 
Here's a very interesting graph that compares the relative merit of various film speeds, along one side, to the megapixel ratings, along the other. It's a little hard to follow at first (was for me, anyway...). Just take the MP rating you want to compare to film speed, and follow to the point of intersection. Colors reflect the comparison.

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This is from Roger Clark's superb site, Clarkvision.com , which you can find by clicking HERE. Please do check it out; it's very well worth the visit if you're at all into photography. He's both an accomplished artist, and has a vast knowledge of the technical stuff.
 
Used to shoot TMax 3200 also. That stuff was fun! Then I was stuck with it in my camera body for an amazing sunrise I must have shot at 1/1000, f/32, with a teleconverter cutting it by a couple stops. The grain made the picture.
 
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