Kodachrome ArKives

Searching Amazon's books section for 'Kodachrome'
brings up many books of archival color photographs,
among them:

o Kodachrome: The American Invention of Our World*, 1939-1959
o Americans in Kodachrome 1945-1965
o Southern Californialand: Mid-Century Culture in Kodachrome
o Americana the Beautiful: Mid-century Culture in Kodachrome

The following copied from Amazon, who copied it from The New Yorker:

Although commercial color film was first produced in 1907,
it was not widely used until the mid-nineteen-fifties, so
when we think of people and events from the first half of
the twentieth century we tend to imagine them in black-
and-white. In fact, from the mid-thirties Kodak's Kodachrome
process offered a remarkably colorfast and permanent image.
The stunning pictures in this book* show subjects familiar
from black-and-white photography-Georgia sharecroppers, New
York City traffic beneath the Third Avenue El, Hugo Jaeger's
Nazi Berlin-but invigorated by a vivid palette that makes
them feel startlingly contemporary. Unfortunately, Kodak,
worried about losing business for its other, less stable
color stocks, never made Kodachrome's superior durability
a public selling point, and so the corpus of surviving
color images is smaller than it might have been.
Copyright © 2005 The New Yorker

Buy a couple rolls of Kodachrome and take pictures of what's
around you while you still can.

--
Nicholas O. Lindan, Cleveland, Ohio
Darkroom Automation: F-Stop Timers, Enlarging Meters
http://www.darkroomautomation.com/index.htm
n o lindan at ix dot netcom dot com

"Nicholas O. Lindan" wrote:

Buy a couple rolls of Kodachrome and take pictures of what's
around you while you still can.

Absolutely. And I am. A day off with nice weather and a roll of Kodachrome
in my pristine Nikon F2. Lord, it don't get any better than that.

I've been able to wean myself off everything else Kodak -- except
Kodachrome. I can't bring myself to walk away from it. Kodak will have to
take it away. And when they do, I'll cry like a baby.

Ken

On Jun 13, 8:14 pm, "Nicholas O. Lindan" wrote:
Searching Amazon's books section for 'Kodachrome'
brings up many books of archival color photographs,
among them:

o Kodachrome: The American Invention of Our World*, 1939-1959
o Americans in Kodachrome 1945-1965
o Southern Californialand: Mid-Century Culture in Kodachrome
o Americana the Beautiful: Mid-century Culture in Kodachrome

The following copied from Amazon, who copied it from The New Yorker:

Although commercial color film was first produced in 1907,
it was not widely used until the mid-nineteen-fifties, so
when we think of people and events from the first half of
the twentieth century we tend to imagine them in black-
and-white. In fact, from the mid-thirties Kodak's Kodachrome
process offered a remarkably colorfast and permanent image.
The stunning pictures in this book* show subjects familiar
from black-and-white photography-Georgia sharecroppers, New
York City traffic beneath the Third Avenue El, Hugo Jaeger's
Nazi Berlin-but invigorated by a vivid palette that makes
them feel startlingly contemporary. Unfortunately, Kodak,
worried about losing business for its other, less stable
color stocks, never made Kodachrome's superior durability
a public selling point, and so the corpus of surviving
color images is smaller than it might have been.
Copyright © 2005 The New Yorker

Buy a couple rolls of Kodachrome and take pictures of what's
around you while you still can.

--
Nicholas O. Lindan, Cleveland, Ohio
Darkroom Automation: F-Stop Timers, Enlarging Metershttp://www.darkroomautomation.com/index.htm
n o lindan at ix dot netcom dot com


Not meaning to undercut Kodachrome, but while Velvia has a slightly
different appearance, it has a similarly long life.

Peter wrote:
"Nicholas O. Lindan" wrote:
The New Yorker wrote:
Unfortunately, Kodak, worried about losing business for its other,
less stable color stocks, never made Kodachrome's superior durability
a public selling point, and so the corpus of surviving color images is
smaller than it might have been.
Buy a couple rolls of Kodachrome and take pictures of what's around you
while you still can.

Velvia has ... a similarly long life.

It may indeed, but maybe we should revisit the issue in 70 years.

99.99% of all predictions have turned out to be wrong.
And nobody believed the 0.01% that were right.

From a 1937 perspective, life in 2007 would be ...

Time to strap on the jet-pack and commute to work in our
great domed city of Cleveland, where the weather is a
perfect 68.5F and sunny year round. The family is
going to the moon for vacation, so I have to remember
to stop by the PanAm office and pick up the tickets.
Oh, and I have to make some calculations at work --
better remember my slide-rule.

--
Nicholas O. Lindan, Cleveland, Ohio
Darkroom Automation: F-Stop Timers, Enlarging Meters
http://www.darkroomautomation.com/index.htm
n o lindan at ix dot netcom dot com

On Jun 14, 3:31 pm, "Nicholas O. Lindan" wrote:
Peter wrote:
"Nicholas O. Lindan" wrote:
The New Yorker wrote:
Unfortunately, Kodak, worried about losing business for its other,
less stable color stocks, never made Kodachrome's superior durability
a public selling point, and so the corpus of surviving color images is
smaller than it might have been.
Buy a couple rolls of Kodachrome and take pictures of what's around you
while you still can.
Velvia has ... a similarly long life.

It may indeed, but maybe we should revisit the issue in 70 years.

99.99% of all predictions have turned out to be wrong.
And nobody believed the 0.01% that were right.

From a 1937 perspective, life in 2007 would be ...

Time to strap on the jet-pack and commute to work in our
great domed city of Cleveland, where the weather is a
perfect 68.5F and sunny year round. The family is
going to the moon for vacation, so I have to remember
to stop by the PanAm office and pick up the tickets.
Oh, and I have to make some calculations at work --
better remember my slide-rule.

--
Nicholas O. Lindan, Cleveland, Ohio
Darkroom Automation: F-Stop Timers, Enlarging Metershttp://www.darkroomautomation.com/index.htm
n o lindan at ix dot netcom dot com

I understand the point, but do not necessarily agree. I've read some
of Wilhelm's work and think his methods have some value.

Even so, I'm not aware that Kodachrome is available is sizes larger
than 35 mm.

Peter a écrit :
On Jun 14, 3:31 pm, "Nicholas O. Lindan" wrote:

Peter wrote:

"Nicholas O. Lindan" wrote:

The New Yorker wrote:

Unfortunately, Kodak, worried about losing business for its other,
less stable color stocks, never made Kodachrome's superior durability
a public selling point, and so the corpus of surviving color images is
smaller than it might have been.

Buy a couple rolls of Kodachrome and take pictures of what's around you
while you still can.

Velvia has ... a similarly long life.

It may indeed, but maybe we should revisit the issue in 70 years.

99.99% of all predictions have turned out to be wrong.
And nobody believed the 0.01% that were right.

From a 1937 perspective, life in 2007 would be ...

Time to strap on the jet-pack and commute to work in our
great domed city of Cleveland, where the weather is a
perfect 68.5F and sunny year round. The family is
going to the moon for vacation, so I have to remember
to stop by the PanAm office and pick up the tickets.
Oh, and I have to make some calculations at work --
better remember my slide-rule.

--
Nicholas O. Lindan, Cleveland, Ohio
Darkroom Automation: F-Stop Timers, Enlarging Metershttp://www.darkroomautomation.com/index.htm
n o lindan at ix dot netcom dot com


I understand the point, but do not necessarily agree. I've read some
of Wilhelm's work and think his methods have some value.

Even so, I'm not aware that Kodachrome is available is sizes larger
than 35 mm.



Wilhelm tests have two serious flaws:
- they test the materials mostly against light aging. Very few tests are
done with other factors that may affect longevity.
- these tests are done with very strong light supposed to simulate a
faster aging of the material. This is only a supposition.

Put a BW fiber paper under these test conditions and you may believe it
will last forever. We all know this is unfortunately not the case ...

Claudio Bonavolta
http://www.bonavolta.ch

"Claudio Bonavolta" wrote

Wilhelm tests have ... serious flaws:
... test mostly light aging ... [with] very strong light supposed to
simulate a faster aging of the material. This is only a supposition.

If there is something that will cause Velvia to fade we can
only be sure Wilhelm _isn't_ testing for it.

You never see the one that gets you until it is too late,
if you did you would have gotten out of the way.

--
Nicholas O. Lindan, Cleveland, Ohio
Darkroom Automation: F-Stop Timers, Enlarging Meters
http://www.darkroomautomation.com/index.htm
n o lindan at ix dot netcom dot com

"Peter" wrote in message
ps.com...
On Jun 14, 3:31 pm, "Nicholas O. Lindan"
wrote:
Peter wrote:
"Nicholas O. Lindan" wrote:
The New Yorker wrote:
Unfortunately, Kodak, worried about losing business
for its other,
less stable color stocks, never made Kodachrome's
superior durability
a public selling point, and so the corpus of
surviving color images is
smaller than it might have been.
Buy a couple rolls of Kodachrome and take pictures of
what's around you
while you still can.
Velvia has ... a similarly long life.

It may indeed, but maybe we should revisit the issue in
70 years.

99.99% of all predictions have turned out to be wrong.
And nobody believed the 0.01% that were right.

From a 1937 perspective, life in 2007 would be ...

Time to strap on the jet-pack and commute to work in our
great domed city of Cleveland, where the weather is a
perfect 68.5F and sunny year round. The family is
going to the moon for vacation, so I have to remember
to stop by the PanAm office and pick up the tickets.
Oh, and I have to make some calculations at work --
better remember my slide-rule.

--
Nicholas O. Lindan, Cleveland, Ohio
Darkroom Automation: F-Stop Timers, Enlarging
Metershttp://www.darkroomautomation.com/index.htm
n o lindan at ix dot netcom dot com

I understand the point, but do not necessarily agree.
I've read some
of Wilhelm's work and think his methods have some value.

Even so, I'm not aware that Kodachrome is available is
sizes larger
than 35 mm.

It hasn't been for some time. 120 was the other size of
still film and that was discontinued perhaps ten years ago.
I think certain sizes of motion picture film, particularly
8mm, were made until fairly recently. Kodak made sure no
other still film size but 35mm could be used when they
"upgraded" the processing machines to a form which took 35mm
film only.
From shortly after its introduction as 16mm motion
picture film in 1935 Kodachrome became available in 35mm,
several roll film sizes and sheet film up to 16x20. All the
sheet film was processed in Rochester. Kodachrome sheets
were discontinued shortly after Ektachrome was introduced
c.1949. It was inferior to Kodachrome but could be processed
by independant labs by a process which was rather complex
but still simpler than Kodachrome.
For about the first year after its introduction
Kodachrome was processed by a method which relied on
controlled penetration of bleach into the multiple layer
emulsion. This process was very difficult to control and had
many steps since the film had to be dryed before each bleach
step to insure consistency of the bleach penetration. This
method of processing was discontinued in favor of one using
differential re-exposure of the layers to separate the
colors about 1938. This method continues in use today.
Kodachrome reportedly has very good dark storage
permanence by fades relatively quickly when exposed to
intense light such as when being projected. Ektachrome,
OTOH, fades faster in dark storage but withstands projection
better.
Its difficult to justify Kodachrome in light of the
improvements made in other types of multi-layer color films
but it continues to have a unique look. In its early days it
had a reputation for having gaudy colors, a reputation it
shared with Technicolor. In fact, people did want lots of
color so both Kodak and Technicolor chose to make sure there
was plenty of it.


--
---
Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles, CA, USA

Richard Knoppow wrote:

Its difficult to justify Kodachrome in light of the
improvements made in other types of multi-layer color films
but it continues to have a unique look. In its early days it
had a reputation for having gaudy colors, a reputation it
shared with Technicolor. In fact, people did want lots of
color so both Kodak and Technicolor chose to make sure there
was plenty of it.

The "look" of Kodachrome long since fell out of favor. Technicolor was
popular with people who first saw color photgraphy in the movies, and in
magazines, but a whole generation has grown up with color being what
they see on the "tube".

When web sites first started, they tried to duplicate the look of print
media and over the years developed their own style, now print media has
taken on the look of web sites. USA Today was the first print media to
do so, long before the web, they copied the look of teletext (which was
never popular in the U.S.) and delivered their papers in a box that
looked like a TV.

Kodak did try to produce a color print film which duplicated the "look"
of Kodachrome (Ektar 25). While it was my favorite color print film, it
was never a commerical success. :-(

Now that digital photgraphy has taken over the snapshot, sports and
commerical photography markets, it is likely that the color films
which remain will slowy migrate to look like it as tastes change.

Geoff.

--
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel N3OWJ/4X1GM
IL Voice: (07)-7424-1667 U.S. Voice: 1-215-821-1838
Visit my 'blog at http://geoffstechno.livejournal.com/

"Ken Nadvornick" wrote in message
...
"Nicholas O. Lindan" wrote:

Buy a couple rolls of Kodachrome and take pictures of what's
around you while you still can.

Absolutely. And I am. A day off with nice weather and a roll of
Kodachrome
in my pristine Nikon F2. Lord, it don't get any better than that.

I've been able to wean myself off everything else Kodak -- except
Kodachrome. I can't bring myself to walk away from it. Kodak will have
to
take it away. And when they do, I'll cry like a baby.
Sadly for us here in Australia, and probably most of the non-USA world,
Kodachrome is effectively no longer available. I'm sure I probably could
find some if I looked hard enough, but sending it to the USA for processing
makes it more pain than it is worth. Still think it probably ranks as the
best colour film ever made, but various Fuji chromes are almost as good, and
can be _reasonably_ easily processed (for me it requires mail order to a
city about 200km away, but that's better than sending it to the other side
of the planet).

Ken