Summer 2009, Kodak announces that they have discontinued production of Kodachrome film. The scramble was on to get the remaining stock, knowing that the deadline for exposing and processing is december 2010. (there are only two labs in the world which can process Kodachrome and they will be de-commissioned at the end of 2010)
I managed to get 5 rolls of film from shops in Cheltenham (the price includes processing, so the end product is a box of 35mm slides: individual frames of film in cardboard mounts)
This is a selection from the first film I exposed. The camera is a Contax RTS II, the lenses are a Zeiss Planar 50mm f1.4, and Zeiss Distagon 35mm f2.8
So what happens when those 5 rolls are gone? Is there an acceptable alternative, or is any replacement a step down?
ReplyDeleteKodak has other transparency film, Ektachrome. However the purists are bemoaning the passing of Kodachrome.
ReplyDeleteRecently Kodak introduced Ektar which although a negative film, it is apparently tonally similar to Kodachrome.
When you see how complex Kodachrome is to develop it's a wonder it survived this long. Check it out on line, it's fascinating!
There are lots of other transparency films, notably by Fuji which are very good. The thing people will miss is that tonal neutrality.
Of course, Kodachrome is fundamentally different from other transparency and negative color films that have dye couplers incorporated into the emulsion layers. Kodachrome is unique because it has no dye couplers in the emulsion; these are introduced during processing. Without couplers, the emulsion layers are thinner, causing less light scattering and allowing the film to record a sharper image.
ReplyDeleteObvious really!
Kodachrome effectively addresses the aesthetic principal that perfection must have an element of imperfection, it plays to the Japanese principal of 'Wabi-Sabi' beauty that is "imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete". Digital is just a physical image of thing, Kodachrome shows the soul of a thing...
ReplyDeleteThat lingerie shop in Montpelier is a magical place I slow to crawl when I walk by:)
I got some more K64 at Boots. They have a 3 for 2 offer on film, so I bought 3 for just under £26. That includes processing.
ReplyDeleteI said in an earlier comment that it is processed in only 2 labs in the world. It is actually only one! The Swiss lab is no longer operational, they forward all the film to the lab in the USA.