[photo-3d] Re: Gave up on Kodachrome long ago

[Mark Shields <beamsplitter@xxxxxxxx>]

My $0.02 worth!

I've had very few problems with the Kodak Fair Lawn lab--
a few small scratches--none of the horror stories I've heard.
I don't shoot a lot, but the Kodachrome goes to them on a
regular basis, year 'round, and has been for twelve years.
I shoot about a dozen rolls a year.

For a brief period when they were just plain Kodalux, before
Kodak took over again, I had one really bad roll. That was
14 years ago. It was reddish and had several long tramlines
(long, continuous straight scratches) that went through
several frames.

One thing about Kodachrome that isn't often mentioned is
its high D-max (maximum density)--its blacks are really black.
With the E-6 films I've tried (and I've tried three or four)
it's more of a dark brown or dark gray. This doesn't matter
so much in projection, but for viewing slides in a brilliant
viewer (with my Biax fluorescent, about 2 stops brighter than
a halogen bulb), it really makes a difference--a really large
dynamic range.

As for pushing Provia 100F, what happens to the D-max? I used
to process my own Anscochrome (similar to E-6 films), and when
I did a 1-stop push it got sort of a medium brown, and two
stops made it really pale.

So:

Kodachrome has higher D-max,
 has better archival qualities
 has inherent superiority in sharpness due to its different
          film structure (three-layer black and white)
 is not as affected by heat before processing so much as
          E-6 films
 _can_ be processed in labs that will do a good job
    (I never heard anyone say that A&I or BWC were terrible)
 has an antihalation backing.

Color rendition is of course a personal choice, and
speed of processing is important to many people.

I'll stick with Kodachrome--probably as long as it is
made (which I think could be quite a while, and I do think someone
else will pick it up if Kodak drops it). Meanwhile, I'll keep
trying other things from time to time (Provia F is next--the 400
certainly sounds interesting--100 is just not fast enough for a lot
of my shooting, and I don't personally like Elite Chrome 200).

Certainly Kodachrome and stereo are very much intertwined, what
with Kodak making a stereo camera, special stereo loads of
Kodachrome, etc.

Mark Shields
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beamsplitter@xxxxxxxx
http://www.stmattpitt.org
"Let the little children come to Me," Jesus said, "and don't keep
 them away. The kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."
  -Matthew 19:14


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