4 x 5 Kodachrome shots from the 1940s

GRHazelton · Nov 13, 2012

I didn't know where to post this, and some of you may already have seen them. I found this link on Pentaxforums.com, and thought APUG would enjoy them.

http://pavelkosenko.wordpress.com/2012/03/28/4x5-kodachromes/

What a treasure we've lost in Kodachrome! And imagine the work involved in these shots.

ChristopherCoy · Nov 13, 2012

Are those really real? They look like reproductions! The color is still so vivid and the lighting is spectacular in all of them.

Roger Cole · Nov 13, 2012

They're real. These make the rounds every now and then, and are superb examples of the "Kodachrome look" some of us were talking about in one of the Kodachrome threads. It may not be the most vivid or the most objectively accurate but there's something very "real looking" about it.

ChristopherCoy · Nov 13, 2012

I just wouldn't have thought that the colors would have held up that well after all these years. I mean that first shot is 70 years old!

MattKing · Nov 13, 2012

ChristopherCoy said:
I just wouldn't have thought that the colors would have held up that well after all these years. I mean that first shot is 70 years old!

They are well processed and properly stored Kodachrome.

Steve Smith · Nov 13, 2012

I have posted that link myself in the past and so have a few other people. It's always good to have a look at what people could achieve without the benefit of modern technology which they think they can't do without now.

Steve.

Lionel1972 · Nov 13, 2012

It's when I stumbled upon those photos on the web back in 2009 that I discovered the existence of large and medium format photography along with what kodachromes are. They got me so inspired that I decided to pick up my analog camera again and seriously get into photography, buy a Speed Graphic and a Rolleiflex, and shoot as much slide film I can before no one can anymore. Unfortunately I couldn't manage to shoot Kodachrome in time before the end of it. Those pictures are risponsible for my presence on apug. They are the next best thing from a time machine!

EASmithV · Nov 13, 2012

Thanks for sharing, there were some there I haven't seen before

Ian Grant · Nov 13, 2012

I've seen many old LF Kodachrome but must have missed these before. I prefered the colours of early Kodachrome to later versions, I never really liked K64, I'd grown up with KII and then K25.

Ian

BMbikerider · Nov 13, 2012

Compare these to a digital image from today after it has been left for the same number of years! I know which will still be the best.

Thomas Bertilsson · Nov 13, 2012

Wonderful photographs! I would like to see some carbro prints of these originals. That would be amazing.

removed-user-1 · Nov 13, 2012

Back when I worked at a camera store, we sometimes had orders for copy prints from old photos. We did not have a lab on-site (it was a small store), so we'd send this type of work out. One time a customer brought us a few 5x7 Kodachrome transparencies (family portraits) from the 1940s. They were stunning! I did not want to send them out and have them get lost in the mail or damaged by the lab. I told the customer that they were in possession of a historic artifact, and would be better off taking them to one of the pro photographers in town.

GRHazelton · Nov 13, 2012

Excellent advice! I would dearly treasure such a portrait of my parents, who were married in 1941. I do have a BW wedding portrait, but not the negative. I often wonder how many family pictures shot these days will survive the inevitable hard drive crash; I'd imagine few are printed out and even fewer images are properly backed up. Ah well, "a voice that crieth in the wilderness...."

E. von Hoegh · Nov 13, 2012

ChristopherCoy said:
I just wouldn't have thought that the colors would have held up that well after all these years. I mean that first shot is 70 years old!

And that's first generation Kodachrome. It got better...

Roger Cole · Nov 13, 2012

Again, these photos show very well why so many of us are sad this film is forever gone. Beautiful color and excellent dark fade resistance (it fades more rapidly than E6 in light fading, however, so some people would make Ektachrome dupes for projection.)

bdial · Nov 13, 2012

Old Kodachrome vs. old Ektachrome;

(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

Mustafa Umut Sarac · Nov 14, 2012

Women Hairstyle and dresses are awful. They are long , curly and smelly. Look at the prewar style 18-39 era and look at american 39 to 68 era , you will discover the facts.

Roger Cole · Nov 14, 2012

WHAT?

Hairstyles and clothing styles come and go. It's absurd for those in one era to seriously ridicule those of another era.

And smelly? How the hell would you know that?? These are Kodachromes, not Smell-O-chromes.

Mustafa Umut Sarac · Nov 14, 2012

If you curl your hairs like these women at hairdresserwho is using electric heat , you start to smell like fried chicken.
Look at art deco years and american inspired years , there is 8x10 to 1mp camera difference.

4 x 5 Kodachrome shots from the 1940s

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