Any successful attempts at developing Kodachrome at home?

[Dimas]

Hello everyone!
I was wondering if anyone knows how to develop Kodachrome, or if there is anyone who still offers this service? Have there been any successful attempts recently?
I'd also love to hear if anyone could share some DIY methods or home-brewed recipes to process it.


Thanks!

 

[thinkbrown]

It's perfectly doable, it's just not worth it. The entire process is fickle and complex and there hasn't been film made for the process in about 20 years.

Haist lays out virtually the entire process in volume two of Modern Photographic Processing, page 556. It's a 17 step process including washings. You can also reference US patent 3658525

 

[koraks]

I was wondering if anyone knows how to develop Kodachrome, or if there is anyone who still offers this service?

AFAIk there's one guy in Australia who worked out a process, then ran it for a brief while and ultimately bailed out because...well, probably too time-consuming. I don't think he ever offered it as a commercial service or intended to.

 

[Raghu Kuvempunagar]

Check the work of Adrian Cousins here. He has had some success with Kodachrome.

 

[koraks]

Future Kodachrome Colour Developing

Has anyone experimented with kodak Vision 3 stock in a film camera? (or any other ECN2 type stock for that matter?)

www.photrio.com

This might be of interest. Kodak Z-50. Not really something that would be very usable to recreate a K14 process from as it's mostly focused at operators running a working K-LAB setup using supplied chemistry etc. Some process parameters can be gleaned from it, though.

IDK if this is also listed at the Facebook page as it's inaccessible to non-FB users (which is me).

 

[retina_restoration]

Why would you bother?

 

[Raghu Kuvempunagar]

Can't help with FB page, but Adrian Cousins used to post here and hopefully can read OP and respond: @adycousins

 

[Dimas]

It's perfectly doable, it's just not worth it. The entire process is fickle and complex and there hasn't been film made for the process in about 20 years.

Haist lays out virtually the entire process in volume two of Modern Photographic Processing, page 556. It's a 17 step process including washings. You can also reference US patent 3658525

Thank you! I have actually already studied these exact materials (Haist's book and the patent). I know it's a crazy 17-step process and totally impractical, but I'm still curious to experiment.

 

[Dimas]

Check the work of Adrian Cousins here. He has had some success with Kodachrome.

Thanks!

 

[Dimas]

Future Kodachrome Colour Developing

Has anyone experimented with kodak Vision 3 stock in a film camera? (or any other ECN2 type stock for that matter?)

www.photrio.com

This might be of interest. Kodak Z-50. Not really something that would be very usable to recreate a K14 process from as it's mostly focused at operators running a working K-LAB setup using supplied chemistry etc. Some process parameters can be gleaned from it, though.

IDK if this is also listed at the Facebook page as it's inaccessible to non-FB users (which is me).

Thank you so much for taking the time to look into this and for sharing the exact references! That's really helpful.

 

[Dimas]

Why would you bother?

I have a few old undeveloped rolls sitting around. I’m not expecting a miracle, but I’m curious to see if any images can still be salvaged from them before throwing them out.

 

[MattKing]

It can be developed as a black and white negative.

 

[blee1996]

Yes I have developed Kodachrome in B&W successfully.

Or you can try the Trichromatic Photography technique, and tell us what is your results.

 

[Dr. no]

"It's all expired film, why would you bother? Just buy some Fujichrome from a scalper."
"Ektar is just as good."
"Just get a digital camera, run a film sim."

Now that those are out of the way...

As an expired film advocate, I applaud your effort! But retrieving images is the only reason I could imagine...I can't believe you will get Kodachrome-level colours from a home process, the quality control steps were huge (17 steps to control, discounting the rinses there are still dozens of rolls of tuning to do in there...)

 

[Dimas]

Haha, thanks for getting those out of the way!

I fully realize I’m not a giant automated Kodak processing machine, and I won't get perfect lab-quality consistency. But I honestly believe it’s possible to get "good" results. Let’s not forget that in the very early days, complex color processes (including early Kodachrome) were processed manually by technicians, and nobody complained about the results!

It just takes a lot of patience and tinkering.

 

[MattKing]

Haha, thanks for getting those out of the way!

I fully realize I’m not a giant automated Kodak processing machine, and I won't get perfect lab-quality consistency. But I honestly believe it’s possible to get "good" results. Let’s not forget that in the very early days, complex color processes (including early Kodachrome) were processed manually by technicians, and nobody complained about the results!

It just takes a lot of patience and tinkering.

It may very well also require that you obtain components that haven't been synthesized since before 2010.
Many of the discontinuations and changes in the film world have happened because entities like Eastman Kodak can no longer either make or buy things.
The Kodachrome K-14 and K-12 processes, unlike the E6 process, added much of the colour imaging components to the film at the time of processing. It isn't likely that many of those components can now be found.
A slightly related fact: when Eastman Kodak makes Ektachrome they have a several month lead time because some of the constituent components they use are made by others, on special order only, and aren't otherwise obtainable. Apparently, there are no other commercial or industrial uses for them, so there isn't a selection of places to obtain them, or any existing inventories,

 

[Dimas]

Yes I have developed Kodachrome in B&W successfully.

Or you can try the Trichromatic Photography technique, and tell us what is your results.

Yes, I’ve actually had success with that already! I managed to remove the yellow mask and even reverse-processed it into a B&W slide.

As for the trichrome technique, that's an interesting idea, but I think it makes more sense to just shoot trichromes on something like T-Max 100, for example.

 

[Dimas]

It may very well also require that you obtain components that haven't been synthesized since before 2010.
Many of the discontinuations and changes in the film world have happened because entities like Eastman Kodak can no longer either make or buy things.
The Kodachrome K-14 and K-12 processes, unlike the E6 process, added much of the colour imaging components to the film at the time of processing. It isn't likely that many of those components can now be found.
A slightly related fact: when Eastman Kodak makes Ektachrome they have a several month lead time because some of the constituent components they use are made by others, on special order only, and aren't otherwise obtainable. Apparently, there are no other commercial or industrial uses for them, so there isn't a selection of places to obtain them, or any existing inventories,

Nobody is saying we absolutely have to use the exact original couplers. We could just use the "siblings" of the original ones. As long as we find analogues with the same molecular core and similar ballast groups, it should theoretically work.

 

[blee1996]

Good luck and let us know your progress! I still have some Kodachrome lying around, and own a Kodachrome themed T-shirt.

 

[TheFlyingCamera]

The guy on here from Australia who figured out how to do it was Stephen (Steven?) Frizza. He hasn't been on here or on his social media for ages, so I don't know what's going on with him. He ran a commercial photo lab in Sydney for a while and so had the tools and facilities to try and do it. He was also independently wealthy.

 

[Dimas]

Good luck and let us know your progress! I still have some Kodachrome lying around, and own a Kodachrome themed T-shirt.

Thanks for the support! Keep those rolls in the freezer for now — I'll definitely keep the thread updated once I have some tangible results to show!

 

[Dimas]

The guy on here from Australia who figured out how to do it was Stephen (Steven?) Frizza. He hasn't been on here or on his social media for ages, so I don't know what's going on with him. He ran a commercial photo lab in Sydney for a while and so had the tools and facilities to try and do it. He was also independently wealthy.

Thanks for the name! I'll definitely try to dig up his old posts or any information he left behind.

Having commercial lab equipment and unlimited budget sure helps, but I'm hoping to figure out a "ghetto" home-brewed method. It might not be perfect, but the journey itself is what matters!

 

[Don_ih]

Years ago, Kelly-Shane Fuller was developing Kodachrome. Not sure what happened with it.

 

[Dimas]

Years ago, Kelly-Shane Fuller was developing Kodachrome. Not sure what happened with it.

Thanks for the name!

 

[Agulliver]

The guy on here from Australia who figured out how to do it was Stephen (Steven?) Frizza. He hasn't been on here or on his social media for ages, so I don't know what's going on with him. He ran a commercial photo lab in Sydney for a while and so had the tools and facilities to try and do it. He was also independently wealthy.

I also recall that he reckoned that it would cost about $200 per film to process - and that was after he'd spent many thousands getting to the point where he could process it at all. Though that might have been AUS$ and not US$.