Any successful attempts at developing Kodachrome at home?

[Chrstphrlee]

Good luck Dimas. I'm rooting for you. If you don't try, you'll never know.

 

[Dimas]

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$.

That is a massive investment just to get the process running! Strangely enough, though, I've tried searching and I can't seem to find any actual results or images from his experiments anywhere online. You'd think there would be scans everywhere after spending thousands of dollars.

 

[Dimas]

Good luck Dimas. I'm rooting for you. If you don't try, you'll never know.

Thanks a lot for the kind words and the encouragement! "Nothing ventured, nothing gained" — that's the mindset I'm going with. I'll do my best!

 

[Dimas]

Sounds like classic gatekeeping. If he already figured it out, why be so stingy with the notes?

 

[Dimas]

I actually found some results from a guy online (piratelogystudios), but there’s very little out there. Looking at his tests, it's pretty obvious he's having major issues with the First Developer (FD) and the overall color balance.

Based on the literature I've been reading, I'd guess there are two main reasons for this:

• He hasn't figured out the precise timings for the optical flashing (re-exposure) steps.
• The couplers he's using are partially washing out of the emulsion because their molecules are too "light" (lacking sufficient molecular ballast). But that's just an educated guess.

By the way, I found a really interesting detail in the patent. It states that each color developer actually contains an additional developing agent, like Phenidone or an Aminophenol. While it helps to further develop the layers, its main purpose is to essentially "pave the way" for the CD (Color Developer) molecule to reach the coupler more effectively (acting as an electron transfer agent).

 

[koraks]

Sounds like classic gatekeeping. If he already figured it out, why be so stingy with the notes?

I'd take what he says there at face value: after mucking about with it for a long time, he realized there were so many other things he could do. I know the feeling; some endeavors seem tantalizing, you spend a lot of time on it and at some point you realize that what you're after is perhaps not even really in there to begin with. Then if someone else comes along, one may be rather hesitant to bring the new kids up to speed - after all, if you've decided to walk away from something, why would you go back and spend more time with it?

Moreover, if it were gatekeeping, what's behind the gate that's supposedly so precious? He didn't pursue it further, it seems.

So no, I don't think it's gatekeeping. I think he just rearranged priorities and doesn't identify as an interactive encyclopedia. That may be disappointing if you're looking for one, but hardly something we can blame him for.

Let's cut the guy some slack and assume he was just being honest.

 

[BrianShaw]

I'd take what he says there at face value...

Let's cut the guy some slack..

Good grief; I should say so!

 

[Pieter12]

What is the point if there is little or no Kodachrome film available? Just to process a handful of rolls?

 

[BurntOutElectronics]

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.

He was using mostly original kodachrome chemistry (which came in tins mind you right to the very end) with an improvised yellow using the older 1930's patents.

The issue today is expense, you can have chemical companies manufacture the colour couplers but be prepared to spend thousands of dollars in any currency. nobody else needs them so you're asking a big company to make a small amount of an otherwise useless chemical times three!

This is why Adrian takes a far more artistic route, using all sorts of novel materials as couplers to form rather amazing images. Kodachrome is a great medium for this, as you can add any coupler you like within reason. the combination of different couplers and colour developers is damn near endless when you're in that deep.

 

[Raghu Kuvempunagar]

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.

From a purely practical point of view, wouldn't developing these already exposed rolls as B&W negatives be more effective in salvaging the images than trying to reinvent the original complicated colour process? In any case, colour processing is unlikely to render the colours as intended by the original process.

 

[Raghu Kuvempunagar]

BTW you might have already seen this: https://eng.vsco.co/reviving-kodachrome/

They write: "After months and months of iterations in our experiments and roll after roll of Kodachrome developing, we finally achieved results for Kodachrome that we were proud of. We achieved acceptable film density (Dmin and Dmax), acceptable overall color balance, and consistent results on the same batch of film."

Unfortunately but unsuprisingly, they have not revealed the details of their process other than what is shown in this pic.