Do you have any Kodachrome?

[Ariston]

I am curious how Kodachrome has held up, from an archival perspective. Have the colors lasted?

If anyone wants to share some of their images, that would be awesome. I never got the chance to shoot this film.

 

[Stats]

As I understand it, Kodachrome was essentially a black and white film. The color was added during processing.

 

[MattKing]

Several thousand, stretching back to 1947 ( I think).
I have both mine, and my father's.
I'll see what I have available from the ones I have scanned when I am on my desktop computer.
The 1947 slides are badly faded.
Everything more recent that I have gone through looks great.

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

I have a few unexposed rolls that I found in a box in the school darkroom...

 

[AgX]

Alternative to what fellows here have at hand of old samples you may have a look at the results the Image Permanance Institute published (all on their website).

 

[macfred]

I have 2 boxes of Kodachrome 200 transparencies I shot in Norway in the early 8o's - no fading yet.
Deep down in the freeze I have 4 rolls Revue 3000 chrome 19 DIN / ASA 64 for K-14 process I got from my father-in-law.

edit: The Revue 3000 chrome is AGFA CT18 for AGFA / ORWO AP41 process ...

 

[Ray Morgenweck]

Lots from the mid 70s still “as new”. Project to really enjoy. My color prints ....yuk. True BW prints, “as new”.

 

[markbau]

I used most slide films that were available in the late 70s. Kodachrome definitely holds up the best as far as not fading or colour shifting. Agfa slide film was the worst. Ektachrome seemed to get bluer as they aged. The only problem with Kodachrome is if your storage conditions weren't great they could grow a mould that looked a bit like a spider. I liked Kodachrome until I started printing Cibachromes for which they were too contrasty.

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

My wife's 50 year old family Kodachromes seems to have held up. The digital scans of them seem to be holding up as well.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/alanklein2000/albums/72157626911395064

 

[markbau]

Here are a few recently scanned shots from Kodachrome.
https://www.railpictures.net/photo/685491/
https://www.railpictures.net/photo/691126/
https://www.railpictures.net/photo/689412/
https://www.railpictures.net/photo/688939/

https://www.railpictures.net/photo/688725/
This is from one of my last rolls of Kodachrome

https://www.railpictures.net/photo/688352/
One of the very few shots I took on Kodachrome 200

I talked to a Kodak rep once and asked about why some rolls of Kodachrome seemed to have a green cast. He told me something very interesting. Non-Pro Kodachrome did indeed have a green bias when fresh, as it got to its use by date it was more or less neutral. He told me always try to use Kodachrome around its use-by date. I did and he was right!

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

Mark, Nice shots. I was just thinking. Those trains are getting old and dying like Kodachrome. Nothing lasts.

 

[markbau]

Mark, Nice shots. I was just thinking. Those trains are getting old and dying like Kodachrome. Nothing lasts.

Thanks Alan. Indeed, most, if not all of those photos would be impossible to get today.
You know you are old when locomotives that you worked on are now in a museum!

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

I know what you mean. It sometime feels like I belong in a museum.

 

[mgb74]

I used most slide films that were available in the late 70s. Kodachrome definitely holds up the best as far as not fading or colour shifting. Agfa slide film was the worst. Ektachrome seemed to get bluer as they aged. The only problem with Kodachrome is if your storage conditions weren't great they could grow a mould that looked a bit like a spider. I liked Kodachrome until I started printing Cibachromes for which they were too contrasty.

I shot a fair amount of Agfa slide film in the 70s. My slides seem to be holding up well. They weren't projected often and have been stored in cool, dry, dark closets.

 

[MattKing]

My Dad, in or about 1950, on Kodachrome:

The actual slide looks far more faded and green than this one does. Dad was working for Canadian Kodak by this time, so it was probably developed in Toronto.

Our family - Mom, Dad, myself, my younger brother and my Dad's parents, before leaving Toronto to move to Vancouver in 1961. Kodachrome in 828 format. This may have been developed in the new Canadian Kodak lab in North Vancouver that opened with new staff, including my Dad, or it may have been developed in Toronto:

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

Matt: Nice shots of your family. Your dad in the first picture looks a little like my dad. My scanner Epson V600 with Epsonscan software does a color correction when it scans photo prints. It also correct cracks and tears to a good extent.

 

[wyofilm]

Great slides guys. Matt, what camera does your father have in his hand in the second photo?

 

[MattKing]

Matt: Nice shots of your family. Your dad in the first picture looks a little like my dad. My scanner Epson V600 with Epsonscan software does a color correction when it scans photo prints. It also correct cracks and tears to a good extent.

Thanks Alan, but that is a scan of an extremely faded Kodachrome slide. I guarantee that Epsonscan wouldn't have helped much - I had to do a lot of work with available software to extract that much colour.

 

[MattKing]

Great slides guys. Matt, what camera does your father have in his hand in the second photo?

Thanks.
I had never noticed the camera - thanks.
The scan is from an 828 slide, so I had assumed it was taken with my Dad's Kodak Bantam RF camera. Now that I notice that camera case in the photo, I'm not sure which camera was used for the slide.

 

[mshchem]

My Dad's start in 1949. They are fabulous. I have images on another computer. This may sound nuts, but the earliest slides up to the late 50's when it was ASA 10, and Kodak processed everything themselves, are IMHO the most beautiful. I use a little Nikon Coolscan unit, I've made inkjet prints 11 x 14 that are amazing. I'm pretty sure everything was shot with an Argus C3. Pictures of my 89 year old uncle as a 19 year old picking corn with a one row corn picker. First harvest they didn’t pick and husk it by hand.
70 years ago! Looks like yesterday.

 

[Bill Burk]

I have 2 boxes of Kodachrome 200 transparencies I shot in Norway in the early 8o's - no fading yet.
Deep down in the freeze I have 4 rolls Revue 3000 chrome 19 DIN / ASA 64 for K-14 process I got from my father-in-law.

edit: The Revue 3000 chrome is AGFA CT18 for AGFA / ORWO AP41 process ...

And Kodachrome 200 was the ‘iffy’ member of the family. I shot some but nothing as good as the Kodachrome 25. For a while I shot 64 too, but always 25 when I wanted detail.

 

[alanrockwood]

I have some Kodachrome and Ektachrome slides going back as far as about 1969. The Kodachromes look like they were shot yesterday. The Ektachromes have faded considerably.

 

[ozphoto]

So my folks have some Kodachrome that was shot over 50 years ago and it still looks superb. Sadly, I haven't aged quite so well.

And they also have 50 odd boxes shot in 1977 from a trip we took to Europe - outstanding colour; they look as if they could have been shot yesterday, as long as there aren't any 70s fashionistas in the shot that is.

 

[macfred]

And Kodachrome 200 was the ‘iffy’ member of the family. I shot some but nothing as good as the Kodachrome 25. For a while I shot 64 too, but always 25 when I wanted detail.

Bill, you're right - I agree about the Kodachrome 64 (never used Kodachrome 25). I used Kodachrome 64 on that trip through Norway too but I lost most of my -exposed and unexposed- films and one camera by theft.
So I'm happy I kept a few memories on Kodachrome 200 (that was stored in another bag with a second camera).

My Ikonta 521/16 Novar was stolen out of my tent on a campground near Bergen / Norway in 1981 while I took a shower. My fault I guess ...
Fortunately the thief overlooked my AGFA Super-Isolette.

 

[removed account4]

last week i saw a kodachrome with a print made from it ( in the envelope the lab provided) ... from around the late 1930s or 1940, and it looked perfect.