villagephotog
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For some reason, this has been driving me crazy today. Sometime in the late 1980s, a method was developed for processing Kodachrome (K-14) in a small lab setting -- i.e. in a minilab-like machine. This was about 10 years before Kodak themselves did the same thing with the "K-Lab" Kodachrome minilabs. I've been unable to find any information about this, but I know it happened.
I'd like to know who developed it and any other background info that anyone knows about it. Here's the little bit that I know:
A well-known San Francisco color lab called The NewLab installed one of these systems and began offering Kodachrome processing around 1989 or 1990. They came to the camera store where I worked and signed us up as a vendor for their services, and we sent them many hundreds, likely thousands, of rolls of Kodachrome over the next few years. Many other camera stores in the Bay Area did the same. It was pitched as a premium Kodachrome service, and was a couple dollars more expensive than a roll sent to Kodak themselves (at the Kodak Palo Alto Processing Lab). Many of our more serious Kodachrome-shooting customers had us send their film to The NewLab instead of to Kodak.
At the initial meeting where they pitched it to us, the owner of The NewLab said that the technology was recently invented in Europe and I remember him saying it worked in a "cine processor" but I'm not sure what he meant by that (i.e. whether it was based on an actual cine film processor like a Photomec). I have a vague thought that he said the company that invented it was Swiss, but I can't swear to that. I'm pretty certain that several other small color labs around the world installed these systems, as well.
Anybody remember this small historical curiosity and, better yet, know a lot more about it than me? Would love to hear details.
I'd like to know who developed it and any other background info that anyone knows about it. Here's the little bit that I know:
A well-known San Francisco color lab called The NewLab installed one of these systems and began offering Kodachrome processing around 1989 or 1990. They came to the camera store where I worked and signed us up as a vendor for their services, and we sent them many hundreds, likely thousands, of rolls of Kodachrome over the next few years. Many other camera stores in the Bay Area did the same. It was pitched as a premium Kodachrome service, and was a couple dollars more expensive than a roll sent to Kodak themselves (at the Kodak Palo Alto Processing Lab). Many of our more serious Kodachrome-shooting customers had us send their film to The NewLab instead of to Kodak.
At the initial meeting where they pitched it to us, the owner of The NewLab said that the technology was recently invented in Europe and I remember him saying it worked in a "cine processor" but I'm not sure what he meant by that (i.e. whether it was based on an actual cine film processor like a Photomec). I have a vague thought that he said the company that invented it was Swiss, but I can't swear to that. I'm pretty certain that several other small color labs around the world installed these systems, as well.
Anybody remember this small historical curiosity and, better yet, know a lot more about it than me? Would love to hear details.