How does Kodachrome and Ektachrome from 30 years ago look biggie sized?

NortheastPhotographic · Jan 30, 2018

Answer: Fantastic!

Recently we had the opportunity to do a large number of exhibition scans for a local photographer. He had a treasure trove of Kodakchrome, Ektachrome, and other images from the late 80s and 90s. His work was scanned at very high resolution, and the prints look fantastic.

I blogged about the show, which you can see Dead Link Removed.

Let me know your thoughts in the comments!

guangong · Jun 28, 2021

My Kodachrome slides from 60s, 70s and 80s look like new, but many Ektachrome slides have faded. Both kinds stored under similar conditions. Apparently, others have hade much better luck.

wiltw · Jun 28, 2021

I just found a roll of Ektachrome which was shot about 54 years ago, and E-4 processed by me.
Not stored in anything special, simply glassine sleeve which was stored in my father's old leather shaving kit kept in a wooden drawer.
No sign of color shift or general fading.

guangong · Jun 29, 2021

My Ektachromes were processed by Kodak at the same period of time that they processed my Kodachromes. Luck of the draw? Ektachromes faded beyond any kind of usefulness. I really appreciated those brief years that Kodak offered Kodachrome in MF 120. Unlike most other areas of artistic endeavors, photographers are dependent upon Mass produced materials.

alanrockwood · Jun 30, 2021

guangong said:
My Kodachrome slides from 60s, 70s and 80s look like new, but many Ektachrome slides have faded. Both kinds stored under similar conditions. Apparently, others have hade much better luck.

My experience is the same.

railwayman3 · Jun 30, 2021

I think that a lot depends on the standard of the processing as well as the type of film.

Almost all of my Kodachromes, back to the 1980's and processed by Kodak UK, are fine. similarly Ektachromes from the late 1970's are still as taken, In the latter case, these were also factory processed by Kodak UK when this service was offered through dealers. I also have a large number of E6 Ektachrome taken and processed in Hong Kong in 1988, by the official Fuji lab there, and again these remain good.

OTOH, most of my late Father's E4 Ektachromes, shot in the 60's and 70's, have deteriorated, having been processed at random walk-in smaller labs while he was based in London at that time.

guangong · Jun 30, 2021

railwayman3 said:
I think that a lot depends on the standard of the processing as well as the type of film.

Almost all of my Kodachromes, back to the 1980's and processed by Kodak UK, are fine. similarly Ektachromes from the late 1970's are still as taken, In the latter case, these were also factory processed by Kodak UK when this service was offered through dealers. I also have a large number of E6 Ektachrome taken and processed in Hong Kong in 1988, by the official Fuji lab there, and again these remain good.

OTOH, most of my late Father's E4 Ektachromes, shot in the 60's and 70's, have deteriorated, having been processed at random walk-in smaller labs while he was based in London at that time.

Luck of the draw! With no more Kodachrome, hopping my experience with contemporary Ektachrome will match yours. Still, for permanence, nothing beats BW.
Thanks for the observation. Possibly a difference in storage is the answer.

Alan Edward Klein · Jun 30, 2021

My Kodachrome scans: Photos 50 years old but scanned ten years ago. Family - 35mm Kodachrome | Flickr
Ektachromes from around 35 years ago scanned about ten years ago. Search: ektachrome | Flickr

railwayman3 · Jul 3, 2021

guangong said:
Luck of the draw! With no more Kodachrome, hopping my experience with contemporary Ektachrome will match yours. Still, for permanence, nothing beats BW.
Thanks for the observation. Possibly a difference in storage is the answer.

I agree.....luck of the draw as to a lab's standards on a particular day, and, of course, how long would a photographer, at that time, have actually expected any colour transparencies to last? Probably not 50 or 60 years? Even Kodak printed their exclusion on every pack as to dyes deteriorating in time. Certainly B&W is the answer to archival life (I've read that the movie studios make colour separations of their films for long-term preservation.)

Robert Maxey · Jul 13, 2021

guangong said:
My Ektachromes were processed by Kodak at the same period of time that they processed my Kodachromes. Luck of the draw? Ektachromes faded beyond any kind of usefulness. I really appreciated those brief years that Kodak offered Kodachrome in MF 120. Unlike most other areas of artistic endeavors, photographers are dependent upon Mass produced materials.

The only faded and/or color shifted Kodachrome slides I've ever seen were not processed by Kodak; they came out of Technicolor's labs. Yup, the same Technicolor some of us know and love. The Technicolor Kodachromes were mostly faded to magenta. By the way, Kodachrome did come back in 120 format when i was in the biz. and I cried from joy. Then Kodak stopped pretending to be in the photographic business and i switched. Too bad they no longer offer the stuff in sheet form.

Shoot a kitten and breath some Microdol-X.

MattKing · Jul 13, 2021

The 1940s/early 1950s vintage Kodachrome slides I have are faded almost to invisibility, but with some careful work with scanning and digital processing, a lot can be recovered.
My mom in 1947 - 1950 or so - most likely processed in Rochester, although Toronto is possible.

Duolab123 · Jul 13, 2021

Duolab123 · Jul 13, 2021

That's my sister 1954. Argus C3 Original Kodachrome ASA 10 Thats a straight scan from a Nikon Coolscan 500 kb file

mshchem · Jul 13, 2021

I was using my large format alias Duolab for the above post. I really need to get everything on one computer.

Minolta93 · Jul 14, 2021

Alan Edward Klein said:
My Kodachrome scans: Photos 50 years old but scanned ten years ago. Family - 35mm Kodachrome | Flickr
Ektachromes from around 35 years ago scanned about ten years ago. Search: ektachrome | Flickr

Alan, those underwater pictures in the second link are great!

Minolta93

How does Kodachrome and Ektachrome from 30 years ago look biggie sized?

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