Reports of (Colour) Kodachrome Home Processing Emerge from Sydney

[Photo Engineer]

O-KAAAYY! Back into the barn with you! We're chaining you up in there until you tell us where it is and how we can get it!

The barn burned down, right?

No comment on the rest of it.

PE

 

[StoneNYC]

PE you scoundrel!

I know they "Found" a lost roll and that's why it was sold for so long after it was discontinued on the manufacturing end.

But can anyone tell me why, if it was SO popular and SO many people miss it, why Kodak stopped making it in the first place? Wouldn't they recognize a customer need? Seems like they would attract more customers if they made more tech pan, wouldn't have lost them to ilford


~Stone

The Noteworthy Ones - Mamiya: 7 II, RZ67 Pro II / Canon: 1V, AE-1 / Kodak: No 1 Pocket Autographic, No 1A Pocket Autographic

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[lxdude]

The barn burned down, right?

No comment on the rest of it.

PE

I've got a basement! It could easily be converted into a dungeon...:devil:

We have ways of making you talk.....

 

[lxdude]

How does Tech Pan compare to that Blue Fire film? (I think that's what it's called)

Or Rollei Technical Pan?

 

[Photo Engineer]

The market for Tech Pan was just not there! There was no profit margin for it.

PE

 

[Poisson Du Jour]

The market for Tech Pan was just not there! There was no profit margin for it.

PE

Interesting comment. Tech Pan was extensively used by Melbourne University where I did my arts studies in the early 1990s. Ortho/architectural work and landscape studies. I can't get my head around recalling that it was in 5x4 format as a lot of students were using a Horseman 45FA; maybe I'm thinking of some other film (TMax??); can't recall very well being so long ago.

 

[Roger Cole]

It was good in 4x5 if you wanted to enlarge to several feet on a side and not see grain from close viewing.

It's main claim to fame was having such fine grain a 35mm negative, if shot very carefully with superb glass, could produce a print to rival one from 4x5 on conventional film. Maybe larger formats becoming more affordable as digital became more popular helped do it in.

I never cared for it. Weird spectral response, special developer needed, and painfully slow. If I could tolerate the speed I'd rather have used APX 25 which was quite fine grained enough for me. But some people did love it, true enough.

 

[StoneNYC]

I thought it was the blue and magenta you could get out of it in some images so it wasn't truly B&W which to me is really the appeal, I wish I could get my hands on the developer. I have 2 rolls of 120 and 8 rolls of 135 and I'd love to get some great shots even if its fairly old.


~Stone

The Noteworthy Ones - Mamiya: 7 II, RZ67 Pro II / Canon: 1V, AE-1 / Kodak: No 1 Pocket Autographic, No 1A Pocket Autographic

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[lxdude]

I have a Modern Photography magazine, November 1982, (OMG, 30 years!) which has an article quoting Kodak as delivering "4x5 quality with a 35mm camera". It was in the form of the Tech Pack 2, two rolls of Tech Pan with sufficient Technidol LC developer. The article describes Technidol as "Kodak's new packaged version of POTA developer" which they say up until then was "...a formula which must be concocted from scratch", also referring to "mixing and storage difficulties" when compounding it yourself. Makes it sound like POTA was a PITA...

They compared photographs from the kit with 4x5 Tri-X and Plus-X, both in D-76, and while not their equal, it did give them a decent run of it. They also compared it to other 35mm B&W films-Ilford Pan-F in Perceptol,. Panatomic-X in Microdol-X, and Agfapan 25 in Atomal, which all rendered detail about as well, but with more grain.

Related to Roger's comment, they mention Tech Pan's "extended red sensitivity" which will of course lightens reds.

 

[spletcher]

Will you please share the details of your process with us?
Thanks.

 

[AgX]

Welcome spletcher!

The process is refered to here:

(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

No details are given and please read the whole thread before doing conclusions...

 

[EdSawyer]

I want to hear more about the Tech Pan stash referenced above. I have my own stash, mostly 35mm and 120 and technidol. Wish I had some 4x5. what a great film. I shot piles of that back in the 90s. Many bulk rolls.... Fortunately it keeps great.

-Ed

 

[madgardener]

I don't know anything about Techpan, but the Adox Silvermax film is very good for enlarging. I have had very good luck having it enlarged to 11x14 without noticeable grain. The blufire police film is supposedly just as good for extreme enlarging, but I am supporting Adox.

 

[darkosaric]

I don't know anything about Techpan, but the Adox Silvermax film is very good for enlarging. I have had very good luck having it enlarged to 11x14 without noticeable grain. The blufire police film is supposedly just as good for extreme enlarging, but I am supporting Adox.

Recently I tried Silvermax - it is great film, I printed 30x40cm print and wonder why people complain about 35mm format . But it is not comparable with Kodak TP. Only thing that I could compare to TP (speaking about grain size) from todays films that are still in production is Adox CMS 20.

 

[madgardener]

Recently I tried Silvermax - it is great film, I printed 30x40cm print and wonder why people complain about 35mm format . But it is not comparable with Kodak TP. Only thing that I could compare to TP (speaking about grain size) from todays films that are still in production is Adox CMS 20.

CMS 20 is another excellent film for enlarging. My biggest complaint is that it needs the special developer which of course costs extra.

 

[Nzoomed]

If anyone is interested in obtaining their own chemistry for developing Kodachrome, these people are your best bet and probably can help out with the couplers or give you the chemicals to synthesise them. Of course if you were to do this, i excepct you have reasonable experience in chemistry.
http://www.agfa.com/sp/global/en/in...s/chemistry_department/Product_List/index.jsp

 

[Photo Engineer]

There already is a US company that sells the entire coupler set. It is posted here on APUG.

PE

 

[Nzoomed]

There already is a US company that sells the entire coupler set. It is posted here on APUG.

PE

Is there really?

Ive seen all sorts of chemical formulas posted here, but im keen to find this if there is a supplier that sells the whole set of chemistry. Im working on a Wiki for Kodachrome, just for educational purposes im keen to document everything there is to know etc.

 

[AgX]

If anyone is interested in obtaining their own chemistry for developing Kodachrome, these people are your best bet and probably can help out with the couplers or give you the chemicals to synthesise them. Of course if you were to do this, i excepct you have reasonable experience in chemistry.
http://www.agfa.com/sp/global/en/in...s/chemistry_department/Product_List/index.jsp

Well, they made Kodachrome-like films in the past at their main plant. But there hardly be anyone to remember...

 

[John Salim]

Kodachrome was always considered as a quality slide film but if processing is re-introduced by someone using their own soup, it will only be an image 'rescue' service.

Kodachrome film as we all know hasn't been produced for a few years now - and thus no control strips either, something that's essential for quality processing lines.

If K-14 processing comes back, then great ( I hope it does ! ) ..... just don't expect top quality.

John S

 

[Nzoomed]

Kodachrome was always considered as a quality slide film but if processing is re-introduced by someone using their own soup, it will only be an image 'rescue' service.

Kodachrome film as we all know hasn't been produced for a few years now - and thus no control strips either, something that's essential for quality processing lines.

If K-14 processing comes back, then great ( I hope it does ! ) ..... just don't expect top quality.

John S

With Film Ferrania getting underway, anything's possible!

Who knows, they may develop a K-14 film similar to Kodachrome someday!
Hell, i'd be more than happy to ship my film over ti Italy for processing if it meant i could get those wonderful Kodachrome reds!

At the end of the day though, im not worried if Kodachrome doesnt have a comeback, although it would be good if it could be processed once more for photo recovery purposes, like the space shuttle film for example.

Anyway, if Film Ferriana can produce an E6 film with Kodachrome like qualities, i would be the happiest man alive!

 

[Athiril]

That's more a function of the emulsion design, spectral sensitisation and dye coupler choice in the film I would imagine rather than a direct consequence of having the couplers in the developing solutions rather than in the films.

Ektachrome fixed (or 'fixed' for those people who liked it) those Kodachrome foibles.

If you want punchy separation between your colours, I recommend a polarising filter for overcast light, it does a lot more than just for sky, it'll 'subtract grey' for lack of a better way to describe it and make a lot of things much more colourful.

There's also didymium filters you can use or red hancer/red enhancer filter or intensifier.

What it does is block a small narrow band of the spectrum, usually somewhere between red and brown, so you don't get a smooth transition between browns, oranges and reds, but a more abrupt change.

 

[DREW WILEY]

Dream on. The heydey of transparency films is over, and the reintroduction of a few amateur-level small format films is no substitute for the loss
of well-neutral-balanced films like Kodachrome, Astia 100F, or E100G. There is obviously a bit of the more contrasty Fuji films still on the market, including a smattering of Velvia and Provia. Now if someone has several million bucks to spare and could resurrect Kodachrome in sheet
film, like 8x10, I'd be very interested, but probably could not afford a single box of it!

 

[Nzoomed]

That's more a function of the emulsion design, spectral sensitisation and dye coupler choice in the film I would imagine rather than a direct consequence of having the couplers in the developing solutions rather than in the films.

Ektachrome fixed (or 'fixed' for those people who liked it) those Kodachrome foibles.

If you want punchy separation between your colours, I recommend a polarising filter for overcast light, it does a lot more than just for sky, it'll 'subtract grey' for lack of a better way to describe it and make a lot of things much more colourful.

There's also didymium filters you can use or red hancer/red enhancer filter or intensifier.

What it does is block a small narrow band of the spectrum, usually somewhere between red and brown, so you don't get a smooth transition between browns, oranges and reds, but a more abrupt change.

Yes, this is what ive been trying to work out myself and i hope that PE can shed some light on this, i expect that the dye couplers in E6 films are a significantly different chemical composition to those used in processing Kodachrome.
From what ive read and heard from interviews etc, ive been led to believe that the unique reds of kodachrome were a result of what happens when the couplers are introduced during processing. I dont know if this is the case, but if so, i was wondering if it had anything to do with that its processed in a chemical bath full of dye couplers, (magenta being the most reactive from what i understand, which would lead to stronger reds) whereas, there is a much smaller percentage of these couplers incorporated into an E6 film. So i was thinking that kodachrome film had potential to produce more dyes since its supply of couplers is unlimited, but with E6 films, this is limited to what is in the emulsion?

Perhaps im wrong, im certanly no film expert at all so im keen to hear what PE has to say on this matter

Either way, its obvious that it was a trait that some perhaps considered undesirable and with modern progress its understandable why Kodak wanted to make a film that is more accurate in colour.

However, the number one reason i like film is that i dont want perfection, I enjoy the traits that each film offers.

 

[ME Super]

IIRC, not only were the color couplers for the dye layers in the color developers, but there were at least two, maybe three different color couplers. I believe one color developer was CD4, and another was CD6 (which was used only for the Kodachrome process, and is no longer made). Somewhere on APUG, PE mentioned that there is a way to turn CD4 into CD6, but I don't recall the exact wording of his post.

C41 uses CD4, and E6 uses CD3, so these couplers are still made. I believe RA4 also uses CD3. I don't remember which color developer PE said that ECN2 uses.