What happened to the Kodachrome labs?

Ektagraphic · Mar 30, 2009

Hello-
I know there are a few of the smaller K-Labs out there, but what has happened to all the full scale Kodachrome labs such as the ones at Dwayne's? Was there ever a lab in Boston? I would love to go to where it was...if there was one since I am just a little more than an hour away from boston....Have all of these old labs been ripped out? That must be quite a task........

Sirius Glass · Mar 30, 2009

For starters, they were closed years ago.

Steve

nickandre · Mar 30, 2009

They gradually closed. The last two I know of were Switzerland and one in Japan.

Ektagraphic · Mar 30, 2009

I know they all closed, but what happened to them after they closed?

alanrockwood · Mar 30, 2009

Best guess? Scrap metal!

nickandre · Mar 30, 2009

I doubt you'll find an old Klab hidden away but feel free to explore

Alex Bishop-Thorpe · Mar 31, 2009

An awful lot goes to scrap in these circumstances, yes. I heard a lot of the Kodak plant in Melbourne went to scrap when it closed - these are all custom built machines that cost quite a bit to have made, but if there's no market for what they were designed to do, scrap is the best way to get some money back.

Removed Account · Mar 31, 2009

AFAIK Dwayne's is not a full-scale Kodachrome lab like existed in Lausanne, Switzerland; I'm pretty sure that they just use a K-Lab

Fredrik Sandstrom · Mar 31, 2009

Justin Silber said:
AFAIK Dwayne's is not a full-scale Kodachrome lab like existed in Lausanne, Switzerland; I'm pretty sure that they just use a K-Lab

No. Dwayne's is a full-scale K-14 lab, otherwise they couldn't run cine Kodachrome, which they do (16mm, Super8 and regular 8mm). Besides, K-Labs can't be used anymore because Kodak doesn't sell the chemistry packaged the way those machines needed it.

IloveTLRs · Mar 31, 2009

tiberiustibz said:
... The last two I know of were Switzerland and one in Japan.

Yes, Horiuchi Color in Tokyo. I'm not sure what they did with their equipment. They are still in business, just not doing K-14 anymore.

nickrapak · Mar 31, 2009

If you look (there was a url link here which no longer exists) you can see that, according to Qualex, the Lausanne lab's machines (as well as possibly some others) made it to Dwayne's as backup machines.

Horiuchi Color had a K-lab, that's why they ended processing in 2007 (When Kodak ended B-in-B packaging of K-14 chemicals. There are a surprising number of K-labs around (three that I know of), but the owners are stubborn, and still want tens of thousands of dollars for an essentially useless piece of scrap. That is, unless someone is willing to spend the money to custom-order the packaging of the chemicals. This would involve some serious cash, as first you would have to order the chemicals from Kodak, then order the bags-in-boxes from another company. then find a company willing to fill the bags-in-boxes with dangerous chemicals. All in all, I'll probably take this on after I've won a $300,000,000 Powerball jackpot.

cmacd123 · Apr 6, 2009

nickrapak said:
This would involve some serious cash, as first you would have to order the chemicals from Kodak, then .....

IF Kodak would have any of the chemicals to sell. Some of them are only used in processing Kodachrome (some of the dyes for example) and Kodak probaly passed their remaining stock to Dwaynes as part of the deal for them to take over responsibility to have processing available.

You Might have to get a chemical firm (like Kodak) to make a 500 liter batch at 100 bucks an ounce to get some of them.

nickandre · Apr 6, 2009

The figure I heard a while ago is that they're running hundreds of rolls per day. A K lab does not do up to 1000 rolls a day. Plus in the videos the film is moving quite fast, much faster than the 5 or 7 fpm specified for the Klab.

AgX · Apr 7, 2009

Could you give links to those videos?

Ektagraphic · Apr 7, 2009

http://www.kake.com/hattebergpeople/headlines/30496989.html

Ektagraphic · Apr 7, 2009

http://www.kansas.com/static/slides/1130kodachrome/

Those are the only two videos of Dwayne's I know of.

dr5chrome · Apr 12, 2009

Rockymountian photo has a Klab machine that is just sitting. I am sure Steve would entertain any interested buyer.

regards

dw

Ektagraphic · Apr 24, 2009

I don't have the money...I wish I did. Are you (dr5chrome) from/the owner of the dr5 lab? I would like to have some Kodak Tri-X super 8 processed and I was wondering if you could do it. I didn't see the service on your website.

BetterSense · Apr 25, 2009

I do research on thin-film solar cells. A correspondent from the Netherlands tells me that a prominent player in the market just bought one of Polaroid's old factories. It made me sad.

Ektagraphic · Apr 25, 2009

Yes they did buy a factory....10 miles from my house

Ian David · Apr 26, 2009

Here is my closest colour processing lab. Makes a good canvas for the local graffitists...

What happened to the Kodachrome labs?

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