I posted a thread a week or so back stating that Kodak is planning to bring back Ektachrome 100 ASA in 4th quarter 2017. Yesterday I came across an even wilder article stating Kodak is "investigating" what it will take to bring back Kodachrome.
This seems really far reaching after seeing Kodak demolish so much of their massive Rochester NY facility that made all of those iconic products. Throw in the fact that Kodachrome requires the rare K-14 processing and I would think more wishful thinking then possible. All other chromes these days plus the soon to be re-released Ektachrome were and are all E-6 processed which in itself has narrowed over the years with resulting shifts to digital usage.
However, seeing the large trend back to instant films also,.... and then who knows?
Posted by Dennis Plank on January 10, 2017 at 2:13 PM
Interesting stuff, Paul, but I think I'll stick with digital for bird photography. I was reading some books by the British bird photographer, Eric Hosking, written from the 40's through the early 70's and he was talking about shutter speeds on the order of 1/10 sec. I tried that the other day and couldn't come close to getting anything decent. Those old film iso's made him a big fan of high speed flash when it became available even when it meant hauling a hundred pounds of equipment into the field to run it.
Dennis, you're correct of course. You'd need something in the range of 2000 iso film to keep up with latest digital stuff. Nowadays digital gear is no doubt the best all around for any action shots of wildlife and or sporting events. I can recall my own challenges with wildlife using 200 asa Kodachrome and 300 f2.8 lenses years ago. Hands down digital would have been the best of all worlds at that time for me.
My film usage these days is only for Landscape stuff and I can manage my way through that work just fine using what I like to photograph with overall.
Posted by Mark Seaver on January 14, 2017 at 8:59 AM
Paul, I agree that due to the processing challenges, it seems unlikely that Kodachrome will return. It's fascinating to see Ektachrome come back. There is clearly still a decent market for film. I presume that someone out there has figured out Photoshop settings that would let digital approximate the color balance of both Kodak films (in their multiple iso versions) so the colors can be approximated reasonably well.
I was talking with my neighbor yesterday about digital vs film and we both agree that modern digital has more exposure latitude and wider dynamic range. A quick web search showed one review of digital approximations to film response and an article saying that while our thinking about resolution and dynamic range is true for 35mm, in medium and large format systems, film continues to out perform digital (unless you want to spend $40,000 for the Phase One system).
Mark, more so then I ever figured. Feeling at times to be the last man standing is quickly dismissed by the amount of interest I still see with regard to analog usage. I cannot say I could guess at the purists versus the hybrid users out there like me. I have NOTHING to do with the chemical side of processing. I use and like film but send out for E-6 processing needs. However, the APUG site is full of pure analog users from start to finish. The site has about 80,000 members and consistently has 1000+ members on line 7/24 world wide.
Amazingly it is not just standard film users, but the amount of folks using instant films and 8mm & 16mm stuff is another part of it.
ha! i still have some old kodachrome 64 lurking in a freezer ... i was recently going through it all and nearly threw it out because processing it is impossible ... i might just keep it a little while longer and see what happens!
Discussion
5 repliesThis seems really far reaching after seeing Kodak demolish so much of their massive Rochester NY facility that made all of those iconic products. Throw in the fact that Kodachrome requires the rare K-14 processing and I would think more wishful thinking then possible. All other chromes these days plus the soon to be re-released Ektachrome were and are all E-6 processed which in itself has narrowed over the years with resulting shifts to digital usage.
However, seeing the large trend back to instant films also,.... and then who knows?
Kodachrome Article
Ektachrome Article
My film usage these days is only for Landscape stuff and I can manage my way through that work just fine using what I like to photograph with overall.
I was talking with my neighbor yesterday about digital vs film and we both agree that modern digital has more exposure latitude and wider dynamic range. A quick web search showed one review of digital approximations to film response and an article saying that while our thinking about resolution and dynamic range is true for 35mm, in medium and large format systems, film continues to out perform digital (unless you want to spend $40,000 for the Phase One system).
Mark, more so then I ever figured. Feeling at times to be the last man standing is quickly dismissed by the amount of interest I still see with regard to analog usage. I cannot say I could guess at the purists versus the hybrid users out there like me. I have NOTHING to do with the chemical side of processing. I use and like film but send out for E-6 processing needs. However, the APUG site is full of pure analog users from start to finish. The site has about 80,000 members and consistently has 1000+ members on line 7/24 world wide.
Amazingly it is not just standard film users, but the amount of folks using instant films and 8mm & 16mm stuff is another part of it.