Kodachrome

The last incarnation of the process, the K-14M, was a 10 bath process not including the 5 washes. Although compared to the E-6 or C-41 processes this might seem very complicated, the original 1936,was a lot more complicated and may well have used 22 baths as it used dye bleaches in addition as there were no re-exposure steps. In 1938, 'selective re-exposure' Kodachrome processing was introduced and all the subsequent processes (K-11, K-12, K-14 and K-14M) are similar with some differences in the developers.

The K-14M Process basically goes:

  1. Alkaline bath to remove backing layer
  2. 1st developer
  3. 1st Wash
  4. Red Light Re-exposure
  5. Cyan Developer containing cyan colour couplers to form a cyan layer
  6. 2nd Wash
  7. Blue light re-exposure
  8. Yellow developer to form the yellow layer
  9. 3rd Wash
  10. Magenta Developer to form the magenta layer
  11. 4th wash
  12. Conditioner to prepare the film for bleaching
  13. Bleach to oxidise the metallic silver to silver halide
  14. Fixer
  15. 5th wash
  16. Rinse with a wetting agent
  17. Leave to dry

The only actual difference between the K-14 and K-14M processes are that the K-14 doesn't need the conditioner step as the bleach contained formaldehyde that didn't need conditioning. Environmental concerns lead to the formaldehyde bleach being replaced.

You can actually develop Kodachrome in conventional black and white chemistry as thats all the 1st dev is, but I've heard that you have to be very careful about it. All you have to apparently do is skip the re-exposure ad colour dev steps and go straight to the fixer and then its pretty much like normal black and white which Kodachrome is in reality. This is how older K-11 and K-12 films are processed now as the colour dye devs are no longer made. All that is needed really is for someone to make a replacement for the colour devs and then all those unprocessed Kodachrome films that will found will be able to be processed and shown in their full colour glory.
 
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"Before running out of chemicals, Dwayne's Photos was still processing 700 rolls of film a day..."

I dunno if that's a lot or not, 5000 rolls a week, but that's World wide..??
 
Probably in the past few months as a lot of us have shot one last roll for old times sake. I shot my last roll of Kodachrome, before this year, in 1992.

In the world of Kodak, that amount probably isn't profitable enough to sustain.
 
joxby said:
"Before running out of chemicals, Dwayne's Photos was still processing 700 rolls of film a day..."

I dunno if that's a lot or not, 5000 rolls a week, but that's World wide..??
Click to expand...

erm stopping the use of a film that was estimated to not lose any colours for at least 120 years is a shame (how many jpgs will still be around in that time)...wonder if Kodak approached the Chinese, Indians, Koreans etc if they were interested in the film/operation under licence or for sale. :shake:
 
I've just got back my Kodachromes and they look amazing. The few portraits that I took with it have an almost 3D depth to them along with the fantastic sharpness and great level of detail. The landscapes look almost unreal as well, especially the ones that I metered at 80 instead of 64 for more saturation. Such as pity its gone as its nothing like any of the other films I've shot before.
I would post some of them but I don't have a scanner that can do mounted slides:crying: and besides the scanner is at mine/my parents house while I'm at university
 
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