Tuesday, April 7, 2015
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Kodachrome Processing Ends this Week
The impending end of Kodachrome processing by the sole lab on the planet still running it's process (still designated K-14 I believe, K-12 was the better predecessor) has generated a little buzz this week. The one story I link to here is by another aging corporation, which was at one time also the Tiffany of it's product, CBS news.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/12/26/sunday/main7185884.shtml
I'd have to look up the date when I shot my First Roll of Kodachrome. Would be sometime in 1971 when I got my first Nikon Ftn. They never made a medium format size in those days or before, and I was shooting only medium format or Instamatic formats before that camera.
My Last Roll was shot a couple of years ago and I was not pleased with the results. The films manufacturing standards had fallen off and processing wasn't reliable anymore. Not since the days of Kodak's Fairlawn NJ lab have I been totally happy with the film. And actually I was never as pleased with the dye deposit color spectrum rendition since Kodak went from K-12 to K-14 sometime in the mid to late 70's as I was with the earlier process. If I recall correctly, as response to the necessity of cleaning up their chemical processes to meet stricter effluent requirements, they had to change the formulation. With difficulty I'm sure. The result was designated K-14. Why Kodak skipped numbers frequently was always a source of amusement btw. K-13 = bad luck ?
So anyhow, I'm not as sorry to see it go as a lot of bleeding hearts out there are.... Sorry Guys, I just can't concur with you on it's demise. I will concur on the concept of loosing a unique and much heralded process, but it's not a creative step backward. In it's heyday the image capture process and resulting hard copy chrome (slide) you held in your hand, which IS the film which ran through your camera, were nothing short of miraculous. Shooting any positive film gives you that hard copy, but nothing looks quite like a perfectly exposed & perfectly processed Kodachrome from a perfectly manufactured batch of that film.
And oh, one more thing. To fully experience that perfection you must pass light through that film, perfectly, using yet another (perfect) lens, onto a screen .......
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/12/26/sunday/main7185884.shtml
I'd have to look up the date when I shot my First Roll of Kodachrome. Would be sometime in 1971 when I got my first Nikon Ftn. They never made a medium format size in those days or before, and I was shooting only medium format or Instamatic formats before that camera.
My Last Roll was shot a couple of years ago and I was not pleased with the results. The films manufacturing standards had fallen off and processing wasn't reliable anymore. Not since the days of Kodak's Fairlawn NJ lab have I been totally happy with the film. And actually I was never as pleased with the dye deposit color spectrum rendition since Kodak went from K-12 to K-14 sometime in the mid to late 70's as I was with the earlier process. If I recall correctly, as response to the necessity of cleaning up their chemical processes to meet stricter effluent requirements, they had to change the formulation. With difficulty I'm sure. The result was designated K-14. Why Kodak skipped numbers frequently was always a source of amusement btw. K-13 = bad luck ?
So anyhow, I'm not as sorry to see it go as a lot of bleeding hearts out there are.... Sorry Guys, I just can't concur with you on it's demise. I will concur on the concept of loosing a unique and much heralded process, but it's not a creative step backward. In it's heyday the image capture process and resulting hard copy chrome (slide) you held in your hand, which IS the film which ran through your camera, were nothing short of miraculous. Shooting any positive film gives you that hard copy, but nothing looks quite like a perfectly exposed & perfectly processed Kodachrome from a perfectly manufactured batch of that film.
And oh, one more thing. To fully experience that perfection you must pass light through that film, perfectly, using yet another (perfect) lens, onto a screen .......
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Friday, May 29, 2009
I'm still shooting film from time to time
and here's why we should shoot at least some film to help keep companies like Kodak, Fuji and B&W suppliers in the business of creating and making great film stocks. Camera's like the great Leica M series.
L-Camera TV #1 - Does Leica still make MP and M7? from Andreas Jürgensen on Vimeo.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
On the Road, again
Looking like this spring will be as busy as any ever experienced. Work naturally picks up, Yale assignments coming in, and The Dead are making things crazy by touring ! I like it ! A flight to LA is booked for mid May. Meeting up with a friend and trucking up to Shoreline Amphitheater for my first show at that venue. But before all that, still toying (more seriously by the hour) with getting a ticket and a buddy to go up to Worcester.
And all the while there's images to scan. Requests for a couple of '89 shows have come in giving me the excuse to exercise my new Epson V750. I'm not thrilled with the hardware, but happy with the results. And shuggar, I have been meaning to get those Wiffenpoof Aniversary Concert shots posted to my PShelter site. When the hell can I get that done, oh ya, in my sleep maybe ..
NYC Auto Show tomorrow ! I need the city: best one day break I can think of is a trip into Manhattan for fun on a (dry) spring day.... More on that to follow, in images, maybe on Facebook just for the hellofit ....
And all the while there's images to scan. Requests for a couple of '89 shows have come in giving me the excuse to exercise my new Epson V750. I'm not thrilled with the hardware, but happy with the results. And shuggar, I have been meaning to get those Wiffenpoof Aniversary Concert shots posted to my PShelter site. When the hell can I get that done, oh ya, in my sleep maybe ..
NYC Auto Show tomorrow ! I need the city: best one day break I can think of is a trip into Manhattan for fun on a (dry) spring day.... More on that to follow, in images, maybe on Facebook just for the hellofit ....
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