From: Jim Carlile (email suppressed)
Date: Sat May 10 2008 - 18:00:25 PDT
memo to Kodachrome fans:
The MP stock is no longer being made. Any super 8 K-40 still available is at
least four years old, and was coated long before that.
If you want to get sentimental about it, go ahead. But it is not a vital
choice any more. And get with it-- NO ONE is re-introducing it. Whatever Wittner
has, wherever they are getting it, they are not manufacturing it again.
Kodachrome is overrated. Even the patent-holder for K-40 does not understand
what all the ruckus is about. He's constantly dealing with K-40 fans who
overrate the film, and all the wild-eyed speculation and hair-pulling that
surrounded its withdrawal from the market.
And another thing-- these Kodachrome myths are getting annoying. There are
NOT DYES introduced into the processing stage. Kodachrome is basically a B/W
stock where the separate color layers are treated individually during
developing. It's pretty straightforward. There's no mystery to it.
You can even do it at home-- which I've noticed that many people-- always K
fans-- seem to want to argue about, even with the experts and the guy who
invented it.
For reversal film, Kodak provides E64 as a replacement.
In a message dated 5/10/2008 2:41:41 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time,
email suppressed writes:
Jim--
I dont' understand why you are feeling compelled to be a Kodachrome naysayer
in an obviously pro-Kodachrome thread.
I was giving welcome info for people who actually like the emulsion.
You don't have to like Kodachrome, or care about its possible reintroduction.
But why the negativity?
I'm not sure that people who shoot Kodachrome care that the
manufacturing and processing is
'idiosyncratic" or not. We're talking about film, and Super8--it's
all idiosyncratic at this point in the
digital world.
As for negative stocks being "better" -- that's not really true if
you're looking for a
reversal film. I've been shooting the Vision2 stocks recently, but
they are their own experience.
And while I can print to S8 positive at Andec in Berlin, that's
costly. Are you assuming that
S8 shooters should transfer to video or optically print to 16mm or
35mm for a positive?
Regardless, K40 remains my preference for extremely bright outdoor scenes.
There's also the issue of stability. I don't know how the negative
stocks (or the S8 prints) last over
time, but Kodachrome tends to retain its color, for the very reasons
of its idiosyncratic production that
you cite.
So, I'll take it, thanks very much.
cheers,
Stephen Kent Jusick
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__________________________________________________________________
For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.