Developing Kodachrome 64 as B&W

Hey folks, I've recently come across a stash of old Kodachrome 64 and am trying to figure out how to develop it. I know it's virtually impossible to get the chemicals now for color positive developing, but I've heard there's ways to develop these as monochrome using black and white developer. I'd like to try and use Clayton F76 as a developer though I'm having trouble finding info on exactly how it should be done. Wondering if any of you have experimented with this before and would be able to point me in the right direction. Thanks!

There are several threads o the subject - a search will bring them up. Here is a sample.Link Kodachrome developing

The film itself consists of three or more black & white emulsion coats on a transparent support. You can easily develop such a film in most any modern black & white developer. That’s the good news. The bad news is this; old film is likely fogged. In other words, the film will likely have a very high overall dark appearance. Fogging naturally occurs as film ages. Unexposed fresh film, if developed prior to exposure to light, will develop up slightly fogged because a small percentage of the light sensitive goodies have received some quota of exposing energy. These are salts of silver that will be readily developable from the get-go. As film ages, more and more silver salt crystals arrive at this threshold. This ageing action is accelerated by improper storage, such has high temperature, high humidity, outgassing contaminates like glue, paint, and other environmental factors like gamma rays etc.

 

What I am trying to say, don’t get your hopes up too high. On the other hand, films found in the rubble of artic explorers campsites yielded excellent results having been abandoned nearly 100 years. If it were me, I would put the stuff on display adjacent to my antique cameras.

 

That being said, develop, stop and fix as per your routine modern black & white stock. I would run an exposure test, making a series of exposures at various ISO settings. Kodachrome was made to be used in motion picture cameras as well as still cameras.

 

Now motion picture film of that era often got fogged when loading and unloading the camera. Additionally, motion picture cameras of that era could leak light backwards into the film via the viewfinder optics. To mitigate, the back side of the film was coated with a light-proof backing called a removable jet black nicknamed “ramjet”. When your film comes out of the fixer, it will appear opaque unless you somehow remove.

 

The black is carbon (lamp black). It is held in place by a binder that softens in an alkaline solution. The fluid of choice is a 20% solution of sodium sulfite. However the developer you will be using is an alkaline. I think you can re-soak in developer for about 1 or 2 minutes and, using a soft well- washed T-shirt, gently scrub off the ramjet. Follow this with wash and FotoFlow rinse.

 

Best of luck,

 

Alan Marcus

Edited August 17, 2020 by alan_marcus|2

Alan is much more of an expert on this than I am. But I have tried processing Kodachrome in B&W chemistry and it does work. As Alan said, expect it to be fogged. And getting the remjet off is a pain.

 

I don't remember where the roll I tried came from. I do buy expired film now and then and it might have come in a box with some other film I actually wanted. :) Or it may have come with a camera.

 

Are these family photos? If so, then the good news is that if the photos were exposed well, then people will be recognizable. But the pictures probably won't be the best. I think I kept one out of the 24 exposures I shot.

 

Some developers work better than others on fog and there are anti-fog agents you can buy that might help: Benzotriazole I've never used one and wouldn't know how to do it properly. But I'm sure the information is out there.

 

If these are rolls that haven't been shot I'd over expose them a stop or two.

I'd like to try and use Clayton F76 as a developer....

All I can add, is that you might want to reconsider the Clayton F76. Not because there's anything wrong with it, but because you're more likely to find a known-working development time for a more widely used developer.

Thanks so much everyone for the tips! The only thing in question for me now is exactly how long to develop and fix. I'd like to try and eliminate as much guesswork as possible. Massive dev chart doesn't have Kodachrome listed anymore, but I read another article from Lomography where the writer said he developed for 11 minutes and fixed for 10 minutes and the film came out. Does this sound accurate? I should also note that I shot the film at 32 ASA instead of 64 to make sure the exposures would (hopefully) come out.

It is commonplace to advise over-exposure. On the other hand, I advise, the film has gained sensitivity and if true, needs to be under-exposed. My position is; the silver salts have gained exposing energy due to ageing and gamma rays which dive them near or over the threshold of developability. One never knows, tests are advised.

And so the experimentation begins. Thanks again folks I'll post again with my results.

Slide films have more contrast than negative films, otherwise they come out looking flat.

That is, at least, true with the normal processing. The exposure latitude is small, so

either overexposure or underexposure gives bad results.

 

That is less obvious developing as a black and white negative.

 

Since ISO 64 isn't so high, you have a better chance than with faster films.

 

Best chance is with a snip test. (Assuming losing a shot or two isn't bad.)

 

Cut off a few frames, develop them, and see how they come out.

Adjust accordingly.