OT: Status of Kodachrome processing (article)

[DB_Gallery]

I am doing my part, you are all doing yours as well by posting this kind of information.

 

I have spent some $18,000 funding my Kodachrome tribute: Our American Dream. One

last look on Kodachrome. I have about 170 rolls of that last batch of K-25 in deep freeze

along with some 1,200 rolls of 64. I am about to put an order in for 200 since it is really

expiration sensitive. I figure a grand for whatever B&H can get it to me for.

 

Here is the official folder:

 

http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=646266

 

I thought of doing this project over two years ago, about the same time I panicked when I

found out that K-25 was no longer made. So I stocked up on as much last batch 25 as I

could, sometimes going the ebay route and spending hundreds on good frozen stock.

Then, a few months ago, a great guy from Northern Cal. donated some 70 rolls of the last

batch he had frozen.

 

I don't want to see this stuff go, but we all know it will sooner than later. So I have put my

heart and soul into this, I have more and more support as time goes on, I shoot it

everyday. Recently, I got two un-freaking-real lenses for my M6 to do it right. Can you just

imagine Kodachrome 25 shot with either the Leica 28mm F2.0 or 50mm 1.4 ASPH lenses?

 

They are going to cut the eyeballs of the viewer!

 

At the moment, my web guy and I are about to kick off a new website dedicated solely to

the project. The goal is to create awareness and get some more support for it through

funding and grants. I am trying to get Imacon to loan me a high end scanner for all that

jazz.

 

I shoot full time, about 100,000 images a year. Nothing beats Kodachrome. Add the Hassy

Xpan and Leica to the equation and it gets out of this world good. I am afraid to approach

Kodak with this though. It is a story about the passing of what has most likely been the

most glorious product ever conceived in photographic history. As a color film,

Kodachrome arguably reigned supreme for about 50 years ( up until Velvia ).

 

That is really something. The originals from the moon landings have faded. The images

shot by the photographers appointed in 1939 by the Farm Securities Administration and

the Office of War Information, have not.

 

Help me with this guys. This is my life. This is the definitive work of my career. Nothing I

ever do will be as important as this project.

 

Today, the assignment it the 24 hours of Moab adventure mountain bike race.

[john_castronovo]

To Daniel Bayer - before you trust your project to a borrowed Imacon, why not try a *real* drum scanner. You have too much invested not to. Find someone with at least an Aztec, Howtek, Scanview or best of all, an ICG drum scanner. Such a tool in the hands of someone who knows how to use it will absolutely kill what an Imacon can do every time. I've done drum scans for Hasselblad on our ScanMate5000. They *are* Imacon and even they had to admit the difference was well worth paying for.

 

john castronovo

 

tech photo & imaging

 

www.technicalphoto.com