Last roll of Kodachrome

[Troll]

<p>The last roll of Kodachrome was given to Steve McCurry, who shot it in a Nikon. How DARE he not use a Leica -- the man has no sense of proper history.</p>

[Robin Smith]

<p>Too right Bill. Also I wish I got to go to the places he went (paid for someone else I assume) to take his last Kodachrome. He's a lucky dog.</p>

[JDMvW]

<p>It should have been shot in an Argus C-3 or earlier Argus 35mm camera, of course, if you want meaningful historical context.</p>

<p> </p>

[andylynn]

<p>Steve McCurry has been using Nikon for a long time. He shot the famous Afghan girl portrait with some FM series Nikon and a 105mm Nikkor, and he put a lot of miles on an F100 and an F6 before going almost all digital. So why change?</p>

[nate_butler1]

<p>Okay, I'll bite: why does it matter whether he used a Leica or Nikon?</p>

[frank_horn]

<p><em>The Argus C-3 ("The Brick") is what got me into 35mm. An adult counselor at a camp I once attended showed me photos from the C-3. I was using a Kodak Starflash 127. I asked him why his pictures were so much better (contrast and exposure). He explained the separate pieces of glass in the lens that handled the light much better than the single piece of glass in my Kodak Starflash. Then he showed me the diaphram that measured incoming light. He showed me the hand held light meter.</em><br>

<em>I soon had a GE selenium meter for $5 and a Kodak Pony 135</em><br>

<em>Now as for the last Kodachrome--- I live in the Arizona back country and for around 6 mo., Wal*Mart has stopped offering Kodacolor in any speed. I now have to use Fujicolor, which does not have the vibrant color of Kodacolor. I like the 800-ISO Kodacolor and it looks like that also is gone and can not be ordered from B&H, etc. (I shoot with an M4-P)</em></p>

[charles_stobbs3]

My last roll sits in my bureau drawer while I debate which camera to put it in.

[james mitchell dc]

<p>My last roll will go in one of my M2s. And I hope soon, as it is, while in the freezer, way out of date.</p>

[james_elwing]

<p>Vale Kodachrome. I got the last rather outdated 2 rolls back 3 weeks ago, and am keeping a roll of 200, with pre-paid mailer, unopened. I did some tests with the Kodachrome using a centre graduated filter on the V/C 12mm and got good even corners, what I wanted, from what was one of the more contrasty slide films. Unfortunately the photos are as boring as bat droppings; I like photography, it doesn't always like me.<br>

Well, according to the articles I have read in Leica Fotografie, the first rolls of Kodachrome for 35mm went to professional photographers using Leicas. My guess is that some Contax users also got first dibs.<br>

The Argus 'Brick' was probably good at stopping small pieces of shrapnel and you could take photos with it too, multifunctional, a bit like a mobile phone. I doubt if they got a look in with Kodak in the mid 1930's<br>

Correct me if I'm wrong<br>

Kodak should give something meaningful to the owner of the last roll of Kodachrome developed, maybe an M9?<br>

This is the second submission, mystified by the rejection; removed anything that could be misconstrued</p>

 

[gerry_rosen]

<p>I've got one roll of 64 in the freezer and I'm kind of agonizing about whether to shoot it or just save it as a historic relic. I'm leaning towards shooting it because my 50+ year old Kodachrome II and 25 look like the slides were shot yesterday and a roll shot now would make good counterpoint to them. Dwayne will accept his last roll at the end of this year so I've got some time to think about it.</p>

[gerry_rosen]

<p>I've got one roll of 64 in the freezer and I'm kind of agonizing about whether to shoot it or just save it as a historic relic. I'm leaning towards shooting it because my 50+ year old Kodachrome II and 25 look like the slides were shot yesterday and a roll shot now would make good counterpoint to them. Dwayne will accept his last roll at the end of this year so I've got some time to think about it.</p>

[JDMvW]

<p>The total amount of Kodachrome that went through Leicas and Contaxes surely pales by comparison to the mass market users of it who had Argi. If Kodak had had to depend on sales to Leica users, the end of Kodachrome would have been a lot earlier than it turned out to be.</p>

<p>Nor would the Argus cameras been such a success without Kodak slide film.</p>

[Jeffrey L.T. von Glück]

<p>Shoot it!!!</p>

[sasvata__shash__chatterjee]

<p>My thoughts resonate with those of Gerry and others agonizing about what to do with Kodachrome. I bought two rolls when the demise of Kodachrome was announced. As much as I loved Kodachrome, and as much as most of us are used to seeing those cardboard mounts with the Kodak logo lying around, I figured I'd pay my last respects with a small quantity and really make each frame count. Sorry to say this in a RF forum :-), but not having a Leica, I am not going to use my Canon Canonet or Yashica GSN for this. I think one is going to be shot in a Contax body to use the Zeiss 28mm wide-angle. The other is going to be shot with either my Nikon N70 or a yet-to-be-acquired F100/N80, so I can use the Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 and 85 mm f/1.8 (my Nikon F and MF lenses going in for a CLA). </p>

<p>I am still debating what to shoot. Have to wait till Texas is done with the triple-digit heat! But I am thinking mostly shots documenting the area I live in, with early morning or late evening warm sun, outdoor malls, urban scenes, farmers markets, portraits (including some family). To some it is just some film and a few photographs, but it marks the end of a legend, and in our small ways we need to make it significant.</p>

[nomad_.]

<p>I got four short-dated rolls a few months back, for less than £2 each, and they've been in the fridge. Shot the first one last weekend, and it's in the post. (Anyone know how long processing is currently taking from the UK?)</p>

<p>One of the remaining three will go into my Leica IIIf and will be used only with the 50mm Elmar (I like my Russian 35mm, and hardly ever use the 50mm, but it seems fitting to shoot a roll in a Leica, using Leica glass). Another roll will go through the M2, and probably include some test shots of each of my lenses (fun stuff with a tripod and a brick wall). Might keep the last one for when autumn comes in.</p>

[wendell_kelly]

<p>The only transparency film that I shoot these days (for that matter only color that I use at al,l and I shoot a great deal of film in formats up to 8x10) is Kodak Elitechrome 100 in a Stereo Realist. A fine grain color transparency film in a stereo camera is one of those "magic" combinations in photography. Everything just works right. I still have ten rolls in the deep freeze.<br>

Dwaynes is processing E6 transparency film, of course, and Clark Color Labs has a transparency film development service listed on their website (probably being forwarded to Wayne's anyway). Once in a great while a roll comes back from Clark in stereo mounts (God only knows where they sent it for processing on those ocassions) but for the most part, I mount he stereo pairs myself.</p>

 

[35mmdelux]

<p>2 rolls of K25 and 1 roll of K200 left and its all gone, forever.</p>

[Dave Luttmann]

<p>I'd love to photograph my kids with a roll of K64. My father took many (I thought at the time, too many) photographs of myself and siblings using K64. That said, I can't find any anywhere....so I may have to pass on the chance.</p>