reuben_c

Here's a guy who's doing something similar, but using color film. (not sure why)

You might want to get with him.

http://www.bway.net/~jscruggs/specific.html

http://www.bway.net/~jscruggs/auto.html

<i>Sundance Photo, a developer that reuses their chemistry to "save the environment"),</I>

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Don't all labs replenish their chemicals? They'd go broke in a hurry if they didn't. Smart move, though, to play it up as a sales angle.

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<i>I used the same processing with Gold 100 and got much better results</i>

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Gold 100 is an excellent film, it's a bit of a sleeper, with lots of unmerited scorn.

"I'm not sure if caffeine really is the active ingredient that does the developing."

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Has anyone tried No-doz?

Does Kodak still honor ESP-1 envelopes for Kodachrome?

Do they still let you enclose multiple envelopes per roll for multi-stop push?

"I believe all EK and American spec. Retinas had Schneider lenses and the focussing scale in feet. Others may have Rodenstock lenses and sometimes a metric focussing scale. It is the best camera I ever owned."

You are correct on all accounts.

The QL17 has a very crude meter circuit, series with photocell, batter, and galvanometer. Not a bridge circuit, thus, not immune to voltage changes.

Do not use an alkaline battery, its voltage is not stable, nor will your readings be as it ages.

The meters do not tend to be very accurate either, probably due to age drifting.

A silver oxide battery may work OK if your meter has aged in the right direction. If not, you can calibrate it to use the battery. The silver oxide battery has a nice flat curve like the mercury batteries did.

To calibrate the meter in the QL17, you need to go back and forth between the small trimpot and the physical meter positioning. Loosen the setscrews so that you can rotate the meter in its housing, then, adjust both settings (trimpot and meter position) until you have decent accuracy AND linearity.

<i>"The 70 mm width of 116 requires special reels I've never seen"</i>

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Get an old FR or (I think) Ansco plastic tank with adjustable reel, they will handle 116 just fine.

On the other right hand, my 194x Photo Lab Index has some intriguing formulas for dye developers that don't use color couplers or CD agents. The temptation is to try them (if the chemicals listed are available) to see if selective reexposure would produce decent images using the C, M, & Y developers.

My copy of the K14 process lists, as I recall (it's not in front of me) two CDs and one (or two?) couplers, but not by chemical name, so, I don't know how I'd go about ordering them (I seem to remember one of the CDs not being one of the ones I've seen for sale at Photographers Formulary and similar vendors, and I've never seen any couplers listed anywhere).

<i>And, like the old Arab proverb, maybe the horse will sing.</I>

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I am tempted to ask if your middle name is "Horace", but I shall quickly bury that idea.

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I understand that particular horse has indeed sung on rare occasion, but his tutors are not interested in divulging their techniques. Please keep me informed if you decide to follow through on home-based Kodachrome processing. Hopefully you won't take the whole year. As the proverb also goes, a lot of other things can happen in a year. If the horse dies, or if the king dies, the accomplishment will be moot.

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Who knows what new life might be breathed into Kodachrome if home processing becomes a relatively common practice? Maybe they'll even coat another batch of Kodachrome 100; bigger, this time, without all the cloak and dagger.

The most important thing is to tape it so that the film will stand straight out from the end of the spool rather than come off one side when you're at the end of the roll.

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Imagine that these are round circles, looking down at the top of a spool, with the straight line being the film. The first example is what you should aim for, the second is what you should avoid:

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_

/ \____

\_/

______

/ \

\_/

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If you tape it on using the second method, you will run the risk of easily pulling the film off the spool.