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Expired kodachrome


jon lawrence

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I was wondering if many people had had much experience with shooting expired kodachrome. I've got some dated 1978 which I'm going to try out although I'm not expecting anything to come from it. There seems to be alot kicking about on ebay from various years and I was wondering if it was woth trying some out.

 

Any help would be most appreciated.

 

Jon Lawrence

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The expired film I used had very low contrast, few colors, and thin.... still works ok and gets an image, but just for fun or 'bad dream' or 'flash back' sequences... I think you have to count the years of cosmic radiation too...

 

I shot some '70's 8mm K25d at our pet chinchilla's funeral, pardon the awful home telecine. I used cheap magnifying glasses a macro lenses while pointing the camcorder into projector's film gate... the bottom link is 1982 25D.

 

 

 

1982 film Ricketts Quadrangle in 2006

 

Gianni in Londinium

Edited by Gianni Raineri
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The expired film I used had very low contrast, few colors, and thin.... still works ok and gets an image, but just for fun or 'bad dream' or 'flash back' sequences... I think you have to count the years of cosmic radiation too...

Gianni, where did you use the Film? It looks like you shot it indoors, but K25D is an outdoor Film. Also, was your Camera's internal Filter in or out? If it was in, that would screw up the colour appearance as well as the contrast. Please let us know. Thanks.

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Hi Terry

 

Camera was an 8mm Canon Motor Zoom 8 EEE . It has no internal 85 filter, I used daylight film without any filter. The camera also had its 6mm wide angle lens adaptor attached.

 

1962_8eee.jpg

 

The place I shot was indoors but has a glass roof, and filmed at the end of a sunny day while the sun was going down. It used to be a courtyard driveway - converted into a new entrance lobby called Rickets Quadrangle. I didn't think of pointing the lens upwards to the roof.

 

 

 

Gianni, where did you use the Film? It looks like you shot it indoors, but K25D is an outdoor Film. Also, was your Camera's internal Filter in or out? If it was in, that would screw up the colour appearance as well as the contrast. Please let us know. Thanks.
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I bought the film in a flea market the prevous weekend, it came in a box of junk film items... but had free processing envelope. I sent it to Lucerne the day after the shot, as it was the last week that Kodak Swiss Labs was offering free processing of cine films.

 

I was invited to attend the opening ceremony, but forgot to dress up for the formal occasion. With jeans and gym shoes, I used the camera like jewelry to look like I belonged there, and hid behind the camera while filming... B)

 

Gianni

Edited by Gianni Raineri
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Hi Gianni,

Were you using the 'Auto Aperture' on the Camera, or did you manually set the Aperture? 25 ISO Film requires a lot of light, and a manual Aperture cannot accommodate varying light conditions like an Auto Aperture can. This will negatively affect the contrast of the scene. If you used an Auto Aperture, does it have a separate battery supply, or does it use the same power supply as the motor? If it shares power with the motor, the drains in power will negatively affect the Auto Aperture setting -- especially when using the power zoom.

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I just checked the camera, it was on Auto. It's designed for a giant 1.3v Mercury battery, but I use an ordinary 1.5 v Button Cell. It needs to be wrapped inside rubber foam ring and has a crushed aluminum foil spacer. Also I don't think I zoomed, I just set it to 6.5mm wide, and zoomed around with my feet.

 

Gianni B)

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I had a nice experience with old Kodachrome. I bought 15 carts for a buck each. The film expired like 15 years and I shot it in the late 1990's so I could register my son's growing up. The film came as expected with some colour and contrast deterioration but tell me, what video format can handle that??? I even processed the film in a drugstore in San Ysidro, CA and then in the local Wal-Mart. The film had sound so I'll have my son's first steps and words for a while. Too bad Kodachrome is dead! :(

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Saluti Antonio!

 

Yesterday just got back a roll of (old stock) Kodachrome Super 8 silent processed at Dwaynes Photo in Kansas. Just had to wait a week or so. I used a credit card and price compares to local European labs. It came back with leader on both ends, prepared and all ready for telecine. I can still get fresh Kodachrome stock from Germany or California. Kodachrome still has some life left in it!

 

Anyway we shot a narrative for a youth club in video and it's all edited, done and forgotten. However I did a Super 8 take after each of the five or six video takes. I'll intercut the telecined super 8 bits, then see how it comes out on Youtube. The film stock came out faded and low contrast, but the image is clearly there. I'll use Apple Quicktime Pro for adjustments. Too bad I used one of the cheapest cameras I had the Boots Comet 121 instead of bolex 155 or Nizo something!

 

 

Gianni B)

 

 

I had a nice experience with old Kodachrome. ......Too bad Kodachrome is dead! :(
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  • 3 weeks later...

[sorry to say my experience with two old K40 sound film in 200' mag developed by Kodak in Switzerland are very poor contrast, one color pale red only. Films expired late 80's and early 90's.

Sound with Elmo 1012 perfect, with Beaulieu 6008 S terribly bad, stuttering and lots of camera noice.

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