Silverbased

The following is a public service announcement:

In the summer of 2009, Kodak announced the end for their legendary Kodachrome slide film. The final batch of Kodachrome 64 carries an expiration date of 11/2010, and major retailers have long since sold out—although a few stray rolls can still be found on eBay, at high prices.

But the crucial point to know is this: There is only one commercial lab left in the world developing Kodachrome, and that is Dwayne’s Photo in Parsons, Kansas. And they will only develop Kodachrome through the end of December 2010. The price to develop and mount a 36-exposure roll (before shipping) is USD $10.

Kodachrome requires a complex and difficult process called “K-14″ —completely different from the E-6 developing used with all other slide films. Other color emulsions include the chemistry to produce color dyes within the film itself; but with K-14, each color layer must have dyes added to it during processing. (This raises the image in slight relief on the emulsion side, which is a useful way to ID unlabeled Kodachromes.) Balancing all the K-14 steps correctly is quite tricky—hence the worldwide consolidation of K-14 processing down to one final lab.

So, this year is your last chance to shoot Kodachrome. Dig around in the back of the freezer; check the bottom of your camera drawer. If you have any rolls remaining, shoot them soon—or give them to someone who will!

One part of the Kodachrome legend is its amazing colorfastness—unmatched by any other film created since. Here’s a Kodachrome “glamour” shot taken by my father in 1942 (scandalously, this is not my mother):

Kodachrome slide after nearly 70 years; scan colors only slightly adjusted

Will our hard disks and flash drives still be accessible in 2076? Kodachrome photos you shoot today will stay colorful and accessible for decades to come—and anyone can discover the images, just by holding them up to the light. If there are people or scenes in your world that you’d like to commemorate for the ages, Kodachrome is your film.

Now, before it is exposed, it’s a different story. Kodachrome that has been stored cold will behave fine, even a few years past its expiration date. But unexposed rolls that have been stored at warmer temperatures, or that have gone many years out of date, can begin to get funky:

Kodachrome 25 expired by 9 years; magenta highlights

Aside from the color shift, this roll also had lost some of its speed and contrast. But the results gave kind of an interesting otherworldly feel, which some might enjoy exploring. (And the color shift was within the range where I could still correct it when scanning.)

If you miss the December 2010 deadline, there’s no way to develop Kodachrome into a color positive after that. However you may be able to salvage some visible image by developing it using black & white negative chemistry. Apparently there are a few complications to doing this, and I’ve got no firsthand experience with it. But I’ll report back if I get around to trying it.

Meanwhile, I leave you with the back cover of the November 1950 Popular Photography magazine. [Click to see a larger version.] This dates from an era when Kodachrome had a sensitivity of ASA 10! It wasn’t until 1961 that Kodachrome II raised this to ASA 25. (The ASA film speed scale wasn’t adopted by the ISO until decades later.)

Don’t be ‘beset by unhappy doubts’—shoot your Kodachrome soon