Kodachrome

[Nantucket Red]

Wow, Huntsman, you certainly are lucky to have grown up being able to use such great photographic equipment. I'm the only one in my family to do any kind of serious photography. A friend of the family taught me all the basics when I was about 13, and then my parents got me a Fujica ST605 for Christmas '76. I was able to bulk load and process my own film at school, so I learned very fast. I got my first Nikon F2 Photomic in summer of '79, which is when I started shooting Kodachrome almost exclusively. Later, I also got an FM as well as an F, a Nikkormat ELW and another F2.

Tonight I'll be getting the scans of my old Kodachromes back and will start putting them up on my Flickr gallery. Many of the images are quite remarkable.

 

[Artisan Fan]

I have a small inventory of Kodachrome in my fridge but I prefer the Fuji films. More realistic skin tones imho. I like Velvia for nature shots. I'm shooting with a Nikon F100 and ED glass. I need to get a digital body however as E-6 processing done well is only available in Atlanta at E-6 Lab which is far from home.

 

[Nantucket Red]

I like the Fujichromes well enough but prefer the color balance of Kodachrome. I actually plan to do a comparison of Kodachrome and Velvia 50 using my Leica Ms and a tripod to get exactly the same shot with the same lens taken back to back by separate bodies.

I find Velvia much less forgiving than Kodachrome. Kodachrome has an enormous tolerance for underexposure and therefore preserves shadow details where Velvia just goes jet black. Anyway, I'm make a point of putting both films through their paces to try to get as objective a comparison as possible -- and not with boring photos either.

 

[speedster.8]

Originally Posted by milosz

As far as point-and-shoots, the standards once upon a time were the Nikon Ti or Contax T3. No idea what either of those sells for these days. If you want a small, high-quality rangefinder, you could look for an Olympus XA. (Not the later models, they went to zone-focusing.)
I have a near mint 28Ti in all black if anyone is interested enough ... but i have to shoot my remaining K64 & V50 first

 

[Nantucket Red]

My best Kodachromes have all been scanned and uploaded to my Flickr gallery. If you're interested, check out my Kodachrome Archive.

 

[Nantucket Red]

I now have four cameras loaded with Kodachrome and am snapping merrily away!

 

[GQgeek]

Originally Posted by Nantucket Red

I now have four cameras loaded with Kodachrome and am snapping merrily away!

Don't make me smack you down with the benefits of digital again!

 

[grimslade]

Looking at some of your shots, Red, it leaves me with the feeling that we must have crossed paths, or nearly so, at some point. At any rate, we've haunted some of the same locales. Nice work.

Adorama is backordered on the 64, btw.

 

[Nantucket Red]

Originally Posted by GQgeek

Don't make me smack you down with the benefits of digital again!

The advantage of digital is that I can get my Kodachrome slides shot with manual, mechanical cameras scanned to show on the web. Best of both worlds!

Originally Posted by grimslade

Looking at some of your shots, Red, it leaves me with the feeling that we must have crossed paths, or nearly so, at some point. At any rate, we've haunted some of the same locales. Nice work.

Fascinating. Were you in those places around the same time?

And thanks.

Originally Posted by grimslade

Adorama is backordered on the 64, btw.

This is good news. It probably means that Kodak will have to do another run of it.

 

[Nantucket Red]

One of my best friends from high school is visiting Japan for the first time, having studied Japanese for a number of years as a perk of his university job. He wanted to go to the Kanamara Matsuri -- the Iron Phallus Festival -- in Kawasaki yesterday.

I took three Leicas loaded with KR-64 and finished off a solid 9 rolls!

Revellers carry omikoshi, portable shrines, with the Iron Phallus and also a huge, pink dong that they waggle back and forth so it appears to throb. Among the procession is a band of comically hideous female impersonators. There are penis-shaped lollipops for sale that women and men alike suck on with great amusement. A few of the women were more than happy to demonstrate their prowess for my camera.

I got loads of great shots of the festival and the nearby temple. This week I'll be sending off a dozen rolls to Dwayne's for processing, so the photos probably won't be up until sometime next month. Worth the wait for my first Kodachromes in over 20 years!

 

[Nantucket Red]

Kodak seems to have released a fresh run of Kodachrome. The previous batch was #1559 expiring 02/2010 and the latest batch is #1562 expiring 07/2010.

Get it while you still can!

 

[Nantucket Red]

Sent my first dozen rolls of Kodachrome to Dwayne's for processing on April 9th and received the unmounted, uncut slides back on April 18th! That's faster than Kodak did it back in the day!

I'll take them to my local lab for scanning this evening, so I'll probably get them uploaded to Flickr sometime next week. Stay tuned, this is going to be good!

 

[ratboycom]

How long were you at the Penis Festival in Kawasaki? I was down there shooting also, but in the early afternoon.

 

[Nantucket Red]

I was there from late morning to late afternoon. Those transvestites were the ugliest I've ever seen (not that I've seen very many), but I suppose that was all part of the fun.

 

[ratboycom]

Hahaha Indeed, they were not lookers.
I took a few pics on my digital camcorder in addition to my Yashica. Did you see the dude with the marital aid strapped to his head? The whole place really just seemed like some kind of joke to attract gaijin or something, but for a short period of time it was certainly interesting.
Also, I dont think I saw you there. That is to say no other dapper gaijin in my sight, mostly a bunch of military guys and tourists.