KCRag Forum

The last KodaChrome processing lab in the world closes today (Parsons, Kansas). This video is just a load of memories for pre digital guys.

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metr ... mode=video

i was talking to a local photographer about this last night. sad, but this is the byproduct of disruptive technologies.

Been reading about this for awhile. Strange that this is happening in my hometown.

DaveKCMO wrote: i was talking to a local photographer about this last night. sad, but this is the byproduct of disruptive technologies.

Yep.
Digital is the new medium with digital print shops containing powerful high quality printers replacing traditional film labs.
Film isn't going to go away completely, but anything that is going to be done by it is going to be specialty work done in a personal darkroom.

They give us those nice bright colors
They give us the greens of summers
Makes you think all the world's a sunny day, Oh yeah
I got a Nikon camera
I love to take a photograph
So mama don't take my Kodachrome away

I always start hummimg that song when I hear about Kodachrome film.  I think that is part of the reason i brought a Nikon D90 rather than a Canon.  If you don"t know any better you have to base it on something.  And I'm happy with the Nikon.

cknab1 wrote: They give us those nice bright colors
They give us the greens of summers
Makes you think all the world's a sunny day, Oh yeah
I got a Nikon camera
I love to take a photograph
So mama don't take my Kodachrome away

I always start hummimg that song when I hear about Kodachrome film.  I think that is part of the reason i brought a Nikon D90 rather than a Canon.  If you don"t know any better you have to base it on something.  And I'm happy with the Nikon.

Nikon doesn't make copy machines. That's all you need to know.

I heard that H&H Color Lab in Raytown can still develop Kodachrome film.

They still process color film at Sam's Club as of last week

Joe Smith wrote: They still process color film at Sam's Club as of last week

They do color film but Kodacrome is a different process. Dwayne's Photo in Parson's was the last certified processor. Dwayne's was processing for Sam's/WalMart.

Over the last decade, there have been very few companies processing Kodachrome and almost no one has shot it in many years. All positive film, other than Kodachrome, is developed by a process called E-6 and that will be around for a while, though it's definitely harder to find each day.

shinatoo wrote: The last KodaChrome processing lab in the world closes today (Parsons, Kansas). This video is just a load of memories for pre digital guys.

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metr ... mode=video

Parsons - who would have thought?  My grandmother and mother were born there. 

Train Enthusiast Pays $15,798 to Develop 1,580 Rolls of Dead Kodachrome Film

http://gizmodo.com/5726366/trainspotter ... hrome-film

Joe Smith wrote: Train Enthusiast Pays $15,798 to Develop 1,580 Rolls of Dead Kodachrome Film

http://gizmodo.com/5726366/trainspotter ... hrome-film

Never, never underestimate what a train buff will do to preserve his/her photos. 

mlind wrote: Never, never underestimate what a train buff will do to preserve his/her photos. 

Speaking of train buffs and photos, just before we left Roanoke, VA and moved back to Kansas City in the summer of 2009, we visited the O. Winston Link Museum. I was surprised at how nice it was. I guess this is really off-topic, but that's what happens during friendly conversations. I doubt that Mr. Link used Kodachrome, as all the pictures I remember were in black and white. He processed them himself, and the museum contains the equipment he used.

Here's a link for those who might be interested: http://www.linkmuseum.org/

I hate seeing Kodachrome go the way of the typewriter.  A few years back, I visited the Old Man of Hoy, a rock formation on the coast of the Orkneys with my film camera loaded up with Kodachrome and took some brilliant photos of the red rock tower contrasted with the blue sea behind.  A year later I returned with my very expensive digital Canon on a similar quality day at the same time of the year and obtained some decent but certainly not inspiring photos of the same rock formation.  Kodachrome had the great ability to bring out red - blue contrasts and was ideal for that kind of photography.  I've long switched to the convenience of digital cameras but I hate to see Kodachrome go away. 

Highlander wrote: I hate seeing Kodachrome go the way of the typewriter.  A few years back, I visited the Old Man of Hoy, a rock formation on the coast of the Orkneys with my film camera loaded up with Kodachrome and took some brilliant photos of the red rock tower contrasted with the blue sea behind.  A year later I returned with my very expensive digital Canon on a similar quality day at the same time of the year and obtained some decent but certainly not inspiring photos of the same rock formation.  Kodachrome had the great ability to bring out red - blue contrasts and was ideal for that kind of photography.  I've long switched to the convenience of digital cameras but I hate to see Kodachrome go away.  

A basic knowledge of Photoshop or similar photo editing software can yield the exact same results. I would wager that, in the right hands, no expert would be able to tell the difference, unless they blew it up several hundred times on a very good monitor to examine the pixels. Even a fairly big print would be very very difficult if not impossible to tell the difference.

taxi wrote: A basic knowledge of Photoshop or similar photo editing software can yield the exact same results. I would wager that, in the right hands, no expert would be able to tell the difference, unless they blew it up several hundred times on a very good monitor to examine the pixels. Even a fairly big print would be very very difficult if not impossible to tell the difference.

Well, good point.  I have since started using rudimentary editing to enhance colors but still not able to achieve the balance of film on some of the brilliantly colored rock formations etc...  When I am doing it, the work is still not in the "right hands" as my skill level is fairly limited. 

Even for photographers I know who are very good at it, the learning curve is huge. There's many different ways to achieve the same effects and some are way more efficient than others. There are lots of great books and tutorials on youtube. I'm not real fond of sitting in front of this machine, so I generally just learn things as I need to. And while I know about 2x as much as I did last year (and last year 2x the amount I new the previous year, etc.), I still don't know shit.

The thing that amazes me the most is that now, concerning photography, no one can tell what is real and what isn't. And I'm not talking about the stupid emails that my mom forwards around, but every single photo in the media. Same also goes for video now. Makes you wonder what Magruder would think.

The Show KC Currents on KCUR did an end-of-year story about the Kodachrome place in Parsons. Was intersting...

http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/kcur/ ... .in.Kansas