Back in the time machine to 1984

[NikonAIS]

Mt. Ranier (14410 feet) taken from the observation deck of the Seattle Space Needle. It is second only to Mt. Whitney in CA (and only by about 100 feet) in height in lower 48. The atmospheric haze and distance, about 75 miles, from downtown Seattle makes Ranier seem to "float" above the landscape. Taken on a very rare clear winter day in the Pacific Northwest.

Nikon F2 Photomic, 55mm f/2.8 AIS Micro Nikkor, Kodachrome 25 and polarizing filter. Man oh man I miss that amazing stuff, digital has NOTHING on the Kodachromes! They had incredible sharpness, non-existent grain and super saturated colors, reds and blues especially. It was pure color perfection. I would put all my DSLR's away in the closet if Kodak brought it back.

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[G Wright]

I agree, to a certain extent. I leaned to Fujichrome since I liked the way the greens popped on a Cibachrome print. What I don't agree with is what we paid for processing. Imagine that in todays costs! For that reason alone I now prefer digital.

 

[NikonAIS]

I agree, to a certain extent. I leaned to Fujichrome since I liked the way the greens popped on a Cibachrome print. What I don't agree with is what we paid for processing. Imagine that in todays costs! For that reason alone I now prefer digital.

If you stuck to E6 and processed it yourself the cost was not bad. But only Kodak or authorized labs could do the Kodachromes because of some of the very dangerous chemicals produced (like cyanide!) that were created by the processing and the complex processing steps just made it too risky and open to civil liability.

 

[Whiskeyman]

If you stuck to E6 and processed it yourself the cost was not bad. But only Kodak or authorized labs could do the Kodachromes because of some of the very dangerous chemicals produced (like cyanide!) that were created by the processing and the complex processing steps just made it too risky and open to civil liability.

In addition to all that, the processing of Kodachrome had very thin, some said razor thin, processing margins to operate within before the film was ruined. I developed Ektachromes myself for a while; I especially liked shooting Ektachrome with my 4x5 field camera. However, printing with the sheet film was an issue as I didn't have a glass negative carrier and had a difficult time keeping the film flat in the enlarger. The local camera club did have a custom made sheet film projector that would project about 80% of the 4x5 sheet film. Those images were great to see on the screen!

I wish I knew where my negatives and slides from back then are. Too many moves to say that they were never lost.

 

[Annamaria]

Mama don’t take my Kodachrome away…. Just something about the photograph that makes me slow down and look a little longer.

 

[Woody Meristem]

Beautiful photo. I started photography with Kodachrome 25 but used 64 most of the time for its "high" speed. As soon as a decent digital camera was available I gave up film -- it was too slow and too expensive (I'd thrown away trash cans full of slides over the years) and my cameras and lenses were too heavy for my aching back -- even though my longest lens was a 300mm. But, in my opinion, there's still nothing that matches the colors of Kodachrome.

 

[Warren D]

I think I still have a roll of K25 in the fridge. Even if it was still good, don't think I could get it processed. I did get to liking E100SW in my 8x10 days. Have been working on restoring a Deardorf 8x10 for a while now, have a couple of boxes of sheet film to use up.

 

[JFW]

I really miss those little yellow boxes when you got your slides back. I use to watch for KR 25 or 64 go on sell at the px, buy almost all they had. Different times, but good times.

 

[Whiskeyman]

I really miss those little yellow boxes when you got your slides back. I use to watch for KR 25 or 64 go on sell at the px, buy almost all they had. Different times, but good times.

When I was an early teenager, I spent the weekend with friends whose dad was in the Navy, and I got to visit the NEX with them. Oh my goodness, the camera counter was incredible. It was there that my love for Nikon SLRs was ensconced.

 

[Whiskeyman]

I really miss those little yellow boxes when you got your slides back. I use to watch for KR 25 or 64 go on sell at the px, buy almost all they had. Different times, but good times. - I remember those, and also the white cardboard boxes some labs packed processed slides into. I also remember the "slide shows" at our house whenever we had visitors. One of my mother's friends married a South African, and they lived in several different countries in Africa over the years. When they visited, we got to see the slides of their travels, which were far better than fantastic!

 

[GlenW]

A bit of trivia: today (4/21) is the 60th anniversary of the Space Needle opening at the Seattle World's Fair. Those were the days of Kodachrome II and Kodachrome X and I remember shooting with both of them in the late 60's.