I thought that I might have some film stashed away and sure enough, I found what I had left in our "second refrigerator" in the basement.

I figure that if I keep it long enough it will be worth a fortune

Remember these?


My entire stash:


One reason to embrace digital:


It might be somewhat out of date:


It is a shame about Kodak - although they invented digital photography, they were too slow and possibly in denial to let go of film.

Quiz: anyone know what these are (photography related)?

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Lou

I think those are developing tanks for multiple rolls of 35 or 120 film wound on stainless reels and stacked in the tank. I never could load the reels in the dark so I didn't use them.

Good pictures. Hard to believe that Kodak got passed by in technology, but it happens.

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James

I was going through some old boxes in the attic and found my old Kodak pocket camera, still had a 110 cartridge in it. This goes back to the late 60's. Now way am I going to spend money to get the roll developed. Also found the old Beseler 23C enlarger, lens, timers and everything else.

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Mike in SouthCentral Kentucky

Yep,I had a little kodak and took a lot of pictures with it in the Navy.Still have the photos.We were told to use kodachrome film for slides and kodacolor for regular pictures.
Little buggers made good pictures. I had some of the slides made into photos a few years ago.

Polaroid Print Coaters?

In the good old days almost every picture was printed. In the day of digital, only a small percentage are printed. It wasn't just the film, it was all that paper and chemicals that went into Kodak's coffers.
I also have the 23c enlarger sitting in storage.

Many years ago (late 1960s) in Europe counterfeiters make counterfeit Kodak processing mailers. Kodak felt that they had to honor them; if they did not, then people would not have faith in the product anymore and would not buy the mailers.

So they hired a French "detective" agency (which was rumored to be staffed by French Foreign Legionnaires) to look for the culprits. They found the counterfeiters and convinced them (and all others) that this was something that they should never do again.

To the best of my knowledge there was never a repeat. (You have to wonder what those Legionnaires said to the counterfeiters to be so convincing.)

You might as well keep the Kodachrome since there is no place to get it developed any longer. Dwayne's in Parsons, Kansas developed the last rolls of it a while back and has discontinued processing since Kodak ceased making it. As for the other, it might be interesting to shoot a roll of that Vericolor just to see what kind of color shift you get if you still have a medium format camera.

Talking about the Kodachrome, the very last roll that Kodak made was given to a professional photographer to shoot. One of the portraits he made with it was Robert De Niro. He asked Paul Simon to sit for a portrait but Simon was a jerk about it apparently and said he didn't want anything to do with it since "Kodachrome" was in his past.

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Quiz: anyone know what these are (photography related)?
[/QUOTE]

Print processing tubes for roller processing?

national geographic states the very last roll was given to one of there staff photographers to use ....it was to be used for a worldwide shooting project for NG...so...not sure

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SWCA#2208
KK4EMO

His name is Steve McCurry, he did indeed shoot the roll for NG but one of the people he photographed was Robert De Niro. Search for "last roll of kodachrome" and you should be able to find the slide show.

CW

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You got it! I used them back in the 70's - each large tube would hold 4-8x10 or 2-11x14 or 1-16x20 and use just 8 oz of chemistry - and you needed a motorized roller for even distribution etc. I think even today some die-hard sheet film guys use these to develop their negatives. I wish I could find someone who needed them - hate to toss them so there the sit in the basement.

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Lou

I was defrosting the freezers last week. I bet I have 300 rolls or film. Kodachrome 25 to Fuji Velvia. I have slide film, print film in 35mm and 4x5. I fell into the digital age, swore I wouldn't. I don't know what to do with this stuff. I still have a b&w darkroom. Absolutely love b&w IR. I still shoot it in 35mm and 4x5, Kodak. Digital is just too easy, you don't have to "know" how to take a good picture anymore. Progress.

I think you're wrong there about digital being "easy" - it's different but much more complex in many ways. For us "old film guys" the best thing is that the "sunny 16" rule still applies

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Lou

I used and still do use the "sunny 16" with my 4x5. I guess the "easy" part is shooting a picture looking at the back of the camera to see if you got it right instead of sending the film off and waiting a week for the results. Oh and by the way it cost. With digital you have more choices/setting for different results where we used different films for different results. I can't tell you how many double exposures I did switching from one film type to another for different situations and not marking the film. I like film and just love that sound of the film advancing. In the past I have always been the last guy to embrace new technology. It's sad to say that now days as much as 75% of my photography is digital.

My first job was working for a photographer. He came to our town in 1905 from Jamestown, New York, and had worked for Eastman Kodak as a young man. He said he worked in the "patina plant".

I went to work from him in about 1954 and he was definitely "old school". He had a couple of panorama cameras, one seven inches wide and the other five.

We used a turn of the centruy portrait camera that was an 8x10 with both 5x7 and 4x5 backs. It had a Zeiss lens mounted in a Packard air release shutter.

I cut my teeth on Crown Graphics, (that was the Speed Graphic without the focal plane shutter.).

We used Ansco 4x5 film for portrait work and Kodak XX for our "comercial" work. Chemicals we used were Dektol, Versitol and D76 developers. Kodal Medalist paper was what we used for gloss prints.....and we used an Ansco double weight matt paper for portraits.

We didn't use anything smaller than 4x5.

This guys was so "old school" that he used to tell stories about using flash powder....and his first darkroom did not even have electricity.....he printed by making contack prints....by daylight.

I really had a photographic education that was priceless.

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G.P. Charlie

KCODE, Please reconsider. I found a roll of 35mm film and thought the same-- just a waste of money. However, I decided to have it developed. As it turns out, it had pictures of my son and his deceased mother from the mid 70's. Some of the best pictures of when he was little. He was very appreciative of this gift from the past!
Stonecove

Hope this is sufficiently on the thread. I have several old Kodak processing mailers and apparently they are worthless as far as Kodak in concerned. When they stopped doing the processing, they believe they have no responsibility to refund to cost of the mailer. I have contacted them and basically was told "too bad." Looks like we prepaid for a service which we did not get. There ought to be a law and they ought to have to buy them back.

That's a great story Charlie - I can almost smell the stop bath & fixer right now - nice memory but no chemicals is one big positive for digital.

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Lou

Also, processing film and prints uses up large amounts of water.

When I bought my first Pentax digital, I took a continuing education class in Digital Photography at a local college just to kind of familiarize myself with digital and get myself out of the program mode and into manual mode. One thing we did during the class was take a trip down to the county's nature preserve. Along with my digital I took a 1962 Pentax S1a shooting Kodachrome and using Sunny 16 instead of a hand held meter. Amazingly enough, my instructor had never heard of the rule of f/16 and this guy has been a professional for 40 years. Of course we didn't like each other anyway since he called my Pentax an Edsel and I called his Nikon a myth.

Smith and Colt guys will argue about what's best but still laugh with each other and try each other's weapons if offered. Cannon/Nikon people think each other are spawns of the devil and wouldn't touch each other's cameras with a gun to their head along with both thinking Pentax people are just wierd. Meanwhile, we Pentax people think both sides are crazy, just shake our heads and go right on using our 50 year old lenses on our modern digital cameras. </remove tongue from cheek>

CW

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I have several myself so I knew exactly what they were! Mine are smaller in length but a bit bigger in diameter. Loved to process that way. Load the paper in the darkroom and process in the light instead of tray processing which I started out on. Minimal chemical usage to boot.

I'm a Nikon fan from back in the 60's so I come by it honestly - I also use my 40+ year old Nikkors on my Nikon D700. Yep, Nikon & Cannon are the Smith/Colt of the camera world - as for Pentax, well there's Taurus I guess

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Lou

Still laughing about butting heads with instructor!

Did about the same thing with the transition into digital a decade ago. Lots of lenses to fit on my digital body. I bought a Pentax ISTD and spent a lot on it at the time.Of course had to buy a few lenses with it. I will probably get a newer body someday.

I started out with a MX with motor drive, then a K2DMD, then a LX with a motor drive. Still have them and haven't used them in years.

I used to process 4X5 sheet film in my print drums. I had a Speed Graphic that I got from my dad. I also used to buy bulk Ektachrome, load the canisters, and process in several film drums that were convertible 35mm, 120, etc. Just bought the E6 kits and processed. Had a water bath to maintain temps of chemicals. Boy the good old days.

I feel your pain in having the stuff sit in the basement. My stuff is in boxes next to my Durst enlarger in the garage. I have a box with a bunch of the old aluminum 35 mm film cans that I got from my dad.