[rollei_list] ...Kodachromes taken 50 years ago "Processed by Technicolor R"

  • From: CarlosMFreaza <cmfreaza@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: "rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Fri, 8 Aug 2014 16:44:25 -0300

I had not payed attention to the Kodachrome slides frame data. They
say in one of the sides "KODACHROME Transparency", "Processed by
TECHNICOLOR R" (with the circle meaning Registered Trade Mark); the
other side says "Made in U.S.A. P.701" , the number of slide in the
batch is also printed in red (f.e. 1,2,3...) and even more
interesting, it is engraved on each frame (via pressure on the
cardboard, without ink) the slide process date: The 18 Kodachrome
slides in the little box were processed in "DEC 59" (December 1959)
and belong to the same roll. I suspect some other slides in the box
with plastic frames are also Kodachrome from this batch, because it
was necessary to replace the cardboard frame sometimes, when it became
broken or jammed during the projection.

"Processed by TECHNICOLOR R", could be the explanation for the vivid
colors these slides showed when they were new, Technicolor process
evolved and improved from 1916 to give and /or to improve colors for
movies and it was also applied to improve color vividness for films of
still photography  too.

Carlos

2014-08-06 12:20 GMT-03:00 CarlosMFreaza <cmfreaza@xxxxxxxxx>:
> One of my sisters found a box containing some K 14 35mm Kodachrome
> slides taken by my father between 1958 and 1962, the box also
> contained some E-6 35mm Ektachrome slides taken by me when I was 16
> and 17 years old (1972/73). We believed all these old slides were lost
> and, in fact, most of them are lost, but these few slides in the
> little box have some of the magic from the old times, when, as
> fascinated kids and teenagers,  watched  the projected images .
>
> The slides show very faded colors, dust, scratches and some units have
> fungus and humidity stains too, anyway four or five Kodachromes look
> pretty good, I don't know the cause for the difference, they are from
> the same time, same lab an were kept in the same box.
>
> I'm scanning them using the infrared cleaning option, Vuescan works
> fine for the purpose, at least a lot better than the Epson Digital ICE
> software. Vuescan eliminates most of the scratches and dust; BTW, it
> can not solve problems if the image was destroyed in the emulsion
> itself.
>
> The scanning software options to restore faded colors and chromatic
> losses hardly work to improve the image quality for these cases, most
> of the slides need very much   work  with levels and curves; I'm
> having some acceptable results for a few slides but others are beyond
> my limited skills and knowledge, I think I'll convert them into Blank
> and White images.
>
> Carlos
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