Hacker News Reader

Comment by staticautomatic | Hacker News Reader

On Kodachrome you’d also get a negative you can’t develop…

I would say you've got film you can't develop if we're going to be pedantic about it, though I suspect someone can run it through some chemistry and get a (likely black and white) image.

That is exactly what would happen. You can process Kodachrome (assuming you can get your hands on some) as B&W film. Obviously, you can't do K14 process any more. You can't do this trick with E6 film, the chemistry of the emulsion is too different.

As per my comment, use B&W developer such as Dektol, Microdol etc.

Kodachrome if developed in a B&W developer will produce a B&W negative (I've done it but it was decades ago and only as an experiment). That said, one also has to get rid of the anti-halation stuff and yellow filter which normally blocks blue light from hitting the orthochromatic (green/yellow) layer and the red layer below it (they're also blue sensitive). That's messy too.

Really I wouldn't bother (but when done properly it did turn out some pretty decent B&W prints.

I would say it's a good option if you come across an old, exposed roll and what to see what's on it these days, but otherwise, I wouldn't bother either.

Whilst not common, that problem is far from being unheard of.

I've had similar experiences albeit only two instances where 'good' film was developed by commercial operators who put the films through the wrong processes. With much Photoshopping I actually got usable photos but they certainly weren't pretty.

That's different to experimenting. Years ago I worked for a television station that had a huge Eastmancolor processing lab attracted (we processed millions of feet of movie stock per month). Running various 'non-standard' test strips though the baths proved very interesting. We produced many strange effects (it was an excellent way of getting to understand how color emulsions work).

Reply on news.ycombinator.com