8mm Forum: K40 gone?

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Posted by John Cook (Member # 203) on May 09, 2005, 07:15 PM:

I just read a Kodak press release over on the shooting 8mm forum that intoduced a new emulsion 64T but at the expense of cutting K40 from their product line.

I don't know about you but the low price for K40 and subsequent low processing fees are what have kept me shooting home movies for projection.

Black Monday....

Regards, John

Posted by Jan Bister (Member # 332) on May 09, 2005, 07:52 PM:

Quick link for those wanting to hear it from Kodak themselves: http://www.kodak.com/US/en/motion/about/news/super8.jhtml

My thoughts?... I dunno, it doesn't really sound like bad news. For one thing, Kodak may discontinue sales of its Kodachrome super-8 film but that doesn't mean third-party dealers won't have some stock of it going around for a while - same for the handful of labs that still process it. This new 64T film sounds promising, anyway - maybe it'll be easier and thus cheaper to process, too. We'll see. [Smile]

Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on May 09, 2005, 10:15 PM:

I wonder what the longevity of this new emulsion will be, or will it start turning red after 15 years like Eastmancolor? I still have standard 8 Kodachrome from the 1950's which looks as good as the day it was processed- ZERO fade in 50 years! Will any of the electronic media such as videotape and DVD'S survive this long? I doubt it very much. Hat's off to Kodachrome, simply the best color film that ever existed. What a sad day indeed!! [Frown]

Posted by Dan Lail (Member # 18) on May 09, 2005, 10:27 PM:

Kodachrome gives us those nice bright colors,
Gives us the greens of summer,
Makes you think all the world a sunny day, oh yeah! [Cool]

Gee, just when I was planning to shoot some super 8. Maybe this new stuff will be very good. As far as fading, maybe not after the big Eastman law suit of the late seventies. [Smile]

Posted by Jan Bister (Member # 332) on May 09, 2005, 10:48 PM:

There was a lawsuit? [Eek!]

Posted by Dan Lail (Member # 18) on May 09, 2005, 11:46 PM:

Jan, here's a link. Click on #4 in the table of contents.

http://www.afana.org/preservation.htm

Posted by John Clancy (Member # 49) on May 10, 2005, 02:18 AM:

Sob sob.

Posted by Kevin Faulkner (Member # 6) on May 11, 2005, 08:27 AM:

I remember predicting about a year ago that Kodachrome would eventually get the chop. Kodak have been slowly cutting their processing labs worldwide because of their continuing financial position (losses).
Kodachrome processing is virtually done in house by Kodak all round the world but they have been closing their own labs as most of the D&P etc is either going to digital or is being done cheaper by high st Minilabs or mail order. If they want to close labs like here in the UK they have to stop processing Kodachrome which is not a straight forward process like E6.
Users in the UK are getting their Kodachrome done in Switzerland via a UK PO Box and I bet once they withdraw Kodachrome the Switzerland lab will also close.
E6 can be processed anywhere by anyone even at home if you have the inclination.
The modern Chromogenic dyes used in the Ektachrome range of films is far more robust than the ones of the Eastman days so I wouldnt worry too much about fade problems unless you are going to keep the procesed film in very hot humid conditions all year round!
Atleast they are not going to stop supplying super 8 product for the foreseeable future which is great news for all of us. [Smile]

Kev.

Posted by Kevin Clark (Member # 211) on May 11, 2005, 10:21 AM:

The demise of K40 is sad news indeed but as Kev said it seemed to be on the cards for some time. The amazing service that Kodak had provided over the years, even to the point of honouring over 20 year out of date K40 processing FOC on pre-paid carts, has to be applauded. They still have reversal (ie: not negative) Super 8 stocks but the cost is likely to be higher when stock prices and film processing are taken into account. Additionally, some automatic ASA rating cameras may not correctly match the new film's ASA speed - it is worth checking out the www.filmshooting.com website & forums for more info on this as it can be quite complicated to assess if your camera is capable of using 64ASA film stock. Additionally, Kodak are now recommending film makers from the UK (and I guess Europe generally) should send their K40 direct to Switzerland for processing, rather than to Wimbledon or other UK P.O. box locations. Please refer to this link to the relevant Kodak website page for all the address details and info you will need:

http://www.kodak.com/eknec/PageQuerier.jhtml?pq-locale=en_GB&pq-path=6879

The two 'process by 1984' carts of K40 I used in early March were returned processed by Switzerland within a two week cycle, and the images were excellent although the odd shot of the bloke usually only seen operating the equipment had more grey tones and a few more lines than the last time he bravely faced the cameras [Wink]

Kodak should continue making Super 8 film of some type providing film schools, video producers looking for the certain 'film look' and other lower budget film professionals still continue to buy the newer type emulsions and negative stocks. I will miss the simplicity and look of K40 though, it was always fun to post off the exposed cart in the little yellow envelope then look forward to the results. K40 RIP.

Posted by James N. Savage 3 (Member # 83) on May 11, 2005, 02:28 PM:

Nick: I've got some really good news......Kodak just discontinued K-40 film stock.

Forum: I thought you said you had good news?

Nick: Yeah, I just saved a bundle on auto insurance by switching to Gieco! Hee Hee Hee [Wink]

Sorry guys, I couldn't resist. In my profession, you have to add a little bit of humor to seemingly bad situations sometimes to get through them [Smile]

.

(For my over-seas friends, the above printed joke was a spoof on a television commercial for auto insurance that gets played-to-death over here in America)

But actually, I do have some pretty good news for those of us who love shooting K-40- When I heard the bad news, I panicked and called Dwayne's Photo right away, hoping to get the last roll. A very friendly receptionist advised me that they have hundreds of rolls of K-40 in stock at Dwaynes and in fact, instead of raising the price, they are running a sale on K-40 right now- $11.50 per roll. (Lets not spread this news past this forum, as we want supply to last at least for a while [Razz]

) I quickly ordered 10 rolls, which should last me the rest of the year at least.

Also, FYI-
I purchased a couple of rolls of the recently discontinued Ektachrome 7240 from Yale Film and Video. I combined them with a roll of the old Ektachrome 160 for an Easter play at my church- The 7240 won hands down for quality and lighting. Yale Film still has rolls of the 7240 for those of you who will be shooting in darker environments.

Bye.

Nick.

Posted by Kevin Faulkner (Member # 6) on May 12, 2005, 04:30 AM:

That a very good price James. In the UK it cost us about £12 a roll. Maybe we should order in bulk from the US [Wink]

Kev.

Posted by Tim Drage (Member # 285) on May 13, 2005, 06:07 AM:

T'is sad news indeed. [Frown]

Kevin, good news is that process paid K40 is now down to £9.99 at www.7dayshop.co.uk!!! Seems to be the cheapest in the UK.

I'm going to shoot loads while I can! Especially if it eventually gets really cheap as people sell it off when the last Kodak processing date approaches in a year or 2?

Apparently Dwaynes in USA will continue processing K40 for the forseeable future so all is not totally lost for anyone who might want to stock up on stock! [Smile]

One of the main problems with the new stock is that many (most!) low or even mid-range cameras can't properly meter for 64... this can be solved in various workarounds for some cameras, but many will be relegated to shooting black + white once K40 is gone! [Frown]

Posted by Kevin Faulkner (Member # 6) on May 13, 2005, 06:30 AM:

Yes thats a good point you make. On a lot of cameras the 64T could be overexposed I think depending on how the metering and Daylight filter work on the camera in question. It will be best trying to find cameras which have manual exposure overide.

Kev.

Posted by Winbert Hutahaean (Member # 58) on May 13, 2005, 08:34 AM:

quote:
That a very good price James. In the UK it cost us about £12 a roll. Maybe we should order in bulk from the US

Hi there,
Kevin, here in Australia a K40 even much cheaper. It is sold for AU$18 or eqv. to GBP 7.5. That price includes processing cost (the yellow envelope is inside). But now, with the end of K40 what can we do??.

As you know, I live in Fiji and with that kind of price, I sometime felt being subsidised by Kodak in making film. Could you imagine that with only an exposed cartridge that I send to the Kodak office in Australia, they have a consequence to return my film right to the front door of my house in further of the Pacific. Sometimes I found in the returned yellow envelope, a stamp from Australia which cost around AU$3!. So from AU$ 18 of their price, AU$ 3 has to be alocated for the stamp only. I don't know what is the cost to send it from Australia to Switsserland v.v....and processing cost....and film's price....

But, now R.I.P

Posted by Barry Johnson (Member # 84) on May 15, 2005, 12:13 PM:

You could of course dig out your old Regular8 cameras...... [Cool]

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