Recently got my hands on some unexposed Kodachrome 40 sound colour film.

[Christian Best]

Are there any at-home techniques for development that can preserve the color? I've been told my best bet it ship it to Canada to let film rescue take care of it, but then it'd be in black and white and I think it'd be really cool to try and keep the color. Do the chemicals/techniques for colour development still exist in an achievable way? Mad keen to try.

[Joerg Polzfusz]

The last chemicals are gone for more than ten years, the processing devices are scrapped, the knowledge is dumped,… =

[Steve Lee]

Hi Christian,
Welcome to the forum.
Basically in a nutshell the answer is no. There have been some attempts on 35mm and 120 photographic film but nothing on motion picture 8mm.
The problem with kodachrome film was that it used a unique process, similar to technicolor. Where the film emulsion itself didn't hold any colour dyes, the dyes were added during the processing stage.
This is why all of the processing that is available only can produce black and white results, as in between the layers of emulsion there were colour filters that polarized out the colour on each layer, with no colour dyes on the film itself.
Steve.

[Brian Fretwell]

Yes it was ancredibly complex process IIRc B&W first developer, wash re-expose to one colour light, develop in a colour forming developer for one colour, wash, repeat twice more for the other colours then fix and wash again!!!

[Christian Best]

Yes it was ancredibly complex process IIRc B&W first developer, wash re-expose to one colour light, develop in a colour forming developer for one colour, wash, repeat twice more for the other colours then fix and wash again!!!

Is there more information on this aspect? I'd like to try myself. I've found some useful diagrams but like a user above said, the knowledge is gone the way of the dodo.

[Joerg Polzfusz]

Good luck…
https://www.thephoblographer.com/201...ng-kodachrome/

[Ethan Knightchilde]

Christian,

As others have mentioned the chemicals were depleted about 12-1/2 years ago. Dwayne's Photo in Kansas was the last lab in the world to process Kodachrome film. If anyone has the knowledge or can offer any advice, it would be them.

[Brian Fretwell]

Is there more information on this aspect? I'd like to try myself. I've found some useful diagrams but like a user above said, the knowledge is gone the way of the dodo.

My advice would be to start with B&W still film and try to reversal develop a few frames with one colour forming developer, then few more frames for the other two colours if it works at al. atLeast you will have a better idea of how things workl before trying any Kodachrome.

[Christian Best]

My advice would be to start with B&W still film and try to reversal develop a few frames with one colour forming developer, then few more frames for the other two colours if it works at al. atLeast you will have a better idea of how things workl before trying any Kodachrome.

That's excellent advice, thank you!