Kodak Instamatic Camera and Kodachrome 64

I finished my last two rolls of Kodachrome slide film today and shipped them off to Dwayne’s Photo in Kansas, just in time for the deadline.

One was a 35mm roll of Kodachrome 25 that I found in the bottom of the film draw in my refrigerator (everyone keeps film in the fridge, right?).  The roll is 14 years old. I put it in my Canon F-1 film camera (my digital cameras don’t seem to have a slot for a film cartridge) and shot Christmas pictures over the last few days.

The other roll was 126 cartridge film (Kodachrome 64) that I discovered in an old Kodak Instamatic camera. That roll could be 30 years old or more. Over half the frames had already been shot so I finished the roll.

Film ages with time. Kodachrome goes from slightly greenish in tone when it is manufactured, shifts to a neutral color balance when it hits its prime, and then gradually shifts to magenta as it continues to age past its exposure date.  Ideally, by the time a roll of Kodachrome hit the marketplace, sat on the shelves, was sold, exposed, and then processed, it would be somewhere near its prime.  I used to look for outdated Kodachrome to shoot sunsets. Not only was it on sale, the magenta color shift added an extra boost to the warm sunset colors.  I expect quite a color shift with both rolls of film.

I am looking forward to see how the K-25 turns out. I can’t wait to see what I get with the Instamatic K-64 film. Could be something and could be nothing at all due to the aging of the film for such a long period of time. We shall see.