You cannot take my Kodachrome away IF I MAKE IT MYSELF

 Posted by on 8 December 2009  Modern Life, Photography, Vintage/Retro
Dec 082009
 

filminator

Introducing, The Filminator. Built in the garage of a retired Kodak engineer, this project replicates, for small batches, the huge industrial machinery that would normally produce film. On the Flickr page which documents this DIY, he says:

Can’t buy the film you want any more? Just make the stuff!

Plastic and goop go in one end, and camera film comes out the other end. This is not a trivial undertaking.

I think I know a regular blog reader here who will have to go mop up that drool now.

(via Boing Boing)

Grant Hamilton

  • Colin

    My ears are burning, here…

    This topic has been discussed on perhaps THE place online to obsess and learn about traditional film work — APUG.org (Analog Photography Users Group)

    In fact, it’s sparked the longest discussion thread ever there…maybe in history. Over 1500 posts and counting, since Kodak announced the end of Kodachrome.

    Sadly, it’s a fantasy dream. Look at that thread, and you’ll find another Kodak engineer (“Photo Engineer”) who explains in minute detail — again and again — why it’s just not feasible. This guy would know…he made the stuff!

    The technology that Kodak orginated for that film was absolutely groundbreaking at the time..and indeed, still is in the sense that nothing else can match that film for its qualities. However, it’s also why it’s almost impossible to replicate from scratch; I don’t think many people, anywhere in the world, realize just how complex that stuff is. I sure didn’t, before reading those threads.

  • thebanana

    Even if it could be reproduced, there is currently only one place in the world (Dwayne’s) that processes the film (35mm only), and without significant volume to process they’ll shut down that service in the next year or so anyway.

  • http://www.absurdintellectual.com/ Grant Hamilton

    Well, Kodachrome or not, I think it’s still pretty cool that he’s basically making any kind of film from scratch. More than I could do!

  • thebanana

    Instead I think we should dust off that beer recipe and brew some up…at Colin’s house.

  • Colin

    I hereby make that sacrifice for the greater good…

    People do make their own emulsions – it’s a pretty arcane, rarefied world but it’s certainly do-able. Tintypes or glass plate photography, ala 100 years ago, is becoming trendy and you can buy brush on emulsion off the shelf to make your own B&W prints.

    OK…NOW I’m starting to drool….