I have used K64 film occasionally this year but I reckon that I will probably go back to using solely Fuji slide film when all 18 rolls of K64 that I bought at the turn of the year have been used up.
Getting Them Processed.
The speed that Fuji do their processing is very impressive and as a rule of thumb when I post off films First Class I can be fairly sure that I will get them back in three days and just occasionally they can come back in only 2 days from me posting them off.
I have had very few problems with Fuji processing and having used roughly 200 films now I have had only 4 instances of damage and two of those were from a few grains of sand that had got into my camera when I was in Lanzarote, with the other two there was only one slide damaged in each roll and in all four cases I received a letter of appology and a fresh roll of process paid film accompanying it.
Here in the U.K. there is a big difference in the time it takes to get a Kodachrome film back from processing compared to a Fuji one so on this Fuji wins hands down and this is a factor that I take into consideration because if I shoot something good and want to get the slides back quickly to send something off to a magazine then a delay such as 10 days that K64 tends to be is not helpful.
Fuji have an efficient method of posting that is much better than Kodachrome's, when you are ready to post off a film you have a sticky label with your address on it to place on the mailer and there are two other small stickers to put on the film and on the plastic holder for it.
The two small stickers have your individual code number on it so that if the roll becames seperated from the mailer it will be easy to trace who it belongs to because of the identification number.
With Kodachrome 64 film you have to hand write the Post Office box address on the front of the mailer and again hand write your own address on the back, also there is nothing to stick onto the film to identify it just in case it becomes seperated from the mailer so the Fuji system is much better and more efficient.
Slide Holders.
When I get a roll of film back I check through all of the slides looking to see if the subject looks level and that there are no obvious gaps to one side or the other so I usually end up opening anything from 4 or 5 up to more than a dozen to get them looking as they should be.
Almost everything at Glasgow has to be photographed on the move and with taxiing shots it is easy to nip the nose off or leave too big a gap at the tail so it's good to be able to correct any mistakes, it is easy to reposition slides in Fuji holders because they have two red gummed strips to place the slide on to that holds it very firmly in place.
With K64 holders they cannot be closed again after opening and the slide is held in place by a very small gummed strip that will not hold it after the slide is removed so this is something to bear in mind if you want to correct any problems with how the slide is sitting in the holder.
On occasions I have had slides back of parked aircraft where I know that I've shot it from edge to edge full frame perfectly okay but when I have had them back they are more to one side than the other with the nose slightly cut off, this has happened with both K64 and Fuji ones and it's just one of those things that the mounting of the slide is a little off.
Fortunately I have always saved my Fuji dud slides to re-use the holders so when opening K64 slides I put their holders in the bin and transfer the slide into a Fuji holder whereas with Fuji slides it is just a matter of opening it up, repositioning the slide and closing the holder again.
Colour difference.
The K64 colours look very natural and I like the colour tones whereas the Fuji ones are a little more bold with slightly stronger blue colours but there really isn't a lot to choose between them, both look very good and are sharp unlike some of the cheaper film brands.
Summing Up.