I bought 18 rolls of Kodachrome 64 in March 2002 for using in my backup camera which I often carry with me and I have used 12 of those rolls so this has given me a fair idea of what this film is like to use.

Personally I wouldn't consider using it unless the sun is out as I find that it is difficult to get the light okay in the slides with it being only a 64asa speed film so I keep it for sunny only shots and have been using it on the more regular aircraft that I shoot.

Comparing it to Fuji's Sensia 100asa you can see that there is less grain in the k64 slides so they look very good if you get the conditions correct and this is why I have continued to use it for occasional shots.

In my personal opinion there are two drawbacks with K64 slides and that is the slide holders that they use and there can be problems with their processing.

Getting Them Processed.

Kodachrome slides are not processed here in the U.K. so instead you must post them off to London in the mailer where they are then forwarded on to Switzerland, after processing the slides are posted direct to the sender so this means an obvious slowing down in the time it takes to get them back, my fastest one has been 7 days and the slowest almost a month (not including the two rolls that they lost).

I like to post off some slides each month to a magazine and this time lag is an obvious drawback so it is one reason why I prefer to use Fuji who are much faster as they process them in the U.K.

I have had a number of problems with Kodachrome processing and have had slides back with chemical splashes, quite a few badly mounted in the slide holder and a handful badly damaged with a crease right through the middle of the slides.

In January 2002 I returned 13 slides with 10 of them having chemical splashes and the other three ruined as the slides were badly creased so after a wait of nearly a month I received a letter of appology which said that they couldn't do anything to wash off the chemical splashes plus a single roll of film as "compensation", I can't say that I was impressed with that.

In April 2002 I posted off two rolls of K64 a week apart and they lost them both, after various communications through the Post I finally received a letter 3 months later confirming that they were lost and the letter appologised for this and said that two rolls of film were enclosed to cover the loss of my films but in the jiffy bag there was only one roll, so having lost them they couldn't get that right either.

I wrote off again pointing out the error of only one roll being sent and a week later the other roll arrived, I had thought that they would have put in maybe a couple more but no they didn't so the upshot of this from my experience is that they can be slap dash and make mistakes. Considering that about 90% of the time I use Fuji film these errors have happened too often for my liking.

Slide Holders.

With K64 you can get cardboard mounts if requested but usually it is the plastic ones and I definately don't like them, if you want to open up the holder to reposition the slide then you have no chance of putting it back together again so I have to use my spare Fuji slide mounts when doing this.

I am quite fussy in getting the slides looking level and as full frame as possible so I will often open the holder up to reposition them, if you are trying to get your subject to fill nearly all of the slide then it is inevitable with moving ones that you can nip the nose of it or leave a bigger gap at the back so I think that it is important to be able to open the slide holder, reposition the slide and then close it again and the Kodachrome ones just won't do that.

Even if they did the other problem is that the slide is held in place by just a very small piece of sticky tape in one corner only and when the slide comes off you can't get it back on again so I am less than impressed with the holders and have had to use a good number of my spare Fuji ones when sorting through the K64 slides.

It might sound a bit fussy talking about repositioning the slides to get them straight and in the middle of the frame but the way I see is that with the amount of time and travelling you put in to get them (never mind the cost of foreign trips) then you should have them looking as they should and not sloping one way or the other or having a big gap at one side.

Colour difference.

I like the colours in the K64 slides and they look life like, they look very good and I would say that I have a slight preference for them over the Fuji ones where the colours are that bit stronger although I am also happy with them too.

Summing Up.

I don't have a problem with K64 slides as such and I think that they look really good provided that you get good enough light conditions and for me that means definately not using them unless the sun is shining, for me the downside is having to wait too long to get them back and the unhelpful slide holders that won't close after being opened.


Fred. (30-10-02)

Fuji Sensia 100asa Slides.

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