Kodak 1922 Kodachrome Film Test

[Scotness]

Youtube clip here

Just to remind us of what we're missing -- also brought back memories of John Pytlak too (not because of the age of the test though!!)

Scot

[David M. Leugers]

Truly historic images and so beautiful. The film is as old as my parents born in 1922. With Kodachrome winding down this year (Dwayne's bringing the curtain down in a few months) hard to believe a film stock has spanned the 88 years my parents have been alive. What a testament to the archival qualities of Kodachrome... so many films from 1922 have turned to explosive dust and lost forever...

John Pytlak is sorely missed.

[lastcoyote]

Oh yeah... I remember Mr. John Pytlak... He was so nice but have to suffer from most of us compliant about the discontinues of K40..

yeah... good old days

[super8man]

Actually, "safety film" came out long before 1922...Kodachrome was introduced in 1935. There should be no reason for people old (1922) movies to have gone to dust...I would be more concerned with films prior to 1910...We are all fine with our 8mm films for another 50 years.

http://motion.kodak.com/US/en/motion/Pr ... /index.htm

[marc]

I have a feeling that it is supposed to be 1932. If I remember correctly, the first successful development with Kodachrome was done in 1928 by some independent experimenters who eventually sold their system to Kodak. I believe that they were using food coloring back then for the dyes.

[David M. Leugers]

Actually, "safety film" came out long before 1922...Kodachrome was introduced in 1935. There should be no reason for people old (1922) movies to have gone to dust...I would be more concerned with films prior to 1910...We are all fine with our 8mm films for another 50 years.

I suspect that the test films were shot on 35mm film stock (maybe early 16mm).
I was referring to the use of nitrate film stock for virtually all professional use.
So little home movies were filmed in 1922. Introduction of 16mm film was 1923 and R-8mm 1932. Of course, the big benefit of safety film was making the home movie craze possible. The film industry didn't abandon nitrate film until around 1951.

[super8man]

And that explains why we have lost some classic and unknown films from back in those early days of Hollywood. I was just trying to prevent anyone from being scared of "home" movies since by definition those are perfectly "safe" compared to those crazy nitrate films the studios used.

[David M. Leugers]

Yeah, I agree. The archival properties of home movies is one of its greatest assets and a bona fide reason for us amateurs to still shoot family memories on film.