Retrochrome Revisited

About a decade ago, I shot with a bunch of the Film Photography Project’s Retrochrome 320. At that time, the FPP was offering two types of Retrochrome as well as Wittnerchrome. All three were expired films that offered a different color palette at a time when Kodak was not even offering an Ektachrome option. The Retrochrome 160 and 320 were both expired industrial Kodak Ektachrome emulsions.  I did like the look of the Ektachrome 320 - it was a warm result with a nostalgic look.  

Over the past 50 years, I’ve shot hundreds of rolls of slide film and at one time, Kodachrome and various E-6 emulsions were pretty much the majority of what I was using. It was rare for me to shoot expired slide film, as I was doing a lot of nature/macro-photography, and I wanted my results to accurately depict my subjects.  My photography is a lot different now, and experimenting with odd emulsions is quite typical.  So, I was interested when Mike Raso announced that a new Retrochrome 400 was available from the FPP earlier this year (alas, now sold out).  I shot one roll with my Pentax 17 back in late July and early August, and the other roll was shot with my Pentax KX in Arizona during my October trip.  Both rolls were developed by Dwayne’s Photo in Parsons, KS.  I asked for the option of just receiving them sleeved and not mounted, as I have no intention of showing them via a slide projector.  It makes the scanning process a lot easier, as well. Dwayne’s did a great job with the 120 and 35mm E-6 film that I mailed to them, and the turnaround time was a week. At $8.50/roll for 35mm E-6 (unmounted and no scans), it’s a great price. 

All of the frames were scanned with my Epson V700 flatbed scanner at 3200 dpi. Edits were made in Corel Paint Shop Pro.  

Pentax 17 - I loaded this roll into my Pentax 17 while on a trip with Graham Young into Maggie Valley, NC  on July 18.  I set the ISO to 200, but should have set it to ISO 320 or 400.  Still, the results are pretty good, and the bonus is that I got twice as many shots on the roll.  The film is expired, so I expect some grain and loss of shadow detail, but I think it looks pretty darn good.    Here are a few samples from that roll.

Pentax KX - This is the camera that I purchased at Monument Camera in Tucson in mid-October.  I used it for all the color film that was shot on the rest of my trip.  The lens is the 50mm f/1.7 SMC Pentax.  I set the ISO to 320. The first few shot on the roll were taken in Lowell, Arizona - a sort of ghost town S of Bisbee.  Most of what I shot there was done with my Pentax 6x7, but these images from the KX and on the Retrochrome really do have a vintage look to them, and were perfect for the subjects.  The rest of the roll was shot at the Pima Air and Space Museum grounds where there are a LOT of vintage aircraft that you can walk up to and examine.  Again, the nostalgic look of this film was perfect was these aircraft, and it held up well under that bright Arizona sun. I probably should have set the ISO to 400 with this film, but I really dig the look.

I have one roll left of the Retrochrome 400, and I’ll keep it in my film fridge for a future subject that will be appropriate for the look that this film gives me.  There is no doubt that a good transparency film provides some amazing images.  Just being able to look at a roll of developed E-6 film is quite nice — those little brilliant scenes on the light table are something. No inversion needed to see the image as it should be.