Blue Dots on Kodachrome Slides And Answer From Kodak

[Stephen Toernblom]

Well here is the email exchange I had with Kodak about the blue dots on my slides. Luckily, I can take them out with Photoshop. But after this being the 3rd time it has happened, I am thinking about going to Provia instead.

Stephen

Hello,

This is Stephen Tornblom from Long Beach, CA. I am a friend of Joe Pries and we have talked before. Ok, I sent 1 batch of 16 rolls of Kodachrome 64 slides to be processed on July 18, Atleast 8 of those rolls have blue dots on them. Then 2 weeks ago I sent a batch of 20 rolls of Kodachrome 64 slides for processing and all 20 rolls have blue dots. My question is what is going on in Quality Control??? Joe Pries, Bill Hough, Mike McLaughlin and myself along with a few other Kodachrome users all have had numerous rolls come back with blue dots. I would like to know why this is happening on your end? I never use to get slides back with this stuff on it and now it seems as common as the "Kodak Scratch". What, if anything, is being done to prevent this from happening in the future? Am I going to get compensated for 28 out of 36 rolls being damaged? There is a lot of stuff that I am not going to be able to re-photograph. I love Kodachrome and would like to keep on using it, but if this is going to continue to happen, then I don't know what I will do. I would appreciate some answers to the questions above. Thank you

Stephen Tornblom

NOW THE RESPONSE FROM KODAK

Dear Mr. Tornblom:

I will tell you what I told Joe:

"I have spent a good deal of time with the processing trouble shooter regarding the anomaly present on your slides. It is basically as Mike's was. We had another example analyzed by Kodak recently and the same conclusion was reached.

"The inconsistent location of the spots in the images rules out condensation on the camera lens when the film is exposed. The pattern does not resemble moisture damage to the film related to storage or handling prior to or immediately following exposure. The spots appear to have been caused when the film was flat (as opposed to wound in the cartridge or a master roll). There are no deposits on the emulsion or base sides of the film and there are no indications of any physical damage to the emulsion or base sides of the film. Our suspicion is that there were tiny water droplets on the surface of the film when it was exposed in the customer's cameras."

We have also checked our equipment thoroughly to be sure that all is in top working order. We have found that it is. Since we cannot definitively assign fault, we cannot offer to replace the film and processing for these orders.

However, I would like to offer you some mailers. What do you think
would be fair for the affected slides?"

Mr. Tornblom, that is the same exact answer I gave Joe. I don't know
what else to tell you.

[Freightdogg]

Stephen,

How is the film transported from you to the processing lab? Some years back I was flying for an overnight carrier on a run out of a small town in West Virginia. There was a large photo processing lab in that town so on any given night there were usually 4 or 5 large bags of exposed film carried on the aircraft for the inbound leg. It was also common to carry medical isotopes aboard as they were not allowed to be transported through the highway tunnels in that state. On one occasion when the film was loaded too close to the radioactive material an effect similar to what you are seeing was found on hundreds of rolls of film after they were processed. I have to wonder if your film is passing through an X-ray type security device enroute to the lab or possibly being exposed to low level radiation of some other form before reaching the processing lab. From what I saw in the case I mentioned the film that was close to the hot source was totally blacked out, but the farther from the source it was packed the more it became simple spotting on the film. You might ask Kodak to check into that possibility, or try to investigate it yourself.

[Chris_SE]

You said the stuff was on the slides, i take it the dots are physically visible, like residue of some kind? Sounds like someone doesnt keep the tanks clean, or has been putting E6-rolls through the process or something similar... I work at a photolab and that happens when you put the wrong film in the wrong process. Although Kodachrome is a completely different process its still a possibility... Their explanation is bs, why should three different ppl that just HAPPEN to shoot kodachrome suffer the exact same problem!


Why not start shooting Ektachrome or Fuji provia/velvia... scans much better than grainy kodachrome! ;o)

[Darcy]

Uh oh.... That is not exactly what I need to hear having just sent out a bunch of slides from my trip to Montreal and Ottawa! I'll be keeping my fingers crossed that those slides don't come back with those spots!!

I first noticed those purple spots around May 2002, and at that time I think I was one of the first people to notice those spots, but it seems so inconsistant - one time I'll send out the slides and they'll come back with spots, other times they'll come back with the famous Kodak scratch, and other times they'll come back perfect!

As for that letter, it doesn't exactly seem too reassuring! I hope things can get fixed at Kodak, but I have my doubts about that....

[Stephen Toernblom]

I hope Darcy that you do not get anything back on your slides. 20 out of the 28 rolls that were ruined were all shot in Arizona and most were of vintage props, 50mm early morning. Pissed me off to no end. This is getting bad, very bad.

Stephen

[Derf]

I hope Darcy that you do not get anything back on your slides. 20 out of the 28 rolls that were ruined were all shot in Arizona and most were of vintage props, 50mm early morning. Pissed me off to no end. This is getting bad, very bad.

Stephen

That really sucks!. I would love to see a sample of the problem. Can anyone post a pic and a blow up of a problem area.

[Leftseat86]

[Derf]

WiseGuy!

[lesenterbang]

It is time to go digital.

[Serge]

[Darcy]

Just got 13 rolls of slides back from Kodak, including the slides from my trip to Montreal and Ottawa and the verdict is in: 70-75% of the slides have the purple blobs. On the bright side, the blobs seem to be kind of minimal, and I have seen Kodak do worse. However, it is still very annoying to see the slides come back with any marks like that.

On another note, while picking up those slides and dropping off other Kodachrome slides at the Kodak main office in Toronto, I found out that they used to send slides to Fairlawn until they were advised of the problem, and then they started sending the slides to a plant in Minneapolis and they never had any problems with purple blobs while processing the slides in Minneapolis. However, people were complaining about the slow return of the slides from Minneapolis, and since so many people were complaining, Kodak has started sending the slides back to Fairlawn! And of course, since they've gone back to Fairlawn, the purple blobs seem to be returning! Up to now I didn't even know that they had a Kodak plant in Minneapolis! Anyone else hear about that?