In Season 01 Episode 01 of the new live collaborative video series SOOC with Fuji X Weekly and Tame Your Fujifilm, Fujifilm X Photography Nathalie Boucry and I, Ritchie Roesch, discussed the Kodachrome II film simulation recipe. If you missed it, be sure to check it out! I had a fun time, and I hope that you found it helpful, interesting, or entertaining—or all three! I appreciate all those who tuned in and participated.
The Kodachrome II recipe is intended to mimic the aesthetic of the second era of Kodachrome color reversal film. It’s actually closer to Kodachrome-X than Kodachrome-II film, but in the ballpark of both. Kodak produced those versions of Kodachrome from 1961 to 1974, when they replaced them with Kodachrome 25 and Kodachrome 64. Ernst Haas, Luigi Ghirri, and William Eggleston are three well-known photographers who used this era of Kodachrome, at least for some of their images.
One of my all-time favorite recipes that I’ve created is Kodachrome II. I made it three years ago, and used it extensively for awhile, and still use it sometimes now. It was created for Fujifilm X-Trans III cameras, although it is fully compatible with the X-T3 and X-T30 (set Color Chrome Effect to Off). Newer X-Trans IV cameras can also use it (set Color Chrome Effect and Color Chrome FX Blue to Off, and Clarity to 0), simply select Grain size Small; however, there are two new Kodachrome II options (aside from this one) for those cameras. There’s also a Kodachrome II recipe for X-Trans II cameras. You have a lot of options! The Kodachrome II recipe discussed in the video is the original one for X-Trans III.
This new video series is interactive. One way to participate in Season 01 Episode 02 of SOOC (on August 12th) is to submit a picture that you’ve captured using the Kodachrome II film simulation recipe (click here). We’ll show some of your pictures live in the next video! By submitting a photo (by the way, this isn’t a contest), you’ll have a chance to win a one-year Patron subscription for the Fuji X Weekly App. I look forward to seeing your images!
Below are some recent pictures that I made using the Kodachrome II film simulation recipe:
First of all; thank you so much for all your effort making all these beautiful recipes Ritchie! You made me switch to Fujifilm and imho you play a very important roll in the Fujifilm community. During the ‘live session’ on youtube I asked you what your fav recipe is. You said that Kodak Tri X 400 is one of your fav recipes but not created by you haha. It is also my fav bnw recipe. I will send you a beautiful photo, shot in Kodachrome II. Kind regards from Will in the Netherlands from Duuve.nl (hobby, non profit website!!)
Thanks for tuning in and participating! I look forward to seeing your picture!
Hi Ritchie, the SOOC video was great and looking forward to following SOOC program. In the blog above you indicate with Trans IV sensor to use 0 clarity yet the Trans IV Kodachrome II recipe on the app I says -2 clarity. Can you confirm which advice to follow please?
-2 Clarity is fine, too. The Clarity set to 0 advice was to replicate the exact look of the X-Trans III Kodachrome II recipe. The X-Trans IV Kodachrome II recipes are intended to (hopefully) improve the aesthetic using the additional tools that Fujifilm provides on the newer cameras. You can go either way, depending on if you want to take advantage of the new JPEG options (and get a slightly different look) or if you want to faithful recreate the “old” recipe on new models (but not take advantage of the new tools). I hope this makes sense.
Thanks Ritchie.
Hi, I’m getting a security warning for that submission link.
Same.
Synology self-signed certificate…
I guess that makes sense. It’s not an https address. Thanks for the info!
Interesting. So the only way to proceed is to explicitly trust a website in the internet that I know nothing about. Yeah. No!
Sorry Ritchie. I won’t be participating.
That’s ok. Do what you are comfortable with. There’s nothing wrong with erring on the side of caution.
I get that, too. I’m not 100% sure why. It’s not my website (it’s actually Nathalie’s), but I have uploaded there without issue. I have confidence that it’s safe despite the warning. Thanks for pointing it out!
How do you know it’s safe? Just because you know who owns it doesn’t mean it’s safe.
It’s not encrypted, so I suppose it’s possible that your picture could be hijacked while being uploaded, but that seems like an extraordinarily small risk. Maybe I’m not fully understanding the problem, but from what I understand, the reason for the warning from your browser is because the certificate isn’t encrypted (it’s not https). But I’m definitely not a cyber security expert by any means, and my knowledge is limited to what I have read after typing into Google, so maybe I am misunderstanding. Still, if there is a risk, I would think it’s insignificant; however, for sure do what you are comfortable with, and if you are worried then erring on the side of caution is probably good advice.
I’m less worried about my photos than a malicious payload someone left behind.
I’m not any sort of cyber security expert by any means. I have tried to educate myself on this particular issue (just because it came up). From what I understand, the problem (or threat) isn’t that someone could potentially download something onto your computer while you are uploading, but that, because it’s not encrypted, if someone intercepted your upload, they’d have access to it without needing an encryption key. So you wouldn’t want to submit any personal data, for example. Again, though, I’m not an expert, and if you are concerned, it’s a good idea to be cautious. I’m personally not concerned (and I did upload a picture from my computer), but that’s just me. Each person needs to judge for themselves if it’s something that they should or shouldn’t do, and, whatever that decision, it is the right one for them. Thank you for the feedback!
At least one of us is a cyber security professional.
Well, then your opinion is much more valid than mine, for sure! Just so I understand, what I thought I understood is wrong, correct?
It’s not that I don’t trust your friend, it’s that self-signed certificates are easy to hack and I don’t know if the link is compromised and if any of the files have a remote access trojan. Also, before I can access the file to download the file I would have to add the self-signed cert to the allow list on my Mac, download the file and then hopefully remember to remove the certificate.
So … the paranoid cyber-security pro in me will just pass on that.
It’s all good.
I appreciate your advice. I passed along your words, and it sounds like they’ve figured out a better, more secure approach for the future.
Hi Ritchie, what time is the Season 01 Episode 02 of SOOC (on August 12th) live show? I’m in the east coat, USA.
It’ll be the same time, which is 1 pm Eastern.
I keep meaning to write and say thank you for your various jpeg recipes which have immeasurably added to my enjoyment of my Fuji X100F. By way of a thank you, I’ve just uploaded a picture for you of a small group of people sharing a quiet moment on Jesus Green in Cambridge (UK) using the Kodachrome II recipe. Every best wish and thanks again
Awesome! I can’t wait to see it!
Hey Ritchie,
I was wondering what your thoughts are on the x100v 23mm focal length (35mm full-frame equivalent). I’ve heard some people say that it’s the most boring focal length, but I’ve also heard others say it’s their favorite because of it’s versatility. Your thoughts?
Thanks again for all the super helpful Fuji content!
I like the focal length. Sometimes I wish I could go wider or more telephoto (there are wide and tele conversion lenses available), but most of the time, the focal length works well. I don’t find it to be a boring focal length, but if someone thinks so, it should serve as a challenge to create non-boring images with it. Limitations improve art because it forces you to be creative with what you’ve got.
100% agree! Thanks!
Kodachrome II is my default recipe and I love it. I use it w|o grain applied but for the occasion I’ve uploaded a sample as per your defaults. Thanks RR!
That’s awesome! Thank you!
Hey Ritchie,
Have you ever seen the movie, “There Will Be Blood”? If you haven’t, I bet you would love the cinematography. If you are up to it, would you give a go at attempting to create a film recipe inspired by the naturalistic look of that movie? I’m guessing the base film simulation would be Eterna of course, and dynamic range set to 100. I wouldn’t know what to set the other settings to.
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts.
I haven’t seen it, but it sounds interesting. I’ll have to watch it! Thanks for the tip!
Hi Richie, love (most of) your recipes and enjoy very much your site, but this security warning popping up when trying to upload “Kodachrome pics” is really ridiculous… instead of trying to explain, couldn’t you just solve the pb and provide a clean link???
Cheers
Yeah, I do wish that. It’s not my website or link (it belongs to Nathalie and her team). But it’s definitely something that I will bring up with them. Hopefully this can be resolved going forward.