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So a few years ago we found some (120) film in my grandfather's old camera.

We sent it off to get processed. But that sent it back saying that they couldn't process it.

So my dad just unrolled the 120 film to see what was inside.

Years later I realized it may have been Kodachrome film.

I was wondering if it would have been possible to cross process* the Kodachrome roll, to at least get an idea what was on the film.

*perhaps just a b&w Dev, fix and dye coupler bleach some how?!

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  • Kodachrome 120 was not that common. I knew a lot of serious photographers who shot in the 50s, 60s, and 70s, only one of them ever used Kodachrome 120.
    – Mattman944
    Dec 17, 2019 at 13:11

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The heart of all commercial films that I'm aware of is silver-light chemistry, so it is possible to develop any film as black and white. That is what labs will do nowadays if you ask them to develop a roll of Kodachrome, since the K-14 process is no longer supported by anyone. (Dwayne's Photo processed its last roll of Kodachrome on 18-Jan-2011.)

If you know the process and have access to the right chemicals, you could develop Kodachrome in color, but part of why it's dead is how complicated K-14 is. It involves developing the film and exposing to light multiple times to develop each of the color layers.

Someone Figured Out a Process For Developing Kodachrome Film In Color, but he's not revealing the procedure or formulas required.

Because the dyes are not embedded in Kodachrome film, attempting to cross process with C-41 or E-6 would likely result in blank film because the bleaching step would wash the silver away.

See also:

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