Say Goodbye to Kodachrome

Steven Stone -- Mon, 06/22/2009 - 19:18

Rochester, N.Y. (AP) - Eastman Kodak Co. is retiring its most senior film, the iconic Kodachrome, because of declining demand in this digital age.

Kodachrome was introduced in 1935 and became the world's first commercially successful color film.

It had its heyday in the 1950s and '60s and Paul Simon immortalized it in song when he crooned "Mama don't take my Kodachrome away" in 1973.

But sales of the unique film are now just a fraction of 1 percent of Kodak's still-picture film sales, and only Dwayne's Photo in Parsons, Kan., still processes it.

Kodak says the decision to discontinue Kodachrome was difficult but necessary. The company says it plans to stay in the film business as long as it can and has introduced several new films in the last few years.

bobboyer -- Mon, 06/22/2009 - 19:51

Well, hell.

Cut my teeth on the stuff in the early 80s, though Kodak laying off all the Kodachrome processing employees and Fuji coming out with their ultra-vibrant Fujichromes in the late 80s meant that I switched away from it pretty early. Still - you either exposed it properly or your lack of expertise was exposed, shall we say...

Shooting transparancy film well is still the best preparation for digital photography, IMO. May have to go find some Ektachrome and blast a roll or two through the Contax just for old time's sake.

barondla -- Thu, 06/25/2009 - 23:14

This just makes me ill. Still have some K64 in the freezer. My absolute favorite was K25. So beautiful. Also love the K64 6x7 transparencies shot with the Big Pentax. Never cared for any of the Fuji slide films (especially not Velvia). The Kodak Lumierre 100 and later Ektachromes were/are good, but not the same as Kodachrome. A sad day.
thanks
barondla