Kodachrome update

[ferensen]

Interesting article:

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D93BR9G00.htm

[patrick_mont]

I wish Kodachrome could be around forever. I am going to order some more soon. I only have a few left. I have been seeing the same emulsion number for a while. I wonder when/if they will make any more.

[douglas_vitello]

Bill,thanks for the tip on this great story about Kodachrome.Well worth a read just for the history aspect of this fantastic film.When it is gone then we will understand what we have lost in this relentless rush to a all digital world.

[scott_turner]

"When it is gone then we will understand what we have lost in this relentless rush to a all digital world."

 

You've obviously read a vastly different article from the one referenced, and/or you're a late-comer to the business realities of film photography.

 

Digital didn't kill Kodachrome, though it may well help to hasten the final ending just a bit. Much improved and cheaper to produce and process C41 and E6 films, as well as cultural changes amongst the non-enthusiast/casual photographer were the keys to its rapid decline.

 

I know people here love to bash digital at every opportunity, but K'chrome was in serious decline well before the digital revolution took hold.

 

Scott

[d_f11]

It never fails to amaze me the number of those passively resigned to loosing Kodachrome. It's still got some time left. 2010 75th birthday.

[douglas_vitello]

DF,I hear you.One of the reasons this country is going down the tubes - we has no respect or sense of our own history and the great achievements accomplished by our parents generation.The way I read the story it praised Kodachrome for its many breakthroughs that are still relevant in todays world,just because it is a hassle to process doesn't make it crap.All of us do not live for candy colors.

[DB_Gallery]

Some people see opportunity, other people sit around and complain as to why it ever came their way.

 

I am shooting the daylights out of it.

[christopher_m]

Then there are some younger people, like myself, who have started shooting it.

 

It's partly Kodak's fault. Kodak started getting it's rear kicked by Fuji in the 1980s.

[joshroot]

There are any number of reasons for the long slow decline of Kodachrome.

<ul>

<li>The complication of the K-14 development process and the need for highly trained technicians.

<li>The large physical size of the K-14 machines

<li>The smaller machines and less complicated development process for E-6.

<li>The popularity of "saturated" slide films like Velvia and Astia.

<li>The overall decrease of interest in slide films through the 80's and 90's as C-41 films got better and more advanced.

</ul>

<p>However, digital is not one of the reasons.

<p>The only connection that digital photography has to the decline of Kodachrome in the same way that all film sales have decreased due to digital's popularity.