I don’t imagine Kodak had the foresight in 1935 to understand the massive appeal and impact their new film stock was going to have, but when it hit the market that year, it changed the world of photography forever. This week, Kodak announced it was halting the production of Kodachrome.
The stock was revered for it’s color accuracy and archival properties, but it was a difficult stock to develop, so it wasn’t used widely be amateur photographers. Still, if you ever got to shoot with film and had a chance to use Kodachrome stock (in one of it’s many forms) you will undoubtedly appreciate it.
Kodachrome had a good long life. It (and Nikon) were even popularized by Paul Simon in his song “Kodachrome” from his 1973 album There Goes Rhymin’ Simon. However, with the meteoric rise of digital imaging technology, it’s not surprising to see it finally retired. It’s a sad day.
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June 27th, 2009 at 12:09 am
At the railroad, on Father’s Day, we used to use Polaroid instant film to take a snap of Dads and their kids in the Engineers seat of a locomotive. We gave them the photo free, as a souvenir of their visit. But, last year we could only get 8 packs from Keeble & Schuchat, it was the last of the stock that they had. (This year, dad’s got a taste of beer or root beer instead of a photo.) Those were the days.
June 30th, 2009 at 2:48 am
Sigh…guess its not economical to produce it anymore…
July 22nd, 2009 at 2:51 pm
I’ve still got a few rolls of this, going off in a cupboard. It was good stuff and you knew your total costs were covered because you paid for processing when you bought the film. Now we are all digital, it has no place. The K41 process is massive in comparison to E6. Was it 19 baths? You had to send the film to P.O.Box 2 in Wimbledon but I think they forwarded it to France. I’ve just checked the cupboard. I have Super 8 Kodachrome 40 as well. Oh well. I should have used it earlier.
August 6th, 2009 at 5:19 am
Thanks for your info. This is very useful blog.
October 14th, 2009 at 3:42 am
RIP Kodachrome.. i’m sure that very soon we will see a corresponding photo effect available in the image editors. there are tons of polaroid effects today, so we may expect the same for the Kodachrome
December 1st, 2009 at 7:17 pm
Although I no longer use Kodachrome, it’s sad to see the product go away. I have many slides that still are hanging in there with their “…nice bright colors”.
June 11th, 2010 at 4:43 am
Nice article, thanks for sharing
July 15th, 2010 at 5:15 pm
I thought they had taken it away a few years ago. I know there was uproar about it. Maybe if there is another uproar it will be reinstated again.
July 26th, 2010 at 5:42 am
Thank you for the information you provided.
October 16th, 2010 at 2:56 pm
Its a shame that we have seen the decline of the film. I used to love spending time in the dark room working on my pictures. It doesn’t seem to be the same editing pictures whilst sat on the computer
November 2nd, 2010 at 12:57 am
Thanks for your info. This is very useful blog.
April 21st, 2011 at 10:25 am
rip…. hang in there kodak
June 9th, 2011 at 11:37 pm
It’s a very sad story from Kodak.. I know Kodak will come back for a much better product.
July 5th, 2011 at 6:54 pm
Can’t say that I’m overly surprised – even E6 is on it’s way out. Sign of the times I’m afraid.
November 8th, 2011 at 6:38 am
So sad, I prefer Ekakrome much will be much missed.