A moment of silence, please

[Palouse]

After 74 years Kodak is quitting Kodachrome production: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/6491332.html :Curved:

 

[Seneca]

Makes you wonder how long Kodak will be in business. Recently I went to a trade show where lots of vendors ... KODAK was there...but no one was interested.

Sad...I remember when Kodak was a great name.

 

[Palouse]

Maybe they'd want to buy a car company!!!!

Those of us "old" enough to know are probably most nostalgic about this. I bet "kids" today have no idea who Kodak is/was!

 

[Chris101]

Makes you wonder how long Kodak will be in business. ...

I don't think that ceasing Kodachrome production will effect their business by much. Over the last few years, Kodachrome sales accounted for less that 1% of Kodak's business.

 

[Anthony747]

I'll pick up a roll for nostalgia maybe it will be worth something it 50 years. :smile:

 

[Palouse]

In 2035 it will be K'chrome's 100th anniversary, we can all thaw out a roll of ASA 25 or 64 and shoot the event!
Cheers.

 

[Lurker]

In 2035 it will be K'chrome's 100th anniversary, we can all thaw out a roll of ASA 25 or 64 and shoot the event!
Cheers.

Too bad you can't develop it by then though :smile: That's the biggest issue with Kodachrome - the complete lack of labs that can handle it. I thought the last one in Europe (in Switzerland) closed a couple of years ago and there's now only one lab left.

 

[Palouse]

Too bad you can't develop it by then though :smile: That's the biggest issue with Kodachrome - the complete lack of labs that can handle it. I thought the last one in Europe (in Switzerland) closed a couple of years ago and there's now only one lab left.

:biggrin::biggrin::biggrin::biggrin: LOL

 

[little big man]

Did anyone take Steve McCurry's shoelaces and belt away from him?

Kodak is still making some great films, as is Fuji, so, que sera sera.

Sean

 

[TommyO]

Quite sad and a sign of the times. I cannot remember the last roll of Kodachrome I shot and could not imagine the cost of doing so now "just for old times sake". As long as Fuji still makes Velvia I will be happy shooting film as well as digital.

 

[BruceF]

Did anyone take Steve McCurry's shoelaces and belt away from him?

Kodak is still making some great films, as is Fuji, so, que sera sera.

Sean

There is an interview with Steve McCurry on Kodak's blog about the end of Kodachrome
http://homepage.1000words.kodak.com/default.asp?item=2388083

 

[BruceF]

Kodak's Discontinuation Notice

 

[freel4ncer]

That's too bad...I've never actually shot with Kodachrome before.

 

[vinman]

Makes me wonder how much longer Velvia will be around. That's pretty much all I shot with back in the day. I guess when Velvia goes I'll have no valid reason to keep the F100! In fact...

 

[little big man]

Makes me wonder how much longer Velvia will be around. That's pretty much all I shot with back in the day. I guess when Velvia goes I'll have no valid reason to keep the F100! In fact...

Velvia 50 just came back - it had been out of production for a number of years since they couldn't obtain the raw materials needed to manufacture the emulsion. I'm guessing it will stay put for awhile.

 

[Lurker]

Makes me wonder how much longer Velvia will be around. That's pretty much all I shot with back in the day. I guess when Velvia goes I'll have no valid reason to keep the F100! In fact...

Kodachrome required a very special process that only one lab (worldwide) is still doing. From what I understand from reading the article, even in its best days only a handful of labs supported the Kodachrome process.

Sending your film halfway around the world to have it developed means that it has to have some pretty big advantages over the competition that doesn't require it. Kodachrome didn't have those advantages, at least not according to "the market".

"Regular" slide doesn't have that yet - although getting slide developed is not as easy anymore as it used to be - and negative film can still be developed everywhere. As long as the labs are there, film will be for sale.

 

[Phyer Phyter]

Holy flash back batman....When I was in high school I worked part time for Kingsize Photo picking up all the film to be processed from all the drugstores, Woodwards dept stores, Eatons, The Bay north of the river in Edmonton. After I got in with the bags of film to be processed I had to sort by process, B&W, C41 (color negatives), E4, E6, K12, (color positives) and more. After that I would then run the paper processors. 4X6 print paper came on huge rolls about a foot in diameter. The machine was a continous feed processor that the paper would run up and down on rollers through various chemicals and then through a drier on to another spool and then matched up with the customer envelopes and negatives with twin checks (sticker with matching numbers to pair up prints with customer envelops) While the machine is taking the paper through I had to splice the next roll on the the tail of the last roll and you had to time it right or you had to re-thread the whole machine. There were 4 of these machines running constantly and sometimes the 2-3 machines would come up with in a minute of each other to be spliced. All this in a dark room and you had to do it fast enough that your eyes didnt have time to adjust to the dark.

The advent of one hour photo ultimatly killed that business.

Thanks for the memories.

 

[greyflash]

I have a ton of slides that say Kodachrome on them. This was certainly my film of choice for many years. Once I converted to digital, I never looked back.

 

[Uncle Frank]

I bet "kids" today have no idea who Kodak is/was!

They all know the name. The American Idol finals are held in the Kodak Theater.

 

[Chris101]

Velvia 50 just came back - it had been out of production for a number of years since they couldn't obtain the raw materials needed to manufacture the emulsion. I'm guessing it will stay put for awhile.

My favorite film manufacturer these days is the Croatian company Fotokemica. They make Aura and other Efke films. Buy them from freestyle.