Kodachrome No More

After 74 years, Kodak is putting Kodachrome to rest. We all knew this was going to happen. Most of us are here specifically because we dont' use film anymore. Nonetheless, I had a soft spot in my heart for Kodachrome. David Doubilet once autotraphed one of his coffe table books for me with the inscription "Shoot more Kodachrome."

After 74 years, Kodak is putting Kodachrome to rest. We all knew this was going to happen. Most of us are here specifically because we dont' use film anymore. Nonetheless, I had a soft spot in my heart for Kodachrome. David Doubilet once autotraphed one of his coffe table books for me with the inscription "Shoot more Kodachrome."

Shot so many rolls of Kodachrome and Ektachrome over the years, but as you said we knew this would be coming. "those nice bright colors.... the greens of summer" are no more

When I shot with film in my Nikonos days, I always used Ektachrome. Liveaboards (at least the ones I was on) could only process Ektachrome. And there was always the huge difference in the time required to develop Ektachrome films compared to Kodachrome...

As with the original version of Velvia, I'm sure that photographers have rolls stored in their refrigerators/freezers. Now as to finding a lab that will develop their Kodachrome rolls, that's a different story!!

I still have some expired rolls of Velvia stored in my refrigerator! Not sure when I'll ever use it though

Ellen

When I was a student, Kodachrome was king! Now, if I try to remember when I last shot a roll, I can't. Velvia appeared and made huge inroads into Kodachrome sales and many photographers, myself included, were smitten and abandoned the film with slow, prepaid processing. Its a sad day though. I must have shot an awful lot of photos on Kodachrome some of which I still have and even use today.

R.I.P.

No film reproduced natural light in the ocean like Kodachrome.

There are plug-ins available for LR, PS and GIMP that emulate Kodachrome, Velvia etc ? Surely?

There are plug-ins available for LR and PS that emulate Kodachrome, Velvia etc ? Surely?

Surely ... but you'd still just have a pile of data ...

There's nothing that can replace the smell of a slide projector warming up or a box full of treasured slides containing well-loved images and memories ...

It's called nostalgia. I don't ever want to go back, but it definitely brings a bit of sadness to my heart to realize the world has outgrown Kodachrome.

In 1994 I attended a presentation by Kodak's Australian CEO. During the talk he predicted that Kodak would no longer be manufacturing Kodachrome in 10 years time. For me that was the writing on the wall, and when I got home I put my Nikon F3, motordrive, action viewfinder, housing etc up for sale. While the CEO was five years out in his estimation and it was sad to see it all go, I was relieved to get a reasonable price for some excellent equipment that would eventually become obsolete.

And then of course I went out and paid an exorbitant price for some early digital gear that's now worth nothing anyway!

There's nothing that can replace the smell of a slide projector warming up or a box full of treasured slides containing well-loved images and memories ...

Nor botched processing, scratched and torn slides, bent card mounts, jammed slides turning that sepia colour as the little bubbles form, blown bulbs...

... nostalgia!

Tim

Bummer!