Kodachrome fades to black

If you're old enough to remember mechanical cameras made of metal and Carousel slide projectors, mark today on your calendar. It’s the day that film died. The film, that is. After 74 years, Eastman Kodak Co., announced it will stop making its iconic Kodachrome, the world’s first commercially successful color film, because hardly anyone’s buying it anymore.

When Paul Simon immortalized Kodachrome in his 1973 hit song, he summarized in a few words what many photographers of a certain age had long believed:

Kodachome

They give us those nice bright colors

They give us the greens of summers

Makes you think all the worlds a sunny day

To discerning shutterbugs, Kodachrome represented the finest color film ever made. Pros and serious amateurs were in awe of its sharpness, incredibly realistic color rendering, and archival longevity. Digital may now be king, but traditionalists would – and will no doubt continue to – argue that there’s nothing to match the stunning visual characteristics of Kodachrome.  

If you want to see what I’m talking about, take a look at one of the most famous images of the last quarter-century, the photograph of a young Afghan refugee girl with haunting green eyes taken by Steve McCurry, which appeared on the cover of National Geographic in June 1985.  

To celebrate the film’s history, Kodak has created a gallery of seminal images, including the works of McCurry and other heralded photographers. As part of the tribute, Kodak will donate the last rolls of the film to the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film in Rochester, which houses the world’s largest collection of cameras and related artifacts. Steve McCurry will shoot one of those last rolls and his images will also be given to Eastman House. Ironically, McCurry says that he, too, has moved on and no longer shoots with Kodachrome.

Since its introduction in 1935, Kodachrome was produced in more than a dozen variations for still and movie formats, and it was considered the professional standard. Kodak has been gradually discontinuing products in the line since the 1990s. 

For all its virtues, though, Kodachrome had an Achilles’ heel. The film was complex to manufacture and even moreso to process. Kodak, in fact, sold both film and processing together as a package until the courts labeled the practice a monopoly in 1954. After the ruling, Kodachrome was sold as film and processing could be handled either by independent labs or by Kodak. Today, there remains only one photofinishing lab in the world – Dwayne’s Photo in Parsons, Kansas – that processes Kodachrome. Dwayne’s says it plans to continue processing Kodachrome through the end of December 2010. Kodak estimates that current supplies of Kodachrome will last until early this fall at the current sales pace.

In a press release, Kodak said that Kodachrome accounts for “just a fraction of one percent” of the company’s still-picture film sales these days.  "It was certainly a difficult decision to retire it, given its rich history,” said Mary Jane Hellyar, president of Kodak’s Film, Photofinishing and Entertainment Group. “However, the majority of today's photographers have voiced their preference to capture images with newer technology – both film and digital.”  Overall, Kodak derives about 70 percent of its revenues from commercial and consumer digital businesses.

Comments

[Super Saver]

It's amazing how fast times are changing. Not only is film an ancient artifact to kids growing up today, I still remember 8-track tapes, vinyl records, tape recorders and life without internet and computers without color. Just black screen with green letters.