Tech & Biz

Kodachrome Film to be Discontinued

by Jordan Yerman | June 22, 2009 at 06:16 am

505 views | 29 Recommendations | 7 comments

Kodachrome Film will be discontinued by parent company Eastman Kodak. Kodachrome has been around since 1935, and is the first successful color film (there's a Paul Simon song about it, too). Existing supplies of Kodachrome film are expected to last until this fall, with the very last rolls produced to be donated to George Eastman House, a photography museum in Rochester, NY.

Kodak's film revenues are shrinking, and Kodachrome was less than 1% of that revenue as the photo giant continues to diversify.

That 31% drop from a year earlier highlights the woes the company has been undergoing. The company thought that when it completed a wrenching multiyear transition to having a digital focus at the end of 2007 that its restructuring was behind it. But a continued sales slump has resulted in more retrenchment -- Kodak in January announced plans to cut another 3,500 to 4,500 jobs, as much as 18% of its work force, this year.

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Paschen

at 06:38 on June 22nd, 2009

Another era that ends. I used it a lot for many years. However I did use Agfa more and especially the slides that are no longer available either. The old black and white, was one of my favourites.

Jordan Yerman

at 07:07 on June 22nd, 2009

I'm still a huge fan of regular film, and loved to experiment with expired color film, slide film, 35mm in medium format camera bodies, anything I could get my hands on. Been shooting only digital for a while now, and feeling a bit guilty.

albertacowpoke

at 06:31 on June 22nd, 2009

The world is changing. I guess so are we:)

Joe Cascio (not verified)

at 06:59 on June 22nd, 2009

It is a sad day when such a great product outlives it's usefulness. You can do things with light and chemicals that just can't be done with bits and pixels. Analog is still strong, from an artistic point of view.

But for the billions of everyday photos taken for private or commercial use, the advantages of digital photography so far outweigh the rather esoteric advantages of film, that it has to win. People take many times more pictures than they used to because it's so easy, cheap and fun. Plus they can be shared so easily now with others online.

"Makes you think all the world's a sunny day, Oh yeah" -Paul Simon, "Kodachrome".

Spydermonkey

at 10:52 on June 22nd, 2009

I wish I could afford to keep shooting film... But digital is SO much cheaper to deal with..

optic

at 13:03 on June 22nd, 2009

I'd love to be a purist, going for the depth and detail of the Kodachrome slides, and the cool crispness of the Ektachrome (which I used even more), I stuck it out for a long time - to the point where, even recently, I preferred a slide scanner to my digital SLR. In the end though there is a major cost difference and my local lab even shut down. Digital is also so much better for the environment... but midsummer rooftop slide shows just won't be the same anymore, or at least they'll all be repeats now.

DigitalPaul (not verified)

at 12:45 on June 24th, 2009

Environmental considerations are considerable both from the manufacturering side and the processing side. Sad day indeed, but that's progress and frankly I'm surprised it hung on for so long.

You can still do the rooftop slide shows, just get a digital projector and connect your laptop! :-)

Digital will continue to get better and better. But the debate will never end about the quality of analog products versus digital, whether that's film, vinyl records or audio taped sound. An interesting problem but at least for now film is not completely dead, just one of the revered products.