Kodak winds last rolls of Kodachrome

First we said good-bye to Polaroid, now it's Kodachrome. What's a film sentimentalist to do? After 74 years of making the color film used by many of photography's greats, Kodak announced Monday that it's ending Kodachrome's production.

(Credit: Kodak)

Kodachrome makes up less than 1 percent of Kodak's total sales for still film, according to the company. Digital cameras are obviously the main culprit contributing to Kodachrome's demise, but photographers are also using newer kinds of color film that are easier to process. Only one photofinishing lab in the world still processes Kodachrome--Dwayne's Photo in Parsons, Kan.

Photographers like Kodachrome for its warm colors and fine grain, which are perfect for shooting portraits. The famous portrait of the Afghan refugee girl with the bright green eyes that graced the cover of National Geographic in 1985 was taken with Kodachrome film by Steve McCurry. But even McCurry has moved onto digital and other still film.

Photos: Saying goodbye to Kodachrome

Even though Kodachrome is largely known as still film, it has also been made for movie formats, including 16mm. In the past three years, Kodak has come out with several new professional still films and motion picture films.

Kodak is donating its last rolls of Kodachrome to the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film in Rochester, N.Y. One of these last rolls will be shot by McCurry, with the photos donated to the museum. Dwayne's Photo said it will continue to process any leftover Kodachrome until 2010.

[Hep Cat]

Bye bye, K-14.

[allstar919]

I'm a young photographer who grew up on digital cameras, but I still shoot film sometimes. I can't say whether Kodachrome was really a standout film, since I've never shot with it, but Steve McCurry's "Afghan Girl" portrait is probably my favorite photo of all-time. To my fellow dSLR users: we should all go out and buy a roll of Velvia 50, to see just how beautiful color and shadows can be. No RAW conversion, no HDR, no tinkering whatsoever.

[Kekus]

Looks like I need to go out and get a couple of rolls for old times sake. Like the sun rising every morning, I always appreciated Kodachrome. Kodachrome's colors really did bring scenes to life.

[cardshoot]

Tme for a song. http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/Kodachrome-lyrics-Paul-Simon/929E50784B2FAFBB4825698A000B5995

[click46]

Yes, it really was that great a film.

I can recall shooting with this film from F-16s, from sunset/silhouettes, and even now, some evenings when the warm glow wraps buildings and people in a bath of light, i still call it a kodachrome moment.

this is a shame to shut it down. It really should continue as a niche product, sub-licensed.

I need to get a brick of it just to keep on hand.

[BtmnHatesRbn]

Pro8mm.com is now your friend. I buy my Super8 and other films from them, though they are an arm and a leg compared to Kodak.

[wbcarey]

Best film ever. Kodachrome RIP.

[mediocrates--2008]

Momma, don't take my Kodachrome
Momma, don't take my Kodachrome
Momma, don't take my Kodachrome awaaaaaaay.................

[C_ham]

I've been scanning 40 years worth of my Kodachrome transparencies on a Nikon CoolscanV.
It's tricky, but I've been getting good product.
It's one way of preserving lifetime of Kodachrome images.

[iamazdavid]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHJNICziHjE

[iamazdavid]

When I think back
On all the crap I learned in high school
It's a wonder
I can think at all
And though my lack of edu---cation
Hasn't hurt me none
I can read the writing on the wall

Kodachrome
They give us those nice bright colors
They give us the greens of summers
Makes you think all the world's a sunny day, Oh yeah
I got a Nikon camera
I love to take a photograph
So mama don't take my Kodachrome away

If you took all the girls I knew
When I was single
And brought them all together for one night
I know they'd never match
my sweet imagination
everything looks WORSE in black and white

Kodachrome
They give us those nice bright colors
They give us the greens of summers
Makes you think all the world's a sunny day, Oh yeah
I got a Nikon camera
I love to take a photograph
So mama don't take my Kodachrome away

Mama don't take my Kodachrome away
Mama don't take my Kodachrome away
Mama don't take my Kodachrome away

Mama don't take my Kodachrome
Mama don't take my Kodachrome
Mama don't take my Kodachrome away

Mama don't take my Kodachrome
Leave your boy so far from home
Mama don't take my Kodachrome away
Mama don't take my Kodachrome

Mama don't take my Kodachrome away

[6cm]

When I was just few years old and living with my parents in the early 1960s in Morocco where my father was working as a commercial attaché, all our photographs with the exception of some B&W were taken on Kodachrome. Later I used it in a 120 format and my wife in a 50?s 3-D camera. There was a time not long ago, where when left in a grocery store for processing Kodak would return the slides framed in stereo cardboard mounts. Pity, that such phenomenal and archival film has met its end. RIP.

[FogleBR]

Get ready for the super astonishing prices for Kodachrome on eBay. The scalpers will start coming out in droves once the supply at stores is fully exhausted.

[MRHonig]

I used to work in photo processing, and I know that developing Kodachrome (K-14) created a very challenging process control environment.

What made Kodachrome (technically, Kodachrome II) unique among color films was that the dyes were not in the film. The dyes were in the individual chemical baths (yellow, cyan, magenta), and were chemically bonded to the emulsion during processing. Those dyes were what made Kodachome colors so deep and rich and vibrant. There has never been another film like it, before or since (except, fo course, Kodachrome I).

In 1973, I worked for Berkey Photo in NYC, and they spent almost a million dollars (in 1973 dollars!) installing a K-14 processor. Building it and setting it up were incredibly complicated.

I'll grieve the loss of Kodachrome, but I guess this was as inevitable as "real solid wood furniture" that's actually veneered solid plywood furniture. :(

[Alessandro Machi]

Kodak still makes excellent still and motion picture film products.

In the arena of low cost motion picture film, Kodak still makes super-8mm movie film in five different film stocks. Ektachrome 100D is an EXCELLENT replacement to Kodachrome 40, Even the Ektachrome 64 is pretty good.

Plus Kodak makes two VISION 3 negative film stocks for Super-8, (3 for 35mm motion picture films).
And then there is the stunningly beautiful BW Plus-X and Tri-X.

Learn more at http://www.super-8mm.com and http://www.super-8mm.net

[namenotinuse]

Kodachrome was, without a doubt, the best color film ever made.
Nonetheless, by 1989 just about every pro had stopped using it after Kodak sold its labs.
You just simply couldn't count on the processing to be done right. You'd send in four rolls shot identically and from the same emulsion batch and three would come back fine but one would be completely green or magenta.
It's too bad they've decided to stop making it, but Kodachrome truly died 20 years ago.

[timhood]

I've been waiting for a digital camera that could rival the amazing shots I could get with Kodachrome and my Minolta X-700 camera. Well, at least a digital camera that would cost about the same. It takes a lot of technology to match what Kodachrome could do decades ago. But it's my fault (and everyone else like me) for not using Kodachrome more.