Colours will now fade
When the final slide comes up on the screen, will it have been shot with Kodachrome? The odds are good; photographers have depended on Kodak’s best colour film for nigh on seventy-five years now. After today, we’ll just have to settle for second best.
Digital cameras have changed the way we (photographers) work. The cost of an image has finally approached zero, and for the industrial giant affectionately known as Kodak, the “bottom line” has been reached. There is a last production run, which will be stockpiled by those with large freezers and larger wallets. The only remaining laboratory, in Parsons, KS, will process images for another year. However, for those who just take pictures for the fun of it, Kodachrome will no longer be an option.
My own experiences with KR64 and KM25 go back more than three decades, although I haven’t handled the enclosed mailer in years. That was the real fear; what would you do if you lost the folded yellow envelope? Worse, what if your slides were lost in transit. Every image was unique. There were no negatives to get a second copy. In fact, even getting a print was beyond the average Flash’s abilities. If you shot Kodachrome, you intended to project to your audience. I still have a slide projector around the house, even though I didn’t buy one until my needs had diminished to a minimum. Bottom line and all that.
The comments on the various blogs and forums are unanimous. Nothing else even comes close. Colour is Kodachrome. From now on, our collective palette has decreased.
