A Tribute to KODACHROME: A Photography Icon
It was a difficult decision, given its rich history. At the end of the day, photographers have told us and showed us they've moved on to newer other Kodak films and/or digital. KODACHROME Film currently represents a fraction of one percent of our film sales. We at Kodak want to celebrate with you the rich history of this storied film. Feel free to share with us your fondest memories of Kodachrome.

© Steve McCurry
Sharbat Gula, Afghan Girl, at Nasir Bagh refugee camp near Peshawar, Pakistan, 1984.
I've had the profound privilege of working with the world's greatest photographers in my role here at Kodak. I serve as the company's liaison with the pro community, and I've gotten to know the best of the best. Each one has their Kodachrome story.
I thought I'd share with you some reflections on Kodachrome from a small sampling of these great artists - Steve McCurry, Eric Meola, and Peter Guttman.
Listen to what Steve and Peter have to say as they reflect back:
"Before digital, Kodak was already shifting gears--moving away from the boundaries of KODACHROME (long lab times, fewer labs, a more environmentally friendly, as well as constrained, chemistry)" said Meola. "E100SW and E100VS were a natural evolution of the KODACHROME look, and made my life a lot easier. And they kept all the great things about KODACHROME --long latitude, fine grain, great color--and made it easier for me to get processed anywhere. In some ways, those films were natural predecessors to the digital age."
Steve McCurry, whose picture of a young Afghan girl captured the hearts of millions of people around the world as she peered hauntingly from the cover of National Geographic Magazine in 1985, offered these words:
"The early part of my career was dominated by KODACHROME, and I reached for that film to shoot some of my most memorable images," said McCurry. "While KODACHROME Film was very good to me, I have since moved on to other films and digital to create my images. In fact, when I returned to shoot the 'Afghan Girl' 17 years later, I used Kodak's E100VS film to create that image, rather than KODACHROME Film as with the original."

© Peter Guttman
From Peter Guttman: "Kodachrome was for me the visual crib in which my photographic dreams and visions were nurtured. The rich hues, and startlingly lifelike textures imbued within this elegantly crafted film provided a vivid training ground for sharpening my vision of the world. The initial draw to Kodachrome was its unrivalled archival durability, but I shortly realized the magnificent renderings of reality that the film was capable of. I credit Kodachrome as my most reliable tutor, educating my eyeball with an awareness of the delicacy of light and the subtleties of color.
With the strict discipline of a Kodachrome vision firmly under my belt, I felt free to playfully experiment with other films. I have in recent years become enamored with Ektachrome 100VS which has now become my film of choice for its dazzling hues, deeply saturated color and intense sharpness--all optical tools that serve me well in portraying our planet's stunning diversity."
View our slideshow of great KODACHROME moments.

© Eric Meola
"There are in life a few constants, but far too few. The sun rises in the morning and sets at night, and Kodachrome was what was always there to help us record those sunrises and sunsets and to brilliantly capture that ephemeral distance between light and shadow.
We would win awards with it, and the images that the light burned into its emulsion were a paean to this film, as much as the film was part of the soul of the photographers who used it and the unparalleled images they made with it.
We waited up nights to open those golden boxes--like young children surprised with glee and knowing we could drift asleep again and that all was right with the world, and that there was still Kodachrome, and almost nothing else mattered." - Eric Meola
Read more about what others thinking...
Josh Root of photo.net
Stephen Schaub of Figital Revolution
Daniel Bayer of The Kodachrome Project
- Audrey Jonckheer, Kodak Worldwide Pro Photographer Relations
Comments
Posted By: Kodak Homepage (8/27/2009)
Comment: Thank you to everyone that left a comment sharing your thoughts and feedback. Due to repeat spam comments left on this post - we will be closing the comments here.
Posted By: Mathis Heraud (8/26/2009)
Comment: I lost kodachrome as my best friend. Only fascinated photographers use it! Oh God, don't let them take my Kodachrome away! Do you sell the patent? I buy it! However, who will be the winner betwen E100VS and PROVIA 100F? My heart will see...
Posted By: mac (8/4/2009)
Comment: Kodachrome II was the best color film ever; Tech Pan (@ ISO 16/Technidol Developer) was the best achromatic film for 35mm ever and together with Elite Fine Art paper a marveleous product; all else was, and is, pretense. Kodak's failure to market these products adequately brought about their inevitable end, not consumer disinterest. Pity.
Posted By: Kenny Harrelson (8/1/2009)
Comment: Like a couple other commenters, I stopped using Kodachrome 25 simply because I couldn't buy it anymore. I live in a small town of 1100 people and nobody here sells "specialty" films anymore. Back in the 1970's, I could buy Kodachrome at three or four stores right here in my little community! It seems like the market died out for Kodachrome because Kodak stopped marketing it. I would go out and buy 10 rolls tomorrow, if I only could. And ten rolls next week and so on. I haven't been able to find any, not without driving 3 hours or more, in years! THAT'S why it's recent market share of less than 1 percent was what it was. And it seems such a shame to kill off a product just because you wouldn't sell it to those who used it. Bye bye Kodachrome. It's funny, somebody said all things in life die, but you can still buy a loaf of bread everywhere. Bread's been around for thousands of years. Kodachrome could have a lasted a few more if only it was still marketed like it used to be.
Posted By: Andrew Ponsford (7/29/2009)
Comment: My Mother started using Kodachrome in 1956 and thanks to her our family has several thousand images of our childhood still looking as fresh and colourful as the day they were taken. I used Kodachrome for many years as well and, though I also use some Fuji, it still has the edge in subtle colours. I have managed to bag a number of films and will spend the rest of Kodachromes life using it to the full. What a film. Thanks for the memories.
Posted By: Marco the Magnificent (7/24/2009)
Comment: God bless Kodak for giving us Kodachrome lo these many decades. For those lamenting its passage, it was inevitable given the minuscule market share; business is business, Kodak had no choice. Kodak has a paramount responsibility to its stockholders. Be happy they continued K64 as long as they did. It's the end of an era, but be grateful, don't piss and moan. Buy a brick of K64, send it to Dwayne's and enjoy the end of an icon!
Posted By: John Dersham (7/21/2009)
Comment: I was a manager at Kodak for nearly 30 years. In those years Kodachrome went from being King through a long process of slow demise, as fewer labs processed it and processing times got longer. In 1993 I was host to a group of Kodak photo contest winners. We shot at Lake Powell and Monument Valley. Each contest winner was provided 52 rolls of 36 exposure Kodachrome or Ektachrome and free processing. This was the last effort to revive Kodachrome. At this time Kodak had a K-Lab which was a mini lab for Kodachrome. Kodak talked about putting one of these in a lot of Qualex labs in hopes Kodachrome could recapture some market share via faster processing times. Unfortunately due to budget constraints this never happened and the last major effort to restore sales died away. I was using Kodachrome 40 years ago even before my career at Kodak. It was that film that made me love Kodak and want to work for them. Kodachrome is a love story ending but the images are archival and will be a permanent peice of our pictorial history and culture of our world. I still shoot Kodachrome and will shoot it until Dwayne's Photo (the last processor) discontinues Kodachrome processing 12-31-2010.
Posted By: James Wittwer (7/19/2009)
Comment: I suppose the end of KODACHROME is just another step in the evolution of photography, and it will be missed. Like many photographers, I too was skeptical of digital at first, I LOVE FILM, I still do, but I also have come to embrace the digital world. Though I primarily shoot digitally these days, I still love and enjoy getting my hands wet in the darkroom. From the camera to the canister, onto my enlarger, then the dodging and burning, I will never forget my first time developing film and making a print, it was magical. Though most of my clients prefer digital, the film I shoot is for me. While we may lose films like KODACHROME and POLAROID-my belief, my hope is film is not dead. And so for many photographers, the end of KODACHROME is like losing a friend. But in the end, I suppose what matters more than the equipment, process or media used to capture an image, is the image itself.
Posted By: Duffy'sPhotos (7/16/2009)
Comment: Kodachrome is King, The King is Dead, Long Live Kodachrome. My Dad owned the camera store in my hometown in New Mexico. He got some of the earliest Kodachrome 35mm film and had a number of his photos printed on Kodachrome Print by Kodak (Yes there once was Kodachrome print Paper, only Kodak could make the prints). Here are three of my favorites from his work: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2150/2284986296_66868e614b_m.jpg, http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2148/2179276384_f7bfffa5c9_m.jpg, and http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2295/1795203871_dd382445e9_m.jpg. The first two are my mom, taken around 1940, and my grandfather and me, xmas 1946. I duped these using a Canon 5D on a Bowens Illumitrans transparency duplicator. Quite a span from the old technology to the new, which allows me to share them with you. Amazing how Kodachrome holds its color and resolution.
Posted By: Macua (7/13/2009)
Comment: Kodachrome ( Paul Simon ) 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 education Hasn't hurt me none I can read the writing on the wall Kodachrome You give us those nice bright colors You 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 Kodak, 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 And everything looks worse in black and white Kodachrome You give us those nice bright colors You 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 Kodak, don't take my Kodachrome away Kodak, don't take my Kodachrome away Kodak, don't take my Kodachrome away Kodak, don't take my Kodachrome away Kodak, don't take my Kodachrome Kodak, don't take my Kodachrome Kodak, don't take my Kodachrome (away) Kodak, don't take my Kodachrome Kodak, don't take my Kodachrome Kodak, don't take my Kodachrome (away) Kodak, don't take my Kodachrome (Leave your boy so far from home) Kodak, don't take my Kodachrome (away)
Posted By: Peter Medgyesy (7/10/2009)
Comment: Kodachrome 25 has been purchased frequently on e-Bay since its discontinuation in 2001, sometimes for more than 30$ per roll. It would seem sensible for Kodak to produce Kodachrome 25 and 64 once a year (or even once in every third year), in a limited amount, at an elevated price, on a subcription/prebooking basis. It would be a small but secure business. And I would like to highlight that we speak not only about colour-film ethusiasts. Scientists, museologists, ethnographers have no other accurate, consistent, reliable AND lasting material (from painting to digital) for colour picture recording.
Posted By: Robert Young (7/7/2009)
Comment: I have since gone back to databases, as my url makes plain, but in the 80's I had visions of succeeding Haas on the world stage. He had nice things to say about my pictures in Rockport (you know what that means if you knew him), but it was not to be. The workshop lab could only do E6, and he would not bother, since his stock business required K25/64. I shot K25 until he died, at which point I gave up my quest. There was nothing better than K25, and no one better than Ernst Haas. He was always gracious, but not flattering; what he said to the other participants was markedly different from what he said about my presentation. That's why it meant something. K64 outlived Haas, but removing it is a sin.
Posted By: jorge (7/6/2009)
Comment: Durante mucho tiempo sólo necesitaba mis Contax y K64-8 (tirado a iso 80). Aún uso las Contax con TMax 400 y la gente me ve como un bicho raro que no es fotógrafo " de verdad" ya que no lleva una superelexdigital; dejan de prestarme atención y me vuelvo invisible, el sueño de mi vida!!. Gracias kodachrome.
Posted By: chris tisinger (7/5/2009)
Comment: I suspected this film was going away a couple of years ago and managed to get a roll from my local camera store on special order. I took a trip to Maine and shot a roll while hiking. The scans are tack sharp, but suspected the film suffered some heat damage during transit either before or after exposure. The colors where very cool, almost too cyan and blue for Kodachrome. I was able to correct the images in photoshop back to the original color temperature. I enjoyed seeing these images from the Kodachrome perspective. I believe the Ektar 100 is just as sharp and accurate as Kodachrome 64. Thanks Kodak for the memories.
Posted By: Wayne Lawler (7/5/2009)
Comment: I suspect photographers in Australia will be a little bemused by this misty-eyedness over Kodachrome because Kodak itself killed the film off in Australia, and we have had to learn to work without it. The film is sharp and durable and it's colour palette is quite lovely (though not accurate), but it was plagued by processing difficulties. Even in it's heyday in the 70's and early 80's, everyone in Australia and its region had to mail their films to one lab in Melbourne, and wait patiently for their return by post, a system I always found weird. As local pro labs using E-x chemistry established, and did a good job because of healthy competition, Kodachrome started to seem a clumsy, slow alternative. But worse was to come. Kodak Australia split the processing between outsourced "pro"and in-house "amateur", and the quality control in Melbourne plummeted. Nothing turns a photographer off a film like getting it back with processing blotches all over it. Parent Kodak did try to make the technology more relevant with K200 and K120, but to be brutal, K200 was an interesting novelty film, and K120 never gained a place in commercial photography here - no density - no ooh! on the editor's or art director's light table. The third party Kodachrome pro labs chucked in the towel and at one stage we had to send films to New Zealand! I have nothing against kiwis - their sheep are cute, but really! And finally they had to be sent to the US. To send your films to the other side of the world and back just for processing was ridiculous. When Velvia came along I think Australian photographers were already seeking alternatives. Kodachrome's nice film, pity about the processing. Two further thoughts: I can remember the same end-of-the-world sentiments when Kodachrome II and Kodachrome X were replaced by 25 and 64. Horrible, silver-deprived substitutes that would destroy our photographic vision. But photography has prospered. And more recently, Kodak also cut it's own throat instead of developing its product in the digital arena. The Kodak Professional digital cameras were leading the pack in high-end capture, only to have the rug pulled out from under them, too. They are all but forgotten now. Like compulsive behaviour, Kodak repeatedly pioneers our wonderful photographic tools, then abandons them to competitors and forces us to move away from it, but life and photography goes on, and so does ol' Kodak, somehow.
Posted By: dudeski (7/3/2009)
Comment: It seems to me that Kodak are missing the point entirely. A thing of beauty thrown on the scrap heap for convenience. It doesn't matter what other type of film they produce, Kodachrome has (had) a very unique special look and atmosphere. E100G is very nice - but looking at a Kodachrome slide through a loupe I got goose pimples all over. That feeling has never happened with any other kind of film I've used. Surely, it could be kept as a niche for all these people who use it instead of discarding something so beautiful.
Posted By: James Arnott (7/2/2009)
Comment: Sad day. Although I've never personally used Kodachrome, My father and Grandfather shot most of their slides with it. I've been scanning them over the last few months. Of the film they used Kodachrome survived the best.
Posted By: Ann Overman (7/2/2009)
Comment: My heart just sank at the news. My husband and I have used the Kodak film for years. We have taking albums full of pictures of our daughters all through their growing up. I can't even begin to think of one most favorite picture, many are in frames hung in our home. My husband also paints from the pictures he takes. We don't even own a digital. Sad day, very sad day, when there is no more film. A. Overman Wyalusing, PA
Response: Ann - We still are very much in the film business! Kodachrome has had a good run but we still make many other formats of films for you, your husband, and everyone else!
Posted By: Jo Carey (7/1/2009)
Comment: The end of Kodachrome announcement brought back many memories for me. My Dad is Joe Carey. He worked for Kodak for 43 years (1939 - 1982) and to the top of Rochester's Kodak Film Testing Division. He helped develop Eketachrome film. Many times he took photos of his daughters (all 6 of us) using both films...we were his lab rats! He would ask us to judge which film was best by showing us slide after slide. He taught us about light, depth of field, framing, etc. etc. He was passionate about his work and the people with whom he worked. He watched all the changes throughout the years of Kodak and died 3 years ago at age 94. I think of him as a strong part of Kodak's history. I will always be the daughter of a Kodak man! Jo Carey, El Prado, New Mexico
Posted By: Dennis Hunt (7/1/2009)
Comment: I've just finished reading every comment that's been posted so far and I'm sick of being blamed for not buying Kodachrome. It hasn't been available, except in specialty photography outlets, for years! We used to be able to buy it anywhere! Those of us who live in small towns have to take whatever Rite-Aid or CVS offers. Often, we have to drive from one store to another just to find any slide film at all. Even most shops in tourist destinations only sell print film nowadays! Thank goodness I have the Kodachrome-25 slides I took with my first camera, the Argus C-3 ... and the tons of Kodachrome stereo slides I took with my Kodak Stereo Camera as I traveled all over the U.S.A, Canada, and Europe in the 1960s, '70s, '80s, and '90s! I've already missed Kodachrome for a long time. Welcome to my sadness.
Posted By: Dominic (6/30/2009)
Comment: the pics are so beautiful. Is it possible to get a copy of the slideshow?
Posted By: Giorgio Carpi (6/30/2009)
Comment: Yet another one big mistake from Kodak. Or, better to say, the latest consequence of past mistakes. In the past, Kodak was in an almost monopolistic position with Kodachrome, as it was the only one 'general purpose' film available able to provide fine grain, accurate colours and a life like brilliance. For some unknown reason, instead of developing the product and make it even better, Kodak was strangely involved in searching for new kinds of films, always with disappointing results. Years passed and new dangerous competitors showed up. A Japanese film maker put a new slide film on the market, which extreme sharpness and saturation, together with its ability to be developed in standard E-6 baths, made people forget about its weird colour rendition. It was a huge success, and started to upset the KOdachrome dominance. One would have expected Kodak to fight back with its best slide film, making it even better and trying to solve its typical problems (few labs, long process times, environmental impact), but no, Kodak preferred to invest in yet another bunch of terrible Ektachromes. Of course the result was Fuji to eat up large market shares that once belonged to Kodachrome. Kodak continued to fight against its own once winning product. Finding Kodachrome was harder and harder, and personally I even experienced for the first time film damage from the Swiss lab. More years passed, then the digital revolution came and things got harder and harder for film makers. In the end, for some reason, Kodak was able to offer some new Ektachromes with really interesting qualities: extremely fine grain, and colours that are both hypersaturated and accurate. Pity too late. People now have developed a taste for the 'Velvia colours', plus the film market is getting smaller and smaller... no room for two winners, now it's either digital or Velvia. In the meantime Kodachrome problems got even harder, with environmental harshnes that is now even less tolerable than ever, and one only lab left to develop the best slide fimlm ever produced. At today's conditions in my opinion it is obvious to stop making the Kodachrome. In my view, it would have been even more obvious in the past year to concentrate investments on solving Kodachrome's problems, instead of fighting competitors at their own game and on their own terrain. What to say now. During the Kodachrome era, I hoped all the best for Kodak as it was the supplier of my favourite film. Now, I don't give a damn for Kodak's digital business, and the Kodak films I use are still my preferred (E10G, Ektar100 and T-Max), but if I will not be able to find them again it will be no problem, as competing products are not that different after all. Unlike Kodachrome.
Posted By: Audrey Jonckheer (6/29/2009)
Comment: We at Kodak greatly appreciate the kind words that have been said about Kodachrome and the passion so many of you have for the film. We feel the same way. Kodachrome was an awesome film for us, as well as photographers, and this wasn't an easy decision for us to make, but we made it based on what photographers showed us with their choices. The majority of photographers have not been using or buying Kodachrome for some time now. While we understand this will be a difficult transition for the group that still does, we simply could not continue producing Kodachrome for so few customers. Cutting to the chase: photographers essentially made the decision for us since virtually no one has been using or buying it. We're dedicated to helping photographers capture the images they want, and we're committed to film to do that - we introduced seven new emulsions in the last three years. As a company in a competitive industry, we have to listen to what the market tells us. As long as you continue to buy our many films, we'll continue to make them. As photographers move on to new films and new technologies, we need to move on with them, and Kodachrome is a classic case where most photographers had clearly moved on. Kodachrome today is only a fraction of 1 percent of still film sales. Thanks to the nature of the film itself, we'll always have the images; 74 years worth. Once again, we appreciate your comments and sentiments and are happy you came to Kodak.com to provide them. Last week we saw record breaking traffic on our blog with tens of thousands of visitors from 135 different countries, so Kodachrome clearly means a lot to people. It means a lot to us too. It's been an incredible, unprecedented run.
Posted By: Jonathan B Adams (6/29/2009)
Comment: @ Hugh Nightingale: Daniel Bayer of the Kodachrome Project is proposing a compilation of Kodachrome images as you have suggested in commemoration of 75 years of Kodachrome in 2010.
Posted By: Jim Slater (6/28/2009)
Comment: This is a very sad day indeed. No matter what Kodak's top brass says about their other products ...... there is NOTHING that compares to what Kodachrome can do or even did.... NOTHING! To throw in the towel on such a great product, I feel is a big mistake. Even though I also use Digital, I still love shooting Kodachrome even though Kodak has made it harder to get it processed with fewer labs. Kodachrome is still my premire film I use for my Railroad Photography, I will miss it very much and probably won't buy another Kodak product once it's gone for making such a dumb move. Jim Slater Lapeer,MI
Posted By: Hugh Nightingale (6/28/2009)
Comment: Nothing lasts forever, sadly. However, it was magical viewing one or two of the very earliest K slides taken before the war on the National Geographic website. Let's also pay special tribute to the wonderful railway images captured on K which neatly encapsulated the end of steam, modernisation and restructuring, thru the diesel era and the heyday of the preservation (rather than heritage) era to the beginnings of sterilised high speed rapid transit. Though too young to have used K25, K64 was just about the only 135 film I'd use for years. Two additional factors contributed to the demise of K. Firstly, it was a discouragement when processing ceased in the UK then Europe, and secondly K200, in a sense demanded by the limitations of modern zoom lenses compared to an array of fixed lenses, just didn't touch K64 in terms of quality, often resulting in a distinct magenta cast. So when modern 400ASA films came along, and reasonable quality digital cameras became affordable for family snaps and publication on the web, the switch was easy. The problem with the grand-daddy of slide film is that it could not adopt and find new niche markets in the modern era, and I cite for comparison the two mechanical loves of my life, the Brighton Terrier and the Supermarine Spitfire. Hopefully it will "ghost" the digital age with cameras sporting "Kodachrome" effects for many years to come. Finally, let's mark the passing of this fantastic film with a "K64 week" in 2010 then the best images from all around the world can be compiled into an album to celebrate the passing of this once great master.
Posted By: Jessy Price (6/28/2009)
Comment: I have permanently felt a loss since discovering kodachrome, because i never had a chance to try the 120...and I was far far from even being born when 4x5 was around. Kodachrome has become almost a religious experience for me, and if given the choice to shoot with kodachrome or a leaf aptus I would gladly have the kodachrome. now that the 35mm is going away, I honestly feel as though part of my photographic personality is going with it. I feel as though i'd be able to put this to rest if they'd just do short runs of the 120 and 4x5. Even just one box of each per request. If carefully shot it would provide me with the canvas that i needed to record what's most important in a way that i know would last as close to forever as i can get.
Posted By: James McGinty (6/27/2009)
Comment: As a Kodachrome user that started using this film in 1987,i feel a loss in realizing that i will no longer be able to shoot Kodachrome.Unlike many others,i never abandoned 35mm for the convienence of Digital Photography.I honestly think that Kodak is making a big mistake by discontinuing this film!What says "Kodak" more than "Koda-Chrome"? Just my thoughts and i will be shooting this film to the bitter end...
Posted By: Mike Paz (6/27/2009)
Comment: Why do I have the feeling that Kodak next year will bring back Kodachrome in ISO 400, grain, and E-6 processing. Marketed as "Newchrome." Goodbye old friend. You were reliable.
Posted By: Audrey (6/27/2009)
Comment: I have just completed a months long project of scanning over 2000 kodachrome slides that my father started taking on his honeymoon in 1946 and on through the early 1970's. He says that the camera was expensive, and it took some time to save for it, but that when it came to the film he knew he would only use Kodachrome, you see his father was a professional photographer and he knew the difference! Thank you Kodak! Without the beauty and durability of Kodachrome these family memories would have been lost. I have downloaded and sent them all over the country to family members and I created a digital picture frame filled with over 300 photos for my 84 year old father. He is constantly amazed at the integrity - he says the colors and clarity are phenomenal, he turns the frame on every morning and as he walks past it during the day he really feels he is watching his life - it brings him happiness, and for me, that is all that matters. Sincerely, Audrey Jones Phoenix AZ
Posted By: Ansel Teng (6/26/2009)
Comment: I, too, miss the brilliant color and sharp contrast that only Kodachrome can deliver, but I know this is inevitable. On behalf of all the Kodachrome fans, I have a win-win-win proposal for Kodak: work with a leading DSLR company to create a "Kodachrome mode" for their image processors that delivers the same color response curve and sharpness as Kodachrome. It will be a win for Kodak (licensing revenue), a win for the DSLR vendor (a large Kodachrome fan customer base), and a win for all the Kodachrome fans (an easy way to recreate the KC effect we love so dearly)
Posted By: Hillary Hess (6/26/2009)
Comment: To M.G. Matus; a Google images search for "Afghan Girl" will help you. And Lad, I agree wholeheartedly, Kodachrome stereo slides (I collect too) make me feel as though I'm looking back through time. Thank God (and Man ;)) that this iconic and stable film was invented to become the choice for such images. There are still a half dozen rolls in the fridge waiting to be loaded into the Stereo Realist, a legendary combination. Nothing else is quite the same.
Posted By: redmoose (6/26/2009)
Comment: the afghan girl was a national geographic picture some 15ish years ago they tracked her down last year. she ended up looking like something out of monty python. oooo i'm terrible
Posted By: T (6/26/2009)
Comment: It is with sorrow that this magnificent film is now gone. IMHO Kodachrome 64 + a pocket camera with a good lens (minox/zeiss for example) still outperforms any digital camera, be it even a Leica digital. Pound for pound there is nothing like analog information. It will always be _more_ than the digital sampled and shaved off and _selected_ information, no matter what. It is the same in the CD vs LP audio debate.
Posted By: M G Matus (6/26/2009)
Comment: I would like to know what it is now of the Afghan girl. Where is she now? What does she do? Have more photos been taken of her since? I so, I would love to see them! Is there a page where one can find more photos of her? If anyone knows, please let me now. Thank you.
Posted By: Arielle Tchotnick (6/26/2009)
Comment: Wow, that Afghan girl is so beautiful. Her eyes are the most miraculous color I have ever seen. Amazing.
Posted By: Monastiriotis Lef (6/26/2009)
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Posted By: tasos (6/26/2009)
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Posted By: Mick Weisberg (6/26/2009)
Comment: To most professional photographers before the digital age, there were really only two kinds of film: Kodachrome and everything else.
Posted By: Lad (6/26/2009)
Comment: Kodachrome was also the foundation of a true MAGICAL photography - 3D Stereographic Slides. While Afgachrome faded into magenta mist, the K25/k64 stereo images I've collected are still amazingly intense. They're as close to true time machines you'll ever experience. You can almost smell the 50 year old table scraps, cigarette smoke and Xmas pines in them. Space Age or Digital Age - nothing then, and nothing now, surpasses the intensity of those 50 year old slides. Nothing.
Posted By: Gustavo Scherman (6/25/2009)
Comment: Big mistake Car companies,whatch companies, fashion,wines, all venerable brands do produce flagship products to show the general public they can do outclass their competitors. Kodachrome is THE statement for the absolute best available in image capture. I cannot believe that Kodak's brass is incurring in such error as not seeing the value of being able to deliver what Kodachrome does. I cannot think of any other brand , perhaps Leica, Hasselblad or Linhof with prestige that could approach Kodachrome's. Tell the bean counters at Kodak to buzz off, and if the issue is monetary, charge 10 or 20 times more. Professionals and enthusiasts will go for it, even if shooting less liberally , but will do so knowing they are innteracting with their mature , loyal best friend. Perhaps we should make a group of followers, all chip in and purchase the equipment and rename it magichrome. Another alternative would be to buy collectively a block of shares at Kodak and make our voice be heard, however I wouldn't reccomend buying shares of a company that has a management with such a narrow perspective and disrespect for the scientists and heroes that made Kodak's brand such a industry legend It is the same as discontinuing Coca Cola Unconceivable mistake and not in the best interest of Kodak's shareholders.
Posted By: Matt White (6/25/2009)
Comment: Yup, it is a sad day. All those amazing images, and long-lived colour. I just exhibited some Kodachrome images taken by my late father in law during the Italian campaign in 1944-1945, in which he was a pilot for the US Army. Those pictures look like they were taken yesterday. From my point of view, I have been in photography long enough to see my own Ektachrome images of 20 years ago, already beginning to fade, while the Kodachrome remains pure. Why wont Kodak listen to someone other than their bean-counters, when it comes to discontinuing an iconic film like Kodachrome. There are some things a company should do for its customers, and not just to please their shareholders and accountants. But sadly Kodak didn't. Kodak didn't when it discontinued HIE Infrared film last year, and it didn't listen now when the whole world is sad for this lovely film. Reconsider Kodak, don't give us "less than 1% of sales", but rather, give us your commitment to image making on the classic scale, by keeping `Kodachrome on the shelves.
Posted By: Steve Doman (6/25/2009)
Comment: Sad to see the demise of Kodachrome, I took my best picture of the Fullmoon using it, from a 1/2 metre telescope in portugal. Enjoyed my time working for Kodak 30+ years (uk). Steve
Posted By: devendra shrikhande (6/25/2009)
Comment: It is truly unfortunate that time and technology have taken their toll. While completing a post about Kodachrome on my blog, it did occur to me that it would be really great if Kodak setup on online competition for users to send in their best Kodachrome images. I think it could become a wonderful online community event to celebrate the wonderful service provided by Kodachrome through the years to help share the wonder and beauty of the world and moments in time.
Posted By: cartier (6/25/2009)
Comment: Yes, the times are changing. Like most, I shoot mostly digital. However, film does look different, esp. Kodachrome. I set my camera to imitate it since digital acts more like transparency than neg. in the way it records information (detail). Two short stories, however: In the '80's I worked in a camera store. A customer brought in a roll of Kodachrome they had found in a drawer somewhere. It was so old that it didn't indicate if it was 25 or 64 (presumably 25). We estimated that it was probably at least 15 years old. We sent it in for processing to Kodak, and guess what? In the '80's I was bequeathed a large box of travel slides from a relative. They were taken in the late '40's and '50's. The anscochromes were totally pink; the kodachromes looked like they were shot yesterday. I hope all my digital images are as accessible to future generations as those kodachromes.
Posted By: Andrey Vorobyov (6/25/2009)
Comment: 23-June B&H was out of stock. I asked Dwayne Lab and 24-June I received the answer they are also already out of stock and should receive something only within two months. Interesting signal from the market, isn't it? I guess there are still chances to cancel the decision about killing Kodachrome converting it to a sort of marketing research (although a somewhat brutal one). For the Kodak management team: Kodachrome is NOT outdated film. It is best color slide film on the market both in terms color fidelity and in terms of archival qualities. I shot also digital and E6 slides (including E100G/GX) quite extensively; these are good technologies capable of doing the work with enough quality. But 'enough' does not mean 'maximum'. Averaging the world is not a progress.
Posted By: Jonathan B Adams (6/25/2009)
Comment: My enduring love affair with Kodachrome now spans 30 years. At age 16, after more than 2 years of photographing obsessively, I was able to by my first Nikon F2 -- my holy grail of cameras at the time. From that time, I began using Kodachrome exclusively. Fast forward to March 2009, when Daniel Bayer made me aware through his Kodachrome project that it was still possible to shoot Kodachrome. Since then, I have been shooting two-dozen rolls of Kodachrome per month. Thus, Kodachrome is for me more than a mere memory; it is a current source of inspiration. I plan to photograph with it exclusively for the remaining 18 months that it's available. Since I'm based in Tokyo, this involves more patience and expense than any other film, and Tokyo is a film photographer's paradise. The news of Kodak's decision to discontinue Kodachrome felt like a cold dagger in my heard, in spite of knowing the announcement would come. I am a film photographer exclusively, and personally do not anticipate a digital future. For me, the future is film. Traditionally, Kodachrome has been the best tool for the job. But it is a cumbersome, antiquated process that I think Kodak has been very gracious in keeping around for 74 years. Having shot a fair amount of Ektar, I'm confident that Kodak can bring us new films that surpass Kodachrome in performance while maintaining the color palate we have grown up loving all these years . . . and hopefully its archival properties as well. Much as it breaks my heart, it's time to say good bye to Kodachrome.
Posted By: Rich Hilbert (6/25/2009)
Comment: Like many others the news of KODACHROMES end is like getting news of the passing of an old friend I haven't seen in years. Sad, but not hard to understand. My families history growing up is on 8mm film and slides. The early days of my own color pictures were on Kodachrome 25 film using a Voigtlander camera I got as a Birthday gift. The Voigtlander stopped working long ago but I still have it. The slides are all sleeved and in binders. Time to take them out and remember when. I went the same way the products lead us, Ektachrome, drop off boxes in the supermarket......to the point and shoot digital camera that fits my shirt pocket no thicker then a pack of chewing gum. This web site features a slide show of famous pro shots. Any thoughts from Kodak or anyone else to accept entries from the billions of us who shot the film for a memorial web site? It would be fun. After all this is what really makes a product run 75 years.
Posted By: Alfio Elio Quattrocchi (6/25/2009)
Comment: Alla fine degli anni 60' dopo anni di B/N passai al Kodachrome 25 e agli inizi degli anni '80 fù proprio con un Kodachrome 25 ed una foto naturalistica del Falco della Regina che riuscì a piazzarmi al secondo posto nel prestigioso concorso fotografico di Airone, un altro grande mito dei fotografi italiani. E' un epopea che finisce per i fotografi della mia età che sono passati dalla camera oscura del B/N più classico, alla Dia ed ora al digitale. Una trasparenza ineguagliabile, una fedeltà cromatica insuperata, una sensazione di nitidezza che non ho più ritrovato in nessuna delle pellicole utilizzate in seguito e men che meno nel digitale di oggi. Grazie Kodak per le belle immagini ed i ricordi che mi hai fatto catturare in tutti questi anni di Fotografia!
Posted By: Stan Griffith (6/24/2009)
Comment: I'm not for sure taking pictures in the digital age is all that much fun, just easier. I miss a lot of Kodak's glorious past, The Pagent 16MM projector, Super 8MM, Carousel Slide Projectors,Kodachrome and as a tribute to my movie projectionist father, Hollywood's Technicolor
Posted By: Douglas Nolan (6/24/2009)
Comment: The thing that impressed me about Kodachrome was its longevety. I have slides of my father and father in law from the late 40's &50s that look like they were taken yesterday. It gives me comfort to know that the pictures I have taken of my daughter will still be that nice when she shows them to her grandchildren
Posted By: Thomas Worner (6/24/2009)
Comment: I too shot many, many rolls of Kodachrome through Nikon F bodies. I met Photographer Jim Sugar back in the early 90s. He said that no matter what anyone tells you, National Geographic shoots in Kodachrome. So what does NG shoot in now?
Posted By: John Mallia (6/24/2009)
Comment: Bit sad? Mmmm..Yes. Nostalgic? MMmmm. perhaps. Will I miss it? Mmmm..No. I actually stopped using it some years back, just like the great GREAT majority of us. Kodakchrome, like the Beatles had its heyday - and a long time it was - but that's in the past now.... a past that was overwhelmed by the digital revolution that also makes it possible for each and everyone of us to share these comments. Thanks Kodakchrome. You've been a good mate. I've got some images which I'll always keep at heart... and which, to be on the safe side, I've already scanned :-)
Posted By: Andy Oliver (6/24/2009)
Comment: I've been a loyal user of kodachrome since 1983, there is no other film that even comes close to a kodachrome original. Us users of kodachrome in 2009 will have the last laugh in 75 years time, as we all know our kodachrome image has proven archival qualities. Sadly kodaks trump card will soon be history. Thank you kodak, we have many precious family memories capture on kodachrome, some nearly 50 years old...
Posted By: Andy Oliver (6/24/2009)
Comment: I've been a loyal user of kodachrome since 1983, there is no other film that even comes close to a kodachrome original. Us users of kodachrome in 2009 will have the last laugh in 75 years time, as we all know our kodachrome image has proven archival qualities. Sadly kodaks trump card will soon be history. Thank you kodak, we have many precious family memories capture on kodachrome, some nearly 50 years old...
Posted By: Audrey Jonckheer (6/24/2009)
Comment:
Posted By: Mike Plews (6/24/2009)
Comment: I still have Kodachrome slides my father shot during the Korean war. They look like they came from the lab yesterday. K-25 was my film of choice for many years but like others here I migrated to digital a few years ago, at least for color. My son is now a photographer and has never shot Kodachrome. I think I'll buy a couple of rolls and the two of us can have that memory to share. I have to commend Kodak for hanging on this long. When it got down to just Dwayne's in Parsons the writing was on the wall. I will miss the thought of Kodachrome being out there but nothing lasts forever.
Posted By: Brett Buck (6/24/2009)
Comment: The shame of it is that the "declining sales" were about as much about the processing as the quality of the film itself. Velvia is not useful for general usage due to the skin tone issues, there's still nothing that compares with Kodachrome. But all the processing facilities are long gone aside from Dwaynes and have been for years. A two-week turnaround time is just not acceptable, so OF COURSE the usage has declined. Put it back to 2-3 days, with reasonable numbers of local processors, restart 120 and 135, and it would have a viable niche
Posted By: cneffpaysages (6/24/2009)
Comment: very sad, - the losing of Kodachrome is like losing the memory of our mental landscapes, - and for the generation of babyboomers - the memory of the still brilliant colors of our childhood. Christophe Neff Grünstadt
Posted By: Pierr Johnson (6/24/2009)
Comment: This should seem inevitable to even die-hard Kodachrome users. I started shooting Kodachrome 25 on a Kodak Signet in the 1960's and have been a very committed user until pretty recently. Like some of the Pro's whose thoughts are here recorded, through the 1990s and into this decade, I took advantage of the increased quality and ease of a range of E-6 films (100VS, Velvia, even Provia alternatives). And I love the ease and quality of my digital SLR. Yet I have always had a roll or two of Kodachrome going an older camera (Nikon F3 or F4) just to take advantage of its special and unique qualities. In fact, no entity has done more to discourage my use of this film than Kodak itself. To roll into the DIsneyWorld Kodak store some years ago and find only E200 available as a slide film?!? And with the closure of so many numerous labs, qualitiy control diminished appreciably: film processed at the wrong speed more than once; 36 slides crammed into a box for 20 while while that 20-slide X-mas card shoot would arrive in a box for 36! And now, I have four exposed rolls sitting in the fridge as I ponder a 400% increase in processing costs. Sadly, I believe a tremendous franchise has been wasted. There has to be a economical way to scale maufacture and processing for what remains a pretty committed group of users. Yet I am guessing we will never know. Adieu, mon ami, adieu!
Posted By: Janice Peters (6/24/2009)
Comment: Our family history is recorded on Kodachrome from the 40's on. My dad loved to take still photos of all our family activities and I have the slides still...looking just as bright as the day they were shot. Sometimes it would take Dad a year to shoot a whole role, and it was always an event when that little yellow bax came back with photos we were either anxiously awaiting or had forgotten were taken. When my brother, sister and I all took up photography, Dad was shocked that we would shoot several roles per day! My trips to Europe in the 70's are perfectly preserved on Kodachrome, and I still sell some of those images today. Yes, I have a good digital camera, but there's a richness and depth to film that no digital manipulation can equal. Film is about capturing a moment in time. Digital is about creating it later. Both are art, but I much prefer the challenge of the capture! For the images that matter to me, I still reach for my film camera. I wish I could continue to reach for the Kodachrome, too.
Posted By: David Clark (6/24/2009)
Comment: Mmmmm. Now whilst its a very long time since I've used its a shame that the "bean counters" who run the company have decided it's no longer worth making. I'm sure that various niche markets will lament its passing. Some time back the act of Kodak stopping selling 35mm cameras was reported in the worlds media as a sign of Kodak abandoning film... and their shares to a hammering. Considering their current share price I'm amazed that the announcement of another icon of film has been made - another nail in the coffin...
Posted By: Stu Gray (6/24/2009)
Comment: I've just discovered Kodachrome 64, it's amazing! Going to order a few more rolls now while I can. Any chance of an Elite Chrome 64??
Posted By: Bogdan (6/24/2009)
Comment: It would be nice if Kodak would do another custom master roll run, I am pretty sure many people would be happy to pre-order it. We discovered Kodachrome about one year ago; too late for the party. Can't be any harder to shoot Kodacrhomes as we live in Eastern Europe and got to pay over one hundred dollars shipping taxes from Romania to US, one way only, let alone the processing at Dwayne's and shipment back to us and we still wanted to shoot more of it... We gave free Kodachrome samples to friends so they could shoot it and get to know this film... Well...what can I say more?!...sad day indeed...
Posted By: Raphael Parejo-Coudert (6/24/2009)
Comment: Sadness and nostalgy, that's what I'm feeling. An if I understand the economic reasons of the, I think it's an error to discontinue Kodachrome. Something is going wrong. I'm a french ethnomusicologist, and I was taking picture since 1979 with Kodachrome, especially during my field works in Andean Regions of South America. I'm also working on ethnographic sound and pictures archives problems. I've obtained two times the french "Dotation Kodak Grand reportage" (Kodak France "allowance" of Kodachrome 35mm films) for my works in the Andes. Iwas one of the "beta tester" fo Kodachrome 200. And I've received some prizes for photographs take with Kodachrome 25 and 64. The quality of Kodachrome is not only on the aesthetic side: Kodachrome is the only film I've used which have resist to cold, heat, humity, and preserve images for the long term. There is no other serious alternative for archival quality film. Bad annouce for all the professional who where working with Kodachrome. No the ones who take pictures for people magazine, but the ones who, like me, need to travel far away and take pictures in bad conditions.
Posted By: Cesare tommasini (6/24/2009)
Comment: I migliori attimi , sono immortalati per sempre nella mia mente e su Kodachrome. Grazie hai lasciato un impronta perenne nella terra.
Posted By: Roberto (6/24/2009)
Comment: Sono solo felice di aver avuto modo di imparare a fotografare agli inizi degli anni '80 con le vostre pellicole. Non credo di aver potuto fare lo stesso ora. A quegli scatti sono legati i miei ricordi più belli. Ciao Kodachrome
Posted By: ALESSANDRA (6/24/2009)
Comment: addio a kodakchrome ma spero con tutto il mio cuore che il rullino non scompaia mai!il digitale va bene ma la fotografia vera è un'altra cosa.....
Posted By: Daniel Bayer (6/24/2009)
Comment: While I fully understand the sadness and frustration of the loss of Kodachrome film, I hope people realize what Kodak has done in this particular announcement. You see, Kodak does not get in the way of what we are to do with our remaining rolls of the film and what to shoot with it or to celebrate it or not. If you buy a roll of Kodachrome today, it has an expiration date somewhere in 2010, next year, the film's 75th anniversary. Furthermore, you have practically ALL of next year to shoot it in addition to the rest of this year. So all of this talk about Kodak not keeping the film around until it's 75th anniversary is well, kind of lame. There is a lot more to a product like Kodachrome than what day the film was made on. I think the more important thing is what you choose to record on it and when that date is. You have roughly 18 months folks, that is a lot of time if you put shooting Kodachrome on a higher rung on the ladder of priority. I am not dismissing the notion that the loss of Kodachrome is a sad thing, I am just trying to point out that you *still* have time to shoot it. That is what you have, so shoot now and grieve later, really...:-)
Posted By: Sergio Serrano (6/24/2009)
Comment: Bye bye Kodachrome bye bye happiness. Hello loneliness I think Im gonna cry.
Posted By: Mike (6/24/2009)
Comment: Some of you seem bitter about Kodak's decision. You are obviously amateurs, which is fine, but professionals stopped using Kodachrome a long time ago, with the odd exception such as Alex Webb. I love Kodachrome too and some of my favourite photographs were made with the film, but I also love vinyl records and old American muscle cars. Nostalgia is a terrible reason to keep doing something. Especially with photography. Embrace change, and new techniques. Otherwise, we would all be using platinum prints and huge view cameras still. As well, films have come and gone for YEARS, it's nothing new. I always laugh when the people who get most upset about change are the one's who weren't even there in it's heyday or were not even doing photography at that time.
Posted By: Alan (6/24/2009)
Comment: Goodbye K25... thank you for the amazing images. You shall be missed for you were very special. A retired professional shooter
Posted By: Kenny (6/23/2009)
Comment: All I ever shot was Kodachrome 25 back in the '70's. It had such detail and vibrance that I can't even begin to describe it here. Those slides still hold up, better than anything else I've tried, actually. Have you tried looking at a digital photograph you've backed up to cd-rom only to find it "glitched" and gone forever? A sad day indeed.
Posted By: Chris Anderson (6/23/2009)
Comment: What a mistake; so much for a 75th birthday...
Posted By: TI (6/23/2009)
Comment: I've known this was coming for a long time. I live in Naperville, IL and one of my neighbors who was a chemist for Kodak was there when they downsized back in the early 1990's. Competition in film at the very end was really something. My parents invested in nice cameras, Canon FTBn, Nikon F1s and others along the way and then we went to school at the College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn, IL for photography and black and white and color dark room training. Through ALL of it was Kodak and Kodachrome film. I will never forget the fun we had in photography and will treasure the prints we made. I hope that Kodak continues to inspire us into the future with their well engineered American products.
Posted By: Peter Lindsa (6/23/2009)
Comment: What a loss. I started with Kodachrome 25 and 64 in my Leica cameras over 35 years ago. There was nothing to compare - still isn't. I have Cibachrome prints from some of those transparencies that still astonish me. Hand held, on city streets, at 1/15 and enlarged to 16"x20". I only shoot digital now, but my Kodachromes from the 1970's remain a benchmark for how I want color photographs to look.
Posted By: Chantelle (6/23/2009)
Comment: Aww man I remember that photo from so long ago. My brother and I as kids were obsessed with National Geographic
Posted By: Mark Walton (6/23/2009)
Comment: I'm a railfan, and like many railfans I was a Kodachrome junkie for well over 20 years before going digital in 2003. My Nikon FG-20 went on a lot of trips, as did a previous EM and my dad's Bell & Howell FD-35 (a rebadged Canon TX). I still have the old FG-20, plus my 1984 Carousel 4600 projector; only recently did I haul it out for the first time in years to see if it works, it does. almost as well as the day I got it. Early in my K64 years I tried adding a polarizer to my lens for fall shots or shooting through train windows, wow! I occasionally used K200, but never K25. A lot of my shots were fast-action shots of fast-moving trains, buses, airplanes, or other subjects shot from moving vehicles; I almost always used 1/500 second to freeze the action. Not too much depth of field, but that's less of a priority for me. For the past 4 years I've had a scanner (HP Scanjet 4850) that really does justice to Kodachrome slides. Even the short-lived Southern Pacific-Santa Fe Railroad had a Kodachrome color scheme on some of its locomotives; see http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/53/Santa_Fe_9536.jpg R.I.P. Kodachrome; you had a good 74-year run and were my staple film for 20 of them.
Posted By: robert s (6/23/2009)
Comment: This is one serious error Kodak needs to reverse. Many decisions are about profit and about style and fashion. But Kodachrome is an irreplaceable component of history. Not because of the pictures that have already been shot, though there are countless such images. It is because of the future history we are going to lose. There is no other alternative archival quality film that can substitute. There just are NO other options. It isn't about some other film looking as good, or digital looking as good. I started shooting Kodachrome in the early 70's, some 35+ years ago. All my original slides look like new today. There is nothing like Kodachrome in my Leicas. Has anyone tried to read and old floppy disk lately? An old computer tape? Now I am talking about 10 years old. Not 40 years old or more. I can still scan my 35 year old Kodachromes. (And nothing beats the image projected to the size of a whole wall on the Pradovit). The old Ektachromes have all turned to faded glue. Useless. No - this is a serious crisis, and this is about a serious responsibility to provide a rare, irreplaceable product that literally provides us the only opportunity to record and preserve images for the long term. We, the photographic community have a responsibility to rally behind the product, and Kodak has a responsibility to provide a means of supporting this as long as it is vaguely revenue neutral, for reasons that go far beyond fashion, style, and the quarterly report. We all need to have much more a long term perspective on everything we do. There are things in life that have more value than the next bonus and report.
Posted By: Mint (6/23/2009)
Comment: Please don't... :(
Posted By: P.Kevin Morley (6/23/2009)
Comment: A good photo is a good photo, no matter what kind of film you use. Get over it. Get out there and take some good pictures!
Posted By: Alejandro Londono (6/23/2009)
Comment: Very Sorry for this tough decision. I ve felt sad, because some of my best pics have been taken on KR25 or KR 64, the best films ever for me. Perfect match, my Nikon FM and those films: color saturation, contrast, resolution, grain, every aspect you can think of. Being from Colombia, some of my first rolls have had to be sent to the States to be developed, and thad took money and time. Thanks, Kodak for the Kodachrome; all over the world that film will be remembered on some of the best pictures ever. No digital is as good as this film. Let s see what happens in the future
Posted By: Steve Zalewski (6/23/2009)
Comment: June 23, 2009 As an amateur photographer, I recall how Paul Simon sang about Kodachrome, and in the song he pleaded for his mother not to take it away from him. Now Kodak has managed to take it away from us. I will miss this film, and I will plan on shooting up as much of it that I have left in my freezer. However, I must express my disgust with Kodak for NOT honoring out of date processing mailers on your web site. How in the name of God, can you expect photographers to keep track of which mailers that they have stuffed into camera bags and drawers in their residence and to remember which ones are current, which ones are out of date, etc. It was your customers who PAID for those mailers and they should be able to use them at THEIR CONVENIENCE and NOT at the convenience of Kodak and/or Dwayne's. I hope that you get flooded with complaints on this issue, and reverse this most idiotic decision. Steve Zalewski Syracuse Camera Club Member Syracuse, NY
Posted By: John Herrera (6/23/2009)
Comment: I am very sad to chrome 64 go away, I processed crome 64 at the Palo Alto lab for 13 years, was involed with a day in the life book that came out and the rush to get it all processed in 24 hours and get it back to Rochester
Posted By: Jay Scheibe (6/23/2009)
Comment: Kodachrome was the first film I ever shot, my Dad let me hold and click his prized SLR when I was 5, and have continued to shoot. It's very magical and true--always the "wow" film through any camera I have owned. It may sound strange, but just the word "Kodachrome" brings back and continues to hold some of my best images and memories. I'm very sad to see it go.
Posted By: Rob Oechsle (6/23/2009)
Comment: I shot a mountain of "Realist Format" stereoviews using KODACHROME 25 during a 10-year stretch in Japan, switching to 64 when the 25 came to an end. When that became a logistical hassle, I went with the various PRO Ektachrome and Fujifilms. Today, looking at my old K25 stereoviews in a viewer with quality optics (the way they are meant to be viewed), I notice that there is no grain at all, whites are a beautiful white, and I can discern every hair on peoples heads -- even those 10 feet away. Pin-sharp resolution. I have never been able to duplicate this beautiful look and feel with any Ektachrome, Fuji, or Agfa films. Reading Kodak's solicited "ad copy" about the pros moving on to other films and digital has no effect on me. Once you have experienced Kodachrome Transparencies enlarged and in depth, you are spoiled for life, and nothing Kodak or the "Pros" say will change the reality of that. So long Kodachrome. Thanks for the memories.
Posted By: markpea (6/23/2009)
Comment: I am very sad to see the end of this film. With the 64 and my M6 I have had some magical times. You just can't get that color with digital.
Posted By: Marco Di Buo' (6/23/2009)
Comment: I've took pictures by night, with my tripod and my unique working film - the mythical KR-64 Professional - when I was almonst a little boy, in 1984. My goal did become the night pics, taken in the major art cities here, my home, Italy. I cannot say that those were a scarce number, really. While some years ago I did not find anymore slides here, I stopped to take photos - the digital revolution was running ahed. Unbeliavable, I meet by a case, two years ago, "The Last Beach for My Slides" .... Dwayne's. And I started again. With many doubts, at the early times. But I started again, really. Again so many nights walking by foot at Venice, Florence, Rome, Genoa, taking again the warmth, or the fog, of those many little hours with nobody around. Feeling just me, the monuments of a life, and my trusted Kodachrome. In effect, among the sentiment, I can assure that NOT ANY of those modern films are really able to preserve the true colors, if exposed by night with 1-2-3 or more minutes for each shot. I cannot believe that I will do stop again my nice walking around. But it seems so, now. Please Kodak give again a chanche for the photograph history, and the sentiment, too. DON'T STOP Kodachrome, or make possible to product it for a smaller firm to go ahed with art, not just with the "cold business". Hoping sincerely, :o) Marco
Posted By: Scott Lofreddo (6/23/2009)
Comment: I am truly sorry to see yet another slice of America disappear. I use Kodachrome for everything from trains, to signs, to motels, to night shots. All are so much better with the look and soul of this film. My dad started me on this film and I have shot nothing else for over 25 years. What a shame to see it disappear. Good luck Kodak, for your days are numbered as well I am afraid.
Posted By: Ron Andrews (6/23/2009)
Comment: Eric, Steve, and Peter are great photogrpahers who have shot many thousands of outstanding images, but the lasting gift of Kodachrome are the 35 Billion (with a B) images that were shot on Kodachrome by my count.* These images will last for 200 years** with reasonable care. A tiny sample of these images is available at the link above. * I'm assuming the peak was in 1984 when I was helping to manufacture the product. I'm assuming a slow ramp up to that peak and a slightly faster ramp down to zero in 2010. ** Kodak data published by Henry Wilhelm
Posted By: Richard Hearn (6/23/2009)
Comment: 25,64,200 they all formed an institution. However for me Kodachrome 64 is the ultimate in film, the sheer intensity of colour and the limitless possibilities. As an amateur photographer, I have travelled the world with Kodachrome for 40 years and my father a further 20 years before I started. This world apparently is coming to an abrupt end and life will not be quite the same again. Of course it doesn't have to be so - I implore Kodak to reverse this crazy decision. I know commercially it doesn't seem to make sense but then who has ever made sense of life - and we are all here.
Posted By: Rhys Sage (6/23/2009)
Comment: I liked the colours and haunting quality of Kodachrome. The world has, for the moment, moved on. I use digital now for all my professional and personal work. I do feel that when my digital bits have all suffered from bit decay and the digital images are lost forever that my Kodachrome images will live on. The demise of Kodachrome was only to be expected. I expect all film will go the way of Kodachrome, Agfacrome, Ilfochrome etc over the next 10 years. The future seems to be digital.
Posted By: Jaap Roskam (6/23/2009)
Comment: Although it is hard not to admit and admire the ease and qualities of digital, it is also hard not to admit the charm of historic monuments and buildings. And there is a parallel: Although historic buildings are not always the easiest to access of all buildings it is true that film photography is not anymore the easiest of all photographic methods. But governments to to great expenses to preserve our cultural buildings heritage. Kodak in a sense has risen to the size and strength of a decent government with us their loyal customers as their citizens. Thinking in that line one would expect Kodak to preserve the monument named Kodachrome. But apparently shareholders have less common sense as governments. The same could be said about vinyl LPs , the big record making companies stopped making them because of the advance of CDs, yet: in Melbourne Australia is a company that still , or again, makes them. For them vinyl LP making is 100% of their business, perhaps not as big a profit margin as the old record companies had but they make a living out of it and have thousands of happy customers. So why would there not be a small film making company around that could take over Kodachrome making. Kodak could, as a gesture of good will and preservation of the Kodachrome Monument, assist that company in getting things going and everybody is happy. In Germany is a company Hans Mahn ( www.mahn.net ) that still makes old fashioned film, they took over a few Agfa processes and do well with amongst others a film branded Rollei Film which ... for me as leader of www.rolleiclub.com is good news for my club members. So our plea is: Dear Kodak , what are you waiting for, keep Kodachrome alive in a different way. After all we, your faithful Kodachrome citizens do not only have to thank you for giving us such a great film , but also you Kodak should be thank full to us as well for being your faithful film buyers who kept your income going. You Kodak have risen to the size of the biggest authority in film making now please act in line with like governments do with public monuments that and help us to keep the Kodachrome monument alive for generations to admire. Signed: Jaap Roskam - rolleiclub.com and sl66.com .
Posted By: Art in LA (6/23/2009)
Comment: So, you went ahead and killed Kodachrome...what are you guys thinking over there? No..I understand..it's all about the money. Still a bad day for all students of photography.
Posted By: Hal Flantzer (6/23/2009)
Comment: I wish Kodak would go to the Obama Administration, and apply for recovery funds to keep Kodachrome going. They have nothing to lose by trying. After all, it is not only a "cultural icon," but represents one of the most important American photographic innovations of the last 100 years. If Detroit and Wall Street can qualify, why not Rochester??
Posted By: Jason Middleton (6/23/2009)
Comment: This is a day that Kodak will regret for years to come. I stopped using my trusty Olympus OM3 when Kodachrome 200 was discontinued as there is nothing that comes close to image depth. Since then I've been forced to go digital, but I set my camera to be a close to Kodachrome as it can be as it's been my benchmark for over 20 years and the benchmark for the photographic world for 74 years. Fuji can keep their Velvia aas Kodachrome has somthing that no other will evey have. Soul.
Posted By: Thorsten (6/23/2009)
Comment: Very sorry to hear that. I've just started to shoot kodachrome. And I liked its special look very much!!!! Wonderful colors, wonderful texture. I've tried so many films during last year when I started shooting analog. After all I came across Kodachrome because of kodachromeproject. It's the film I liked best and its appearance is so unique! I'll try to take photos of all coming seasons with this film from now on. It's the first and last chance for me. Hope I can afford and find enough films. I believe there would have been much more potential in this film. I came across only because of K-project, couldn't find it in local stores (Germany). And sellers were even informed wrong ("you can't develop it"). I think Kodak missed the huge marketing potential of this legend. Even not making profit by itself it could have given so much reputation to other products ("product of the inventor of kodachrome"...). But it was nearly unknown here in Berlin. There was no support for this film from Kodak besides its existence. But now I'll go out and shoot as much as I can.
Posted By: Paul O'Sullivan (6/23/2009)
Comment: I have taken some of the best photographs of my life on Kodachrome. Slides taken 25 years ago are still in perfect condition: I can now scan them and make the image live again digitally. Other negative films and slides of a similar age have deteriorated. I will be able to scan my slides in another 25 years time, I doubt if I will find my digital media lasting that long. I still use the film when I can find it!
Posted By: imworking4me (6/23/2009)
Comment: I feel like I just lost someone close to me, who has given me comfort, bathed in warmth and beauty, ever since I was a child. I just pray that the tyrrany of the marketplace doesn't destroy film while I am still around to use it.
Posted By: Peter R Green (6/23/2009)
Comment: It is a long time since I used Kodachrome: digital is so much simpler and more convenient, particularly when travelling. Nevertheless, I am sad to see it go. I preferred it to Ektachrome for colour rendition. Digital is fine for general use, and even my odd foray into technical photography can mostly be adequately covered by a modest digital device these days. But there are times when I would love to grab the old SLR and a roll of Kodachrome. Perhaps things would be different if I had a much more advanced camera than my present one, but one thing I particularly miss is the ability to capture those really unusual lighting conditions -- storms, sunsets, strangely-lit clouds -- which were a breeze with Kodachrome, but entirely defeat digital cameras.
Posted By: jim colligan (6/23/2009)
Comment: Kodachrome, The Best of the Best in film. I'm missing its slides as I switch inevitably to digital photography. I'm missing their relative permanence when compared to other color films I've used. My 20 rolls of Kodachrome, a package still wrapped in cellophane, I missed in the Dacca airport after three weeks in Bangladesh in 1981. I was there on assignment for an American publisher, flying out to shoot again in Kathmandu, Nepal next. At that time, I knew that Bangladesh Customs had a limit on rolls of film a traveler could bring into the country. Argument on entry proved futile. They promised to keep any excess at the airport, to be reclaimed on departure contingent on a one-week advance notice. I gave notice by phone of my scheduled flight out. But when I got to the airport no official had a list of items they'd confiscated even temporarily. They allowed me to search several storage areas, each subject to heat and birds and insects and dust that entered through high openings in the walls under roofing eaves. After 45 minutes of despair I spotted the package, intact but dusty, on a concrete floor behind a big wooden box. I departed, concerned at the effects of heat, but happy to have film at all. It survived nicely. Security x-ray machines at airports were always a concern with film, even those like Kodachrome with its modest speed-rating. Machines were not always reliable despite assurances. One could return from an assignment without usable pictures for publication. Security at Schiphol adamantly insisted I send boxed rolls of fast film through x-rays. Travel with digital cameras is less worrisome, I find. And yet, I will miss Kodachrome. Many thanks, Kodak. Jim Colligan (6/23/09)
Posted By: Paul B (6/23/2009)
Comment: This is ridiculous. I'm an inspiring photographer and use Kodachrome all the time. It makes me angry enough that they cancel the film, but the video's above make me even more angry. They try and make Kodak seem a gracious company for keeping Kodachrome in for such a long time, and try and get people to want to change. All I can say is that I'm boycotting Kodak.
Posted By: Mike B. (6/23/2009)
Comment: What a sad day for photography!!!
Posted By: Jerry Ranch (6/23/2009)
Comment: I feel as if my guts were ripped out., I've used K25 and K64 since 1969. I have 100 rolls of K25-36 left - in a freezer. It's the best for what I shoot. Okay I have digital too...but.....the warmth and contrast are amazing.
Posted By: johnnie (6/23/2009)
Comment: if my memory doesnt cheat me, this is a famous foto by a nat geo fotografer steve mccurry titled 'the afgan girl'...nat geo tracked this girl down years later and revealed that the girl's fate hasn't improved much with time...nat geo once sent me an invitation to join their society which I cudn't due to lack of money...they sent me some post card style pics with it...this pic was there too...and i've seen this foto years before I rcvd the invitation from nat geo maybe in time or some famous magazine (thanks to my father)...so it has a special place in my heart
Posted By: Jose Garcia (6/23/2009)
Comment: That's a great news for the enviroment every manufacturer should do the same.
Posted By: Carol Coy (6/23/2009)
Comment: ...a melancholy day today with this announcement. I have worked with Kodachrome over 45 years, first a dozen, then hundreds of rolls a year. Kodachrome II to 25 to 64. What great times and travels. Thank heavens that my Dad sang the praises of Kodachrome II when I first started shooting images... long after my Wards film, Sears film, Agfachrome have faded and color shifted, those 60's memories in the yellow boxes look the same today as the day I picked them up. I was afraid this day would come as the great lab I visited regularly on North Las Palmas in LA (with the fabulous customer service gals at the will call counter) faded into mailing PK-36's to distant places like Rockville and Fair Lawn and then Kansas... Thanks Dwayne's for your great service. Will savor shooting my remaining bricks of this great film...
Posted By: Dave Wyman (6/23/2009)
Comment: While I could be sad because Kodachrome is no more, it's from sentimental reasons, as I too, put of lot of that film through my cameras. I'm glad film is still around, at least for a while, and that Kodak has met the challenge to come with with newer films that photographers want to use.
Posted By: J. Abramson (6/23/2009)
Comment: So...do what Fujifilm did after the original Velvia was discontinued; change the chemistry, update the process technology for today and reintroduce it! After all, Kodak is capable of introducing a new excellent print film, in Ektar 100!
Posted By: paco rocha (6/23/2009)
Comment: I buy the factories to them of kodachrome with all the machinery to follow making his film and the chemicals
Posted By: Kevin G. (6/23/2009)
Comment: Don't let Kodachrome die!! is there any way to save it? I love it. Nothing compares such Kodachrome film's contrast.
Posted By: Maneesh Mandanna (6/23/2009)
Comment: Please Please dont ever kill TRI-X 400
Posted By: Coronita (6/23/2009)
Comment: Please, fire Antonio Pérez ASAP! Should have been done years ago.
Posted By: Gaurav Dhwaj Khadka (6/23/2009)
Comment: I have used it ....and love it ....it is sad ....: (
Posted By: N. Catalano (6/23/2009)
Comment: I sincerely hope that those who are responsible for decisions at Kodak read each of the posts about Kodachrome and the feelings behind them, for they represent YOUR support, or lack thereof, in the future. I am sure there are many rational reasons behind corporate decisions, but what is missed is what your customers feel about Kodak itself based on those decisions. Kodak was once at the top of the heap for both film and digital technologies, and yet through its poor decisions has given the store away. I have a good pro photographer friend of 40 years whose ire rises every time mention is made of his experience investing in Kodak pro digital cameras and how Kodaks' egregious abandonment of support and unwillingness to correct their poor chip left him hanging. Customers have long memories. I feel, and many others in this post agree, that Kodachrome is one of the finest products they have ever used, even in today's world, and to abandon support for it is unconscienable. Top management may as well turn out the lights and lock the door if this is an example of your corporate philosophy. You NEVER kill an icon, you only improve it. And if you can't improve it (unlikely), you show the world its virtues and you support it, not cut the legs from under it. You have failed on all accounts, I am sad to say. Long live Kodachrome, but for Kodak itself, the jury is out. The market appraisal of its stock, with decisions such as Kodachrome, says it all to me.
Posted By: Joella Aragon (6/23/2009)
Comment: I worked in the Photography department at Longs Drug Store in the mid 70s, bought my first camera there, and got an employee discount on Kodak film all the time. I have stacks and stacks of pictures of my life using Kodak film.
Posted By: Tom Freda (6/23/2009)
Comment: My very first color photos, taken on a Kodak Signet 35 camera (which I still have) when I was only 10 years old, were on Kodachrome II. Later, and throughout the years, Kodachrome 25 became my standby for its vibrant colors (remember Paul Simon's song?), ultra fine grain and near archival qualities. RIP, Kodachrome!
Posted By: Paul Gamble (6/23/2009)
Comment: Sad day, but inevitable I suppose. I used Kodachrome as often as possible. When I did'nt need the results fast, and if I did'nt need faster film. I know my images will last for many years such as they are. Shall get some and give it a suitable farewell in my Nikon FM. Going but never to be forgotten, use and enjoy it whilst we can. The King is Dead. They have taken Kodachrome away.
Posted By: Ed Sawyer (6/23/2009)
Comment: Well, I knew this day would come, I just wish it didn't come so soon. Kudos to Kodak for at least keeping it alive this long and letting us know in advance. It's a sad day indeed. Even sadder that Kodak the company has fallen so far as to let it's flagship film meet it's demise. Certainly there are other things in the Kodak house that could be chopped before Kodachrome. We all mourn it's passing. If there is any way to save it, please consider it.
Posted By: Mathew (6/23/2009)
Comment: It feels unfortunate that I could not use this great film. I'm only in my early teens and I feel that this is quite a sad day. I first heard about Kodachrome after starting in my attempts of Super 8 filmmaking. Even then it was already discontinued for the format. But in learning about it, I saw pictures that looked so wonderful, so magnificent that I felt upset that I could never use it. But...it seems now I will never get the opportunity of using it, even for still photography, which I also passionately enjoy. But...In this world, we cannot change decisions easily, so let's hope Kodak make a new film. A new film that can give us a world through the eyes of Kodachrome; so they can continue the Kodachrome name and create something we can all be proud of. Something we can all enjoy. Come back Kodachrome.
Posted By: John Schultz (6/23/2009)
Comment: I am surprised your tribute to Kodachrome missed it's history. Kodachrome was developed by a couple of musicians with ties to George Gershwin. It is quite a story.
Posted By: paco rocha (6/23/2009)
Comment: hey guys: this is my basket for maintain company production. my compromise. kodachrome 25 120 - 25rolls at year kodachrome 25 4x5 - 150 sheets at year kodachrome 64 120 - 10 rolls at year kodachrome 200 120- 25 rolls at year kodachrome 200 4x5- 150 sheets at year and the chemistry for my own processing. COME ON EVERYBODY....
Posted By: Monkeypainter (6/23/2009)
Comment: Mama, don't take my kodachrome away!!!!!
Posted By: KR64 4 ever (6/23/2009)
Comment: How much do Kodak put in advertising for Kodachrome each year, how much have Kodak put in R&D for the Kodachrome film the past ten years? I can't think there are hundredths of other projects and products in the Kodak house that costs a lot more and makes no profit what so ever. To kill Kodachome is the largest misstake since the coca-cola co. killed the original coke. Loyal Kodak customers who buys Kodachrome will not buy any other Kodak film, because you can't replace Kodachrome. I hope someone at Kodak will stop madness and let people continue to buy and use products that they like.
Posted By: AndreyVorobyov (6/23/2009)
Comment: Kodachrome 120. Agfa. Azo. Now Kodachrome 135. Who next? Tri-X? I think it is very bad decision. Kodak should have been supporting Kodachrome line even if the profit from it goes to zero. It is not about icons, it's about color fidelity. It is very bad decision.
Posted By: scottie (6/23/2009)
Comment: I loved K64. I live in Japan and it was discontinued here about a year and a half ago. The K64 "look" cannot be imitated. I cherished using it and feel the same sadness now that I felt when production was stopped over in Japan.
Posted By: JOHN HOLMES (6/23/2009)
Comment: I learned today from listening to the BBC news that Kodakchrome film is to be withdrawn from the market because it now comprises less than 1% of sales. As an avid user of Kodakchrome for the past 44 years this is a very sad day. I never had any intention of going 'digital' as I find that the qualities of film far outweigh the coldness of the digital images. Where do we go next without this fantastic film?
Posted By: paco rocha (6/23/2009)
Comment: it is indecent what stays doing to him to history of the photography, are as if you tried that platinotype disappeared or calotype. The reduction of sales is a lie you were you whom the reduction caused in sales. Not have respect by the business that represent nor by the history of the photography of that you are contributor, only money. Why not sales kodachrome in all the formats via Internet in bundle kit with the chemicals so that each user processes his film. Your channel of distribution anywhere in the world makes sick and for that reason kill the best film in color of history. If it had money would buy the patent and the factories to you and it would give a humility lesson you.
Posted By: Jon Weller (6/23/2009)
Comment: My first memories of brilliant Kodachrome were from the mid 1950ies. My Science Teacher at Glyn Grammar School(Surrey England) showed us his Kodachromes taken in 1938 in San Francisco still retaining their full colour. I started using Kodachrome 2 in the late 1950ies and have used its later variants up until last year. All my slides have retained their colour. I wonder how todays digital images will survive the next 74 years with out eternal copying to new media! Well done Kodak I believe that you made the best silver colour film ever. Jon Weller (UK)
Posted By: Gregor L. Bucher (6/23/2009)
Comment: No wonder that sales of Kodachrome film are so low. First, all but one lab were shut down. Then, the yellow Kodak letterboxes were not emptied any more, so that films had to be sent in by mail (which is expensive). In parallel, the price for K64 doubled in a short amount time (at least in Switzerland). And the fact that K25 and K200 wer discontinued in 2002 and 2006, respectively, further decreased the number of users. (I still have a couple of Kodachrome 25 in my freezer that I very much look forward to using.) Yes, it's a difficult emulsion to scan (dust removal), but there are possibilities (most notably with the Nikon Super Coolscan LS-9000 ED). The extraordinary archival stability of Kodachrome film will be missed. And the great colors and very fine grain! Let's say farewell to Kodachrome and listen to some great music of Godowsky. Kodak will probably follow in a not too distant future.
Posted By: nushnas (6/23/2009)
Comment: I knew this film since I join Kodak Thailand in 1972, and took my first award picture with Kodachome, so it means a lot to me .. but the world has been changed and we have to accept this. it reminds me of an old saying " old soldiers (Kodachrome) never die they just fade away". To Kodachorm with love
Posted By: Jose Elias Marco' (6/23/2009)
Comment: In my many years of working at a photo lab and shooting it myself, I had the pleasure of viewing some incredible images shot on these marvelous emulsions. The deep rich colors and the unmatched archival quality are a testament to Kodak's technological achievement when it comes to slide film. I'm glad to have been around to witness it's greatness first hand and will remember it fondly. It was a wonderful chapter in the book of photography. Now if they can just work in a "Kodachrome" setting on our Digital SLR's... :)
Posted By: AM (6/23/2009)
Comment: It s a shame for Kodak! I used Kodachrome films since nearly 30 years and now it comes to an involuntary end. I don t switch over to another film due the bad quality in comparison to Kodachrome and of course I don t switch to digital electronic rubbish. So at the end of this year I dropped my hobby for decades and written from use my good old Nikon Camera for the rest of my life. Thank you very much indeed for this Kodak!
Posted By: MAD (6/23/2009)
Comment: Shareholder value over the true fascination of real photography? Yes, this is unfortunately the world we live in today. Ever since I had a camera, I was shooting Kodachrome - for almost 30 years. It would be a sign of wisdom to continue the Kodachrome and keep offering a real alternative to the digital world. As the past 2 years have shown, not all decisions made in favor of the shareholders are the right ones - keep it alive, fight for it!
Posted By: Vinh Lengoc (6/23/2009)
Comment: I am a person (quite young, may I add) who has just got in to film photography, after being taught the ways of digital. From the start, I used Kodak films - and I will continue so until they close their film production lines. For me, I would like to conclude this on one thing. RIP Kodak.
Posted By: Bruce Allen Hendricks (6/23/2009)
Comment: Well, in one way it's sad, in another way it again shows how out of date and behind the times Kodak is. They seemed to have burried their head in the sand and hoped digital would take another decade or so to catch on. This is the same company that the sales division and the supply division seem to never speak to each other. A few years ago Kodak pushed a new 8x10 dye sub printed like there was no tomorrow.....the only problem was the supply people forgot to tell the sales people that there was a world-wide shortage of dye sub material. Oh sure, 10's of thousands of people had all these brand new shiny Kodak dye sub printers...only they couldn't print anything for months because nobody had any media. I know a store that Kodak contacted because they wanted to buy back (at retail prices) dye sub material that the store was smart enough to stock up before hand. This is the same company that screwed it's customers with the 14N to NX chip. " Ok, we lied about what we can get the chip in the 14N do to through firmware upgrades (our bad). BUT teh low low cost of only an additional $1500 more we can swop out the chip for a new one that gives you the capabilities we promised you the old one would have!!!! Eastman is rolling over in his grave....big yellow is dead but doesn't know enough to stop breathing.
Posted By: Peter Wells (6/23/2009)
Comment: I learnt photography on Kodachrome 64 and still use it today. Viewing contrasty slides at the mail box is part of the charm. If anything, Kodachrome taught me the importance of correct exposure. Thank you Kodak for the fun and memories since 1978. For now though, my FTb will be lonely!
Posted By: bill franks (6/23/2009)
Comment: whenever i wanted to impress a customer i used kodachrome for its rich tones,its a shame to see it go away. ishoot didgital now but still have the urge to use kodachrome.i have used it from the beginning till now i have been a photographer for 50 plus years thanks kodak for the memorys bill franks classic photography toledo ohio 43612
Posted By: KK (6/23/2009)
Comment: I remember back to school days (20 years ago) developing the Kodachrome 64 film is one of excitement! Today, the journey of the Kodachrome has ended. But the wonderful colors and pictures are remarkable and forever! Thanks for all the good job !!
Posted By: Peter Klim (6/23/2009)
Comment: I was shocked and very sad to hear that Kodachrome was finally being put down. My father introduced me to Kodachrome with his slides from the 50s/60s/and 70s. I was born in 67 and the images he took of me in 67 still look like the day they were taken along with even earlier slides he took of himself and our family in the 50s,60s and 70s. I now charrish those slides since many of our family captured on those slides are no longer alive. However thanks to Kodachrome those images remain forever immortalized and I can turn time back by looking at the slides. My interest with slides and kodachrome was renewed in the late 90s when I started shooting Kodachome with my 35mm camera. I now take slides of my son who was born in 2007 with Kodachrome. I am glad he will be able to look back in 40 or 50 years from now and see his father and grandfather as if they were taken yesterday. I really don't think that this would be possible with digital photos. Who knows what media digital photos will take on in 40 or 50 years let alone how well a digital image will remain even if copied over year after year. The sad part is that I finally figured out how to take really nice shots with Kodachrome and now they are discontinuing it. Thanks Kodak for Kodachrome. If there is anyway you could keep Kodachrome alive it would be greatly appreciated as today the music did not die but somebody turned out the lights on the past.
Posted By: Duane Stevens (6/22/2009)
Comment: As a teenager keen on photography, I rarely thought I was good enough to shoot Kodachrome. That, and my parents and elders thought that Ektachrome gave better results. Still, Kodachrome was the forbidden temptress. RIP Kodachrome.
Posted By: Al Valerio (6/22/2009)
Comment: Kodachrome is an amazing film. I am very sad to see it go. I am 23 and shoot Kodachrome, and during my romance of a few years with Kodachrome, I have learned much about light and seeing. My uncle used the film almost exclusively when he did photography decades ago. It was amazing to shoot the same film that he and others shot so many years ago. Thank you, Kodak, for keeping Kodachrome 64 around long enough that I got to use it. My use of it included a long-range, self-assigned photo documentary project at my college (which overlapped the school's 125th anniversary). I've truly made some timeless images on this legendary film. Thank you, Kodachrome!! Your 75-year presence has made a lasting impact on the entire world, and especially on my own.
Posted By: Michael Hiles (6/22/2009)
Comment: I feel the way I feel when hearing of the death of a close friend. Kodachrome is still the best colour film there is, and I am critical that Kodak did little to support it with marketing and processing support. K64 in a Leica is a soul nourishing experience. And this is an emotional wrench.
Posted By: Seong-woo Park (6/22/2009)
Comment: Oh, It's finally gonna be fade away. so sad as one of anti-digital image, which gives a little bit lighter than one with film. when will it be the last moment of film era? It's coming now.... What a sad sad..
Posted By: Liza Heider (6/22/2009)
Comment: Today John MacLean, one of my top photography mentors, teacher as well as dear friend, shared his memories of Kodachrome. John taught me how to hand process film and print in the dark room years ago. We would also shoot slide film of all types and bracket our film just for insurance. I miss those days. I responded to what John had to say: "John, one of the first things that came to mind when I heard this news about Kodachrome was the story you told me a long time ago--a special smell you encountered when you opened the Kodachrome cannister. You said "mmmmm...I love the smell of Kodachrome." This story is so bittersweet. Everyone is saying how sad they are, but the truth is, I don't think we're sad Kodachrome will no longer exist. Hardly anyone buys it now. I think we're sad because we are living in different times, and saying goodbye to Kodachrome is one way to remind us of our very complicated lives and modern world in which we now live. Kodachrome days were simpler days. Yet, film shooters understand the deep complexities and risks when shooting a moment that will most likely never repeat. Hand holding a camera at 1/15 of a second, f2.8 at ASA 64. It's so difficult to do that, and you wait and wait for your images to come back. Film is romantic. At least to me anyway. This is what makes this story so compelling. The younger modern digital artists that has never had to deal with heartbreak over losing a great shot or improperly exposing miraculous images on film will never undertand it. And that's okay. Liza
Posted By: Abbie Someone (6/22/2009)
Comment: It has been said before, but bears repeating: thanks for the memories.
Posted By: Il seok. Won. (6/22/2009)
Comment: [Korean] 안ë...,<1/2"ë크ë>. ë 잊 않을ê1/4. [English] Good bye,<KODACHROME>. I'm going to miss you.
Posted By: Jeff Knee (6/22/2009)
Comment: Kodachrome was my preferred color film since the early '80s and as recently as last year. Changes happen and I went digital for my business a few years back. But for my art I kept using Kodachrome and scanned my best shots for exhibits, such as http://capturimage.smugmug.com/gallery/2163212_5272w#389231843_Bqpqh On that web album over 95% of the color photos were done on that film. But at least it lasts so long in storage. My late grandfather's slides from the 1930s-50s still look great. Wonder if digital backups will last as long??
Posted By: Bill V. (6/22/2009)
Comment: While I realize that progress is inevitable, I take this time to reflect back on the golden world that was Kodachrome. I suppose, I'm an old fuddy-duddy now (strange to hear myself utter those words) but I have to exert myself to make my DSLR's results look anywhere near those I achieved so effortlessly with KII all those years ago.
Posted By: Christopher J. Davies (6/22/2009)
Comment: This is sad but necessary transitional period witnessed by the last generation of silver halide photographers. In 1976, I attended the SUNY School of Film & Media. Peter Laytin, a disciple of Minor White had communicated Minor's prediction to our class. RIP Kodachrome and Film.
Posted By: Eric Larson (6/22/2009)
Comment: I can't help but feel I've lost a friend. This film taught me everything about photography I know. I have a picture made from a Kodachrome slide on my fireplace mantle of me as a baby on my parents lap. It would have been taken in 1960. The color is accurate as if it was taken yesterday. It is a picture I will retain for as long as I live. I wonder if the digital formats I shoot now will even be viewable in 50 years.
Posted By: Gary Gustafson (6/22/2009)
Comment: Sad, pathetic. Probably the best transparency film the world has ever known is tossed on the scrapheap. Hey, Kodak, film isn't quite dead yet. Kodachrome scans beautifully; and its stable, almost archival, image won't be rendered irretrievable as digital technology "advances" (have you tried to read an 8" floppy disk lately?). My Kodachrome II slides from the 1960s look as bright and colorful as those I took last year on Kodachrome 64, and I don't need to boot up the computer to view them. Well, maybe the Chinese will have the good sense to pick up the production rights and equipment... I'll look forward to the introduction of Chinachrome 25 and 64.
Posted By: Eric Uecker (6/22/2009)
Comment: Nothing will ever replace the thrill of opening a new box of processed Kodachrome and seeing just how beautiful the world was before my lens. For me, the best adventures always began with a departure date and my M-Leicas loaded with Kodachrome, one with 64 and the second with 200. While 200 wasn't the most favored of Kodachrome offerings, I loved the flexibility it gave me no matter the shooting condition, and the outcome never let me down. If you love Kodachrome and want to see great historical 4x5 chromes scanned at high rez, visit the gallery at shorpy.com. I've linked it in my comment title. 19 pages of WWII era images. You'll love it!
Posted By: andrew wood (6/22/2009)
Comment: sad day indeed. I love this film and it will surely be missed. I am glad for all the great photography that was captured with it
Posted By: Kodachrome Lover (6/22/2009)
Comment: A very sad day. I was looking forward to many years of shooting kodachrome for the archival longevity and the wonderful colors captured. Being able to see a picture by holding a mounted slide up to a light is a great thing vs. digital files on hard drives and CDs that need to be maintained over the decades unlike kodachrome. After the end of next year I'll probably be shooting Velvia and trying out Astia, both made by Fuji. I've never heard any other slide film made by Kodak, except kodachrome, be recommended as a slide film to shoot. Time to wake up Kodak! You've been passed by!
Posted By: Glenn Showalter (6/22/2009)
Comment: This change is not good,like so much of the instant gratification generation. Kodachrome as with nearly all film products should be here to stay.
Posted By: Christian Carneiro (6/22/2009)
Comment: It's a sad day for those that know what the PKM 25 was. It's even sadder for Kodak to loose its identity. Can we now call Kodak "Kodak"? Or is the contemporary Kodak more like "Kingston", Apple or something else? They'll need to work hard on a new image, given their digital image is as serious as an Instamatic!! ( besides their Pantone...of course...). Hope the company survives!!! It's an icon of the XX century...
Posted By: Rafael C. LLausas (6/22/2009)
Comment: Que sorpresa !! Ayer dia del padre recibi de mi esposa e hijos un dispositivo para transferir a digital mis diapositivas Kodachrome que he tomado desde que mi padre me inicio en el gusto por la fotografia hace mas de 40 años, conservo en mi poder tomas que hicieron mi abuelo y mi padre, aun conservan imagenes nitidas y colores vivos. GRACIAS a KODAK por permitirnos todos estos años grabar bellos momentos y poderlos conservar no solo en nuestros corazones y mentes. He visto con agrado su respuesta a la era digital y estoy seguro que pronto nos sorprenderan con algo que siempre nos han dado, el poder plasmar bellos momentos y escenarios.
Posted By: Alex Baker (6/22/2009)
Comment: I shoot digital these days. But Kodachrome is like a loved one, you think it will always be there for you. Ready to go with you at a moments notice. And like someone who has lost a loved one. I wish I had shot a little more Kodachrome. I will forever miss the glorious saturation that was Kodachrome.
Posted By: Angelo (6/22/2009)
Comment: Well it would be nice to try a different film, with the demise of KC, but the brains trust here in Australia arent even going to bring the new Ektar into the country! You want to support film and try the new stuff, but you cant get it. Unbelievable! Velvia it is then....
Posted By: Michael Diggles (6/22/2009)
Comment: I shot this image http://www.diggles.com/photography/1965/6508_Green_River/6508C-25_White_cliffs.jpg in 1965 with Kodachrome II and later (2007) needed it for a U.S. Geological Survey banner http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2007/3046/ It was great film.
Posted By: Peter B. Kaplan (6/22/2009)
Comment: My Father, G_d bless him, started me on Kodachrome. i still have the original Kodachrome slide that he did of me at show and tell in 4th Grade and it looks as good now as when he shot it. When I documented the historic Statue of Liberty project I shot over 125,000 Kodachrome slides. I really will miss the beautiful colors and sensitivity to light that Kodachrome produced. Every time I edit my digital I miss my Kodachrome.
Posted By: Peter B. Kaplan (6/22/2009)
Comment: My Father, G_d bless him, started me on Kodachrome. i still have the original Kodachrome slide that he did of me at show and tell in 4th Grade and it looks as good now as when he shot it. When I documented the historic Statue of Liberty project I shot over 125,000 Kodachrome slides. I really will miss the beautiful colors and sensitivity to light that Kodachrome produced. Every time I edit my digital I miss my Kodachrome.
Posted By: Ken B (6/22/2009)
Comment: My first exposure to Kodachrome came in the early 80's working for Anthony Edgeworth. That was all he shot and to great effect. A decade later I was working for Kodak's Advanced Motion Picture group helping to push forward the digital film era. The look of film is still hard to replace.
Posted By: Tom S (6/22/2009)
Comment: Gloom, despair, and agony on me; deep dark depression, excessive misery.... It's not a surprise that they're pulling the plug on Kodachrome. Those of you who, like me, grew up photographically with Kodachrome, were probably expecting this, as I have been. Even so, I'm still bummed. I do like to pull a roll of K64 out of the freezer every now and again and go out and shoot some images that just have that unique look. I hear that E100G/GX and E100VS are much like Kodachrome in appearance but processed with E-6. Guess I'll have to give those a try. Ah well. Time to grab the last 8-10 rolls of Kodachrome out of the freezer and head out on a photo expedition, shoot up the rest of it, get the stuff processed and bid it a fond, but sad, farewell.
Posted By: Neil Robertson (6/22/2009)
Comment: Interesting that two of the iconic technologies of image communication of the 20th century have faded into history almost simutaneously: National Television Standards Commission (NTSC) broadcast format in favor of HDTV on June 12, 2009 and Kodak Kodachrome still image film in fovor of digital on June 22, 2009.
Posted By: Wan Chi Lau (6/22/2009)
Comment: I grew up shooting Kodachrome. Even though I went to work for Kodak's digital imaging division after college and have not shot film since 1993...I still treasure the thousands of Kodachrome slides in my collection. Thanks for the everlasting memories!!!
Posted By: nick (6/22/2009)
Comment: it's a sad day indeed, but it's been in the works for a long time and no company is going to keep a product that only accounts for 1% in sales..technology moves forward and as much as i luv film i do enjoy the convenience of digital, i just hate having to spend $1200 for a dslr to match my $300 olympus om1...
Posted By: mark (6/22/2009)
Comment: This is very sad news to be sure. And as a die hard film fan, I don't like this news. But to equate this -- as at least one person does below -- with 9/11 -- even if partly in jest -- is unfathomably disrespectful to those who lost their lives that day.
Posted By: Gerald E Gaugl (6/22/2009)
Comment: Sad day indeed. Thanks K25 and K64 for the memories you captured for me on all the fun trips we took together since 1967. Looking in the the freezer I see we will enjoy a few more trips this summer,sniff sniff. Hope your cousin "Carousel" who resides with me has a slightly longer life (than I) so I can still enjoy our past advendtures. Gerald E. Gaugl
Posted By: Edwin Clements (6/22/2009)
Comment: Maybe somebody could buy the Kodachrome product line from Kodak and keep making it - provided that we can keep getting it developed. It might be a good move for somebody. In my case, I have 4 rolls of K200 and 13 rolls of K25 in the freezer - I guess I'll have to go on and use them.
Posted By: http://www.jahrling.com (6/22/2009)
Comment: I've used Kodachrome film for ophthalmic photos pre and post op for close-up results ever since 1953, and you just could not beat it for exactness in color and in details. (These 35mm slides are still as bright after all of these years.) I think it may be time for me to retire too, if this wonderful product becomes unavailable in the very near future.
Posted By: Jean (6/22/2009)
Comment: What a sad day. I knew it was coming but that makes no difference to how I feel. Please think again Kodak. Kodachrome 64 is unlike its modern counterparts and there's no way they can replace it.
Posted By: NM (6/22/2009)
Comment: After Kodachrome is gone I'll shoot digital only. First Agfa scala, then Kodachrome 200 and now this. No reason to use film any more, you can keep your ektars, boys.
Posted By: Danny Haskins (6/22/2009)
Comment: This makes me sad. I was hoping to use more Kodachrome once I started making money in the world. I have only been able to use frozen Kodachrome from the 80's before. But I just ordered 3 fresh rolls as I know I'll never be able to get them again. I can't wait to see all the petitions called "Mamma don't take my Kodachrome away!" haha!
Posted By: Ranger 9 (6/22/2009)
Comment: I love the melancholy, elegaic tone of many of these entries... but I can't help being reminded of the reaction here a few weeks ago, when it was announced that one of my favorite restaurants had closed. "I'm sad to see it go," many people said, "even though I haven't eaten there in years." Well, if you HAD eaten there, it wouldn't have closed...
Posted By: Chris Nielsen (6/22/2009)
Comment: I will remember this day like I remember 9/11. I love Kodachrome so much I don't think photography will ever be the same for me now. Give me a beer so I can cry into it please!
Posted By: Josh Bryant (6/22/2009)
Comment: I wish there was any way that we as a community could get you to reconsider. I know it doesn't make any business sense ... but this is just a sad day.
Posted By: Claudio Bonavolta (6/22/2009)
Comment: I did my first 20 years of color photography with Kodachrome 25. Although I had to switch to something else earlier (K25 was stopped several years ago), I still feel a bit sad ... Anyway, Thanks kodak, for the quality of that film that has been a milestone in the history of photography.
Posted By: Sune (6/22/2009)
Comment: Shooting only digital for seven years now, Some weeks ago I found an old KR64 in the back of the refrigerator, I put it in my Leica M6 that I haven't been using for years and the result blow me away. I'm in love with photography again, I had forgotten how beautiful film is and there is no need to manipulate pictures in front of a computer. So I just bought another ten rolls of KR 64 and now this. Please Kodak reconsider your decision about KR 64, to retire Kodachrome is bad business practice and will hurt the Kodak brand name, it's like Leica would not make M cameras or Porche 911 cars. Kodchrome is as good today as it was 74 years ago. Please let Kodachrome live for ever!
Posted By: Greg Morris (6/22/2009)
Comment: Thank you Kodak. Thank you Dwayne's. There is nothing like Kodachrome. I have put a lot of K25 and K64 through my F 1n's and FTb's. The 35 year old slides that are in dark storage look like 'yesterday'. Some of todays digital cameras have settings to 'emulate' film, and that is laughable in comparison. Kodachromes are the 'keepers of light'. So many moments in time....... I have to go now....the lid on my deep freezer is going to start opening and closing.......
Posted By: Henry (6/22/2009)
Comment: I can remember how wonderful it was when KR10 went to KR25 and then to KR 50. What heady days! While working in Cameroon in the late 60s, used KR exclusively - how beautiful those slides still look. Yes, we all move on to digital, but is it really better? KR will still be missed!!
Posted By: c boyd (6/22/2009)
Comment: Very sad day. Our family's treasured images are almost entirely on Kodachrome. Please reconsider. Kodachrome is how we keep things the way we remember them. Cathy & Edgar
Posted By: David Duff (6/22/2009)
Comment: A sad day indeed. This is like one of my favourite photography professors passing away. Thank you Prof. Kodachrome (and Profs. Godowsky and Mannes) for the wonderful lessons about light and the capture thereof. I will try to give my children a few brief lessons while I still can. And thank you Kodak for hanging on so long. I've been down this road before with Agfa and the RapidoPrint system and more recently Polaroid. What is there left? Great memories!
Posted By: Leon Gamble (6/22/2009)
Comment: Philo asked what Paul Simon thought - He already said it "Moma don't take my Kodakchrome away."
Posted By: Ken Rockwell (6/22/2009)
Comment: I always prefered Velvia anyway. Farwell KR. ;)
Posted By: Kubie (6/22/2009)
Comment: What a sad day. But let us think about the reasons. The world goes digital with millions of pictures, which were spread all over the internet day by day and we're unable to see them all and if so just clicking one time on a pic and that was it. What a mass-ware were the few good pics will go under. As I will speak for all these friends interested in collecting aircraft-slides, this hobby will now come to an end. I never can trust a digital pic as it could be faked and it has no value as it can be copied. It's like no stamps anymore for the philatelists. In fact, the next generation for our hobby is buying digital equipment and if they realy wanted to turn back and using a slide film like a K64, they will at least turn away by taking a look at the rising prices for this film in recent years. So a bit of the problem (only 1% customer) is surely a house made. With tears in the eyes. R.I.P. K64.
Posted By: Ray (6/22/2009)
Comment: Thank you for the memories!
Posted By: Steve Lindenman (6/22/2009)
Comment: My first experience using Kodachrome was in the early 70's when I shot 8mm movie film. I graduated into using K25, and K64 in my 35mm days, and have loved the rich colors ever since. Although, I shoot 99.9% digital these days, it saddens me to know that I can't ever go back to my Kodachrome days.
Posted By: Dargie (6/22/2009)
Comment: This is a sad day, and the end of my film photography. From now on I am digital all the way. Why hasn't the best film on earth captured what's left of the film market? I don't get it. Nothing else comes close.
Posted By: John Stempien (6/22/2009)
Comment: The end of an era - I've used kr64 since my introduction to the film in the late 80's as my dad was an avid user having been a professional photog for over 1/2 century! He shot some of his best shots 'shots of a lifetime' using kr64. The hundreds of family slides we have dating back over 48 years is testament to the kodachrome process - as vivid today as when they were shot compared to lackluster dulling of other slide technology. I'll have to buy a few more rolls and use them on my 3 mnth old newborn son. I guarantee he will see the richness of colours afforded by this film 30-40 years from now on my kodak slide projector! Congrats Kodak for a brilliant film.
Posted By: Frank Meier (6/22/2009)
Comment: Yes, it is sad news. I was moved to photography by Kodachrome. I enjoyed the colors, the resolution, the fascination of images taken by light. But honestly, today's news was no surprise to me. I switched to digital a couple of years ago and enjoy the quality of the latest cameras. Archiving is no more just storing slides in a dark, dry place, off course. But you can get around the problem: just copy your precious shots to a new medium after a while until really safe long term storage media will be available. And prints done properly with pigmented ink on a good paper will last very long. So, I say farewell to Kodachrome! Thank you for bringing me to photography.
Posted By: Arthur Smith (6/22/2009)
Comment: I still have one roll left, which expires 4/2010. I am saving it for hopefully, some special moments this year, like a vacation with my son. Digital is not everything, and once you have worked with the magic of film, well, it is just a different experience. Yes, this is indeed a sad day. -Arthur
Posted By: Vicky Lamburn (6/22/2009)
Comment: I just finished about 160 miles of hiking and shot the whole lot using KR64. I also have another big KR64 project which if anything, the demise of Kodachrome will stop it becoming a 'Pittsburgh Project', 2010 is the deadline. Thank god E100G and E100VS/EBX are also excellent.
Posted By: Brian R (6/22/2009)
Comment: The day I've dreaded has finally come. I'll thank Kodak for the bright colors of my father in Korea, 1958. For his wedding, my birth, graduation, wedding, and the birth of my own child. In 50 years when the colors have faded from my own memory I'm sure they'll still be there in the Kodachrome. But with the end of K64, so is the end of my Nikon F, my days of shooting film, and (if you're listening, Kodak) my revenue stream.
Posted By: cagwait (6/22/2009)
Comment: re change is good?? only good if the change is for the better. kodachorome has a special quality , slides shot on this film look like they were taken yesterday , 30+ years on. Its still the only proven archival way of making colour photographs. Digital technology has not been around long enough to be proven , some of my cdroms are now unreadable. its a sad day for photography
Posted By: smh (6/22/2009)
Comment: This is truly a sad day for the photo industry. As far I can remember Kodak has been my preferred film brand and seldom has the quality been so refined. I'm glad to have experienced the magnificent quality of KODACHROME, some of my fondest memories has been immortalized by the use of KODACHROME and Minolta hardware.
Posted By: Fabio (6/22/2009)
Comment: Kodachrome is my favourite film, it's really sad to hear that, I won't be buying any other film from Kodak anymore. Kodak and Kodachrome, a winemaker and their best wine with hundreds years of tradition... no, it's not right. In protest, I'll be burning what's left of my Ektar 100 and Kodak Gold, see on youtube in a few days.
Posted By: F. N. Ley (6/22/2009)
Comment: It is a sad day indeed. My favorite film is going away. I have many Kodachrome slides that my dad took in the early 50's in Afghanistan and Greece that look as if they were taken just a minute ago. A friend gave me his collection of Kodachrome slides that he took in Greece and Egypt in the mid 50's. Again, the slides look as if they were just taken. One feels that you can stretch out your hand and touch those images taken long ago. I only have about 5,000 Kodachrome slides in my collection and they are just wonderful frozen moments of time. I will buy a few rolls and take just one exposure. Your exceptional product will be missed.
Posted By: Barth (6/22/2009)
Comment: My first Kodachrome experience goes back to the Kodachrome-X shot in my uncle's Leica III. Until the mid-90's, I bought K64 exclusively for 35mm Annual Report, magazine and advertising jobs. In the eighties, I ordered it by the cases. Sadly, I retired Kodachrome in the latter 90's, not because of "Digital", but because the jobs I shot were better suited to the more "vivid" style emulsions produced by Fuji (and much later by Kodak too). E-6 and C6R emulsions were also better suited to "Desktop scanning" than Kodachrome. (Although Kodachrome, in skilled hands with multi-million-dollar equipment produced far superior results.) The nail in the Kodachrome coffin for me was the 45-min. "dry-to-dry" turn-around and excellent push/pull processing and clip/snip tests offered by the best labs. The K-14 process with its complexity could never be adapted to that. While I morn the loss of this old friend, you can have my 24mmX36mm digital sensor when you pry it out of my cold dead hands. The King is Dead, Long Live the King!
Posted By: Michael D'Avignon (6/22/2009)
Comment: There never has been nor will there ever be another Kodachrome or anything even remotely like it. If you have never experienced Kodachrome and don't take this opportunity to do so before it is gone forever then you are truly missing out on an original. It's a film that looks like no other when loupe it on a light box. Go out and get a few rols. Just do it!
Posted By: m craig (6/22/2009)
Comment:
Posted By: Bob (6/22/2009)
Comment: One of the pioneers of Kodachrome was Ernst Haas. Check out great Kodachrome work at ernst-haas.com
Posted By: Michael (6/22/2009)
Comment: No other film has the history or emotional resonance of Kodachrome. I shot only two or three rolls of it a year, but with an eye to posterity, recognizing that those slides may long be viewable after every digital photo I've ever taken has been lost on a scratched-up CD-ROM. I just ordered a couple of dozen rolls of Kodachrome for photographing my children growing up. Dwayne's -- stay in there for us -- I'm going to be sending you Kodachrome for processing for a long time.
Posted By: Jackie (6/22/2009)
Comment: What a sad day for photography! As I am being forced into digital, I'm learning it's not about skill through the lens anymore, it's about manipulating images on a computer. RIP Kodachrome.
Posted By: RC Shannon (6/22/2009)
Comment: I wonder, how many photos were taken of and by my family in years past on kodachrome film? Too many to even think about remembering. Thank you Kodak for all that you have done to make memories last forever on Kodachrome film.
Posted By: Emanuel Lowi (6/22/2009)
Comment: As a working photographer assigned often to places with tons of great light, Kodachrome has always been my secret weapon. K25 is the best film ever for the conditions I work in. K200 solves problematic situations like nothing else. This is a BAD DECISION by a soulless bean counter. I object and ask Kodak to re-consider, just like Coca Cola did years ago.
Posted By: Eduardo (6/22/2009)
Comment: It s pathetic, McCurry says that the 90% of his 1 milion slides archive was shot with kodachrome, but he tries to convince us that a cappr ektachrome is even better that a kodachrome.. Cmon Kodak, dón t you use the death of kodakrome as an oportunuty to sell ektachrome, please. It s about dignity.
Posted By: Erez (6/22/2009)
Comment: This is a really sad day for me.. I loved this film so much - the colors and tones were just perfect. It's really hard to get something close to it with digital cameras... R.I.P Kodachrome
Posted By: Philo (6/22/2009)
Comment: Has anyone asked Paul Simon what he thinks of this?
Posted By: Frederick C.Alexis (6/22/2009)
Comment: I am Living in Haiti in the caribbean one of the poorest countries of the 1/3 world . I have use Kodachrome before i went digital , the results were extraordinary , but times change and technology will go on , Kodachrome will go down in history as one of the greatest films ever
Posted By: Jakub (6/22/2009)
Comment: Nooooooo...........!!!!!!!!
Posted By: Carol (6/22/2009)
Comment: Kodachrome is the best film ever made. I shot only Kodachrome 64, rated at 80, for years. Finally went digital about 7 years ago so I abandoned this film before Kodak did. I can't say I would go back to it if they kept it, because the ease of digital is too overwhelming, but I can say that the look of Kodachrome is what is in my mind in finalizing each digital photo I process. Thanks, Kodak, for providing the best film in the world for so long, it's richness and beauty will never be equalled in any format.
Posted By: Al Satterwhite (6/22/2009)
Comment: if you couldn't shoot it on Kodachrome, it didn't exist
Posted By: Greg (6/22/2009)
Comment: Kodak is doing a great disservice to the photographic history of the world. Kodachrome is the the only archival color film, period.
Posted By: John Jones (6/22/2009)
Comment: I have boxes of slides of my own trip to Europe in 1970 and trip made by my wife's family in the 1960's. Kodachrome captured those special events and scenes to be shared with everyone. If copyrights are an issue, don't display this last part, but it seems Paul Simon's words and music are a little sadder with today's announcement. Kodachrome They give us those nice bright colors They give us the greens of summers Makes you think all the worlds a sunny day, oh yeah I got a nikon camera I love to take a photograph So mama dont take my kodachrome away
Posted By: Eric (6/22/2009)
Comment: First time I picked up a camera in 1978 and made serious photos, it was on Kodachrome. I shot my whole photo essay class in journalism school on PKR64. I've always favored Kodachrome throughout my career. I've been digital for six years. It's the only film I really miss.
Posted By: George Melvin (6/22/2009)
Comment: In writing and publishing books dealing railroad history, it has been a joy to work with Kodachrome slides taken as early as 1938; that film changed the world as we see it! George Melvin
Posted By: WyoDan (6/22/2009)
Comment: Kodachrome 200 was, to me, the perfect color film. Other films might have had the 'gee wiz' color or sharpness, but nothing else had the soul and depth. I've been mourning that loss for years, and now comes word of the end of Kodachrome in total. I'm thankful for all of the images I made with Kodachrome, as well as the images my grandfathers made. They are all still as beautiful as the day they were shot. RIP Kodachrome. Your legacy will live on.
Posted By: Chris (6/22/2009)
Comment: I can pick up one of my parents old Kodachrome slides from the 60s and they look like they were shot yesterday. I'm glad I've gotten to use it before it was gone. Time to stock up and shoot some until the end of 2010.
Posted By: TA (6/22/2009)
Comment: I've been shooting professionally since '76; this film is truly amazing and still beats digital any day w/ accuracy of highlights, shadows, contrast, color, & depth. Digital sensors will have to become 3-dimensional in its Bayer pattern & more exact than just a RGB pixel pattern to even become close to Kodachrome film. Change is always difficult but not always beneficial.
Posted By: Ala'a (6/22/2009)
Comment: I feel as if I've just lost a good friend whom I haven't seen in a while :-( Kodachrome was my favorite film, until a few years ago when it became increasingly harder to develop it. Even with the advent of digital, I continue to shoot old fashion slides and enjoy them on a projector. Farewell, Kodachrome :"( and thanks for the memories ...
Posted By: Lance Karp (6/22/2009)
Comment: When my father was in Korea durnig the war, she shot tons of slides. Only the Koadachromes survived. Still rich with color, it was because of those slides I became a photographer.
Posted By: blobil (6/22/2009)
Comment: It's such a BAD news, I feel very sad. This is undoubtely an amazing film to use. Thank you Kodak for a having developped such a wonderful fim. I'll shoot from now as much as K64 as I can (I don't know if this is part of your marketing strategy ...). A bad day for photography.
Posted By: Frank Poirot (6/22/2009)
Comment: Nearly 40 years ago one roll of Kodacrome ignited a passion for photography that lives with me today. I still get excited today looking at those slides with the rich colors and true tones. No new photo technology today can replace this wonderful film for capturing warm light and color. Thank you Kodak for haning in there long after it might not have made business sense to produce Kodachrome.
Posted By: Mr Jones (6/22/2009)
Comment: I'll never buy a roll of Kodak film again. This is devestating news for film users
Posted By: Brad Jones (6/22/2009)
Comment: I have been shooting kodachrome for as long as I have had a 35mm camera, 22 yrs. now. I have a small cache of it and will probably buy some more to shoot over the next 18 months. I have digitized all my father's old kodachromes and posted most on my Flickr page. I have also placed them in carousels to provide what I think is the best possible storage. They are now 46 years old more or less and look fabulous. Ghosts from the past, some I knew, some I never. All Immortal on kodachrome. I will probably concentrate my next 18 months worth of kodachrome shooting on family members, as that represents a majority of my use of the film anyway, and that is what will matter for the next generation's consideration of the slides I generate. I have already started experimenting with Fujichrome and will experiment with ektachrome also. I am sad that in my life I have seen a number of icons pass, but appreciate Kodak for giving me the opportunity to shoot such an incredible film for as long as I have. I will forever be my favorite. The anticipation of seeing that package in the mail, and then seeing the images for the first time, that is the kodak experience for me. http://www.flickr.com/photos/tinkerszone/sets/72157606390445137/
Posted By: SteveKelly (6/22/2009)
Comment: Kodachrome was the first color film I shot. I can remember sending the film to Kodak with a prepaid mailer and counting the days until the processed slides came back. Each frame taught me something about photography. Later (much later) as a Kodak photographer I shot Kodachrome by the brick on international trips because of its superior keeping quality and incredible sharpness. Kodachrome was is fact so sharp that we could make 18/60 foot enlargements from a single frame for the Kodak Colorama in Grand Central station. I think I'll take a look at some of those originals in our film vault today...put a loupe on a few of them and just remember.
Posted By: Daniel Bayer (6/22/2009)
Comment: I know this news will be sad to all of us today, but I sincerely hope we can seize the moment and get out and make great images on the film for the next 18 months. When one looks at what is going on in the photography industry coupled with an off kilter economy, it is truly inspiring how Kodak has supported this film for over 74 years as we can still get it processed through next year. We need to take a step back and fully realize what a statement that makes in regards to Kodak's commitment to film and film photographers. It is conceivable that with Kodachrome retired from the product line, Kodak could come up with a really stellar film that would handily appeal to those who love Kodachrome. The new Ektar 100 film should be a strong indicator of what is possible. I will be most sad if all people can do is fault Kodak for laying Kodachrome to rest when it is a miracle we have it now given all the circumstances. Thank you Kodak for supporting the film as long as you have and in particular, the opportunity in the using it for the nest 18 months.
Posted By: Alan G Miller (6/22/2009)
Comment: My world has ended today as I only shoot kodachrome for all my underwater photography, and have been for the last 20 years. No other film can do what kodachrome does for me underwater in giving me the most accurate colors. I still have almost 30 rolls of kodachrome 25 in cold storage and just bought 40 rolls of kodachrome 64 when I heard the film has reached it's end. And to think I have always told people they would have to pry the kodachrome out of my cold dead hands. Well my world took a serious blow today and I fear the last day the film is processed.



