KodaChrome: RIP


Its the end of an era as the last processor of Kodachrome calls it quits.

An era now ends. No, no, I’m not referring to the closing of 2010. That’s routine stuff. It’s a more important era that ends. Today, December 30, 2010, marks the death of Kodachrome, the Eastman Kodak product that, more than any other, defined and made possible the age of color photography. Death came at the incredible age of 75, one of the longest runs for a product incommercial history. The New York Times obituary is here.

Kodak stopped making Kodachrome in 2009, and stopped making the chemicals needed to process it, a complex process that could never be done in home darkrooms. Kodachrome had been pushed aside by the replacement of home movie cameras by digital camcorders, and the collapse of the color-slide market. Today, in Kansas, the world’s last remaining Kodachrome processing lab shuts down. The end. Forever.

Kodachrome slides will likely outlast any of todays digital media. 65 Years is a long run for any product.

About Liberty

Blogging is something I do for myself. I've been blogging since Sept. 2003, mostly about politics, guns, and observations about the word around me.
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1 Response to KodaChrome: RIP

  1. Equality says:

    so sad…. to think kodachrome slides went the way of fountain made egg creams 🙁

    Back in the day, we used to do our own canister processing of kodak slides, and the chemicals used to come in an actual kit, so these people saying it was not done in home darkrooms don’t quite have all the information. I must admit it was cumbersome and not something done more than a couple of times before I gave it up – was actually cheaper to send them out!

    You’re right on point though! whatever is around will most likely stay around when all our cds and dvds and digital media of all sorts are fried.

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