Kodachrome Obituary
 

Being amongst those born before the word "pixel" was, I couldn't help but pause for a moment of silent reverence when I saw this reminder at cnn.com:

Kodachrome-Dead today at 75 - CNN iReport

with further info on the Kodak web site:

KODACHROME Discontinuation Notice

Kodachrome, we will remember you with fond nostalgia as we move ever forward with your descendants such as 16 bit raw 21.1 megaPIXEL full frame images...and yet more to come. Sing along everyone...you know the song "Kodachrome" by Paul Simon.

Yeah, I remember when....When I shot stills back in 71-83 I used Ektachrome in 1 cam for shooting sports along with my trusty TriX but for the quality stuff it was nothing but Kodachrome. MAn I loved that stuff. Slow as molasses but nothing could touch it for color, richness and just plain looking great.

Sing along...It gives you those nice bright colors...... sigh, I'm gonna miss you my old friend.

I remember shooting Kodachrome 25 with my trusted old Nikon F2 and old Nikkor 50mm f/1.2. Spent many a days capturing spectacular landscapes on Kodachrome film. I've got a whole drawer full of Kodachrome slides that still have as vivid color as when they were first developed.

Really sad to see this piece of photographic history put to an end.

-Garrett

Kodak discontinued Kodachrome because photographers quit buying it. That it lasted so long is a testament to its former popularity. I don't think any other film in Kodak's vast portfolio had the staying power of Kodachrome.

That said, I quit using it in the 1970s. Negative films were better for what I was after -- color accuracy and dynamic range. Today, negative films are just jaw-droppingly spectacular. The top end B&W emulsion (TMY-2, aka 400Tmax) is far and away the best B&W film ever produced. The top end color emulsion (400Portra) is just scary good -- fine grained, excellent skin tone, buttery smooth tonal transitions; it excels in all ways over it's older kin.

But the king of Kodak's film portfolio is probably their Vision-3 500T cine emulsion (400Portra stock is derived from Vision-2 IIRC).

I'm just sayin' that the state of the art of film is excellent today. I don't miss Kodachrome at all.

That said, this is about what you'd expect: that film is a fully mature and awesome achievement after 100 or so years of development. Similarly to internal combustion engines for cars.

Yet, this won't save film. Digital is a disruptive technology which will shortly kill all film. Digital isn't yet "better" than film, but it's both cheaper and way more convenient. And anything that can shave time and money off a production schedule / budget is going to get a good close look, and will be adopted as soon as it's "good enough". And Digital is just about good enough to shove film completely out of the cinema workflow. If if that happens, still picture film will be collateral damage and lost as well.

Again, that day isn't far off. And *then* I'll be grieving. But not now, and not for Kodachrome.