I am not surprised that film sales, especially reversal, tanked. Print magazines (especially such as National Geographic) and even websites used to insist on reversal film for published work...wasn't National Geographic responsible for 300,000 rolls of Kodachrome alone per year? Once they and their ilk went digital, the writing was on the wall. Also amateur users can now do a "slide show" digitally.
However, in this decade the market has stabilised and begun to grow again. It will never be what it was, but the remaining manufacturers are seeing that there is still a market and it's expanding. Kodak are probably betting on super 8, 16mm and 135 sales to make Ektachrome viable. There's a business case. For pukka Kodachrome with colour dyes added during the processing and multiple layers dealing with different colours....the cost to bring it back seems prohibitive. Even if Kodak could manufacture the film, who can process it?
So while I agree that an E-6 product is more likely, I warn against calling it "Kodachrome". Unless Dwayne's still have their K14 machinery mothballed and can resurrect it without much cost...and Kodak can make a product which can use the old machinery with minor modifications to the chemistry that do not require changes to the machinery itself.
Heck, I am just happy to have Ektachrome back. And I agree, nobody is going to produce a film for a "new" process. We have C41, E6 and traditional B&W. Unless Kodak can reintroduce K14 without much cost to themselves and anyone who still has K14 machinery.
However, in this decade the market has stabilised and begun to grow again. It will never be what it was, but the remaining manufacturers are seeing that there is still a market and it's expanding. Kodak are probably betting on super 8, 16mm and 135 sales to make Ektachrome viable. There's a business case. For pukka Kodachrome with colour dyes added during the processing and multiple layers dealing with different colours....the cost to bring it back seems prohibitive. Even if Kodak could manufacture the film, who can process it?
So while I agree that an E-6 product is more likely, I warn against calling it "Kodachrome". Unless Dwayne's still have their K14 machinery mothballed and can resurrect it without much cost...and Kodak can make a product which can use the old machinery with minor modifications to the chemistry that do not require changes to the machinery itself.
Heck, I am just happy to have Ektachrome back. And I agree, nobody is going to produce a film for a "new" process. We have C41, E6 and traditional B&W. Unless Kodak can reintroduce K14 without much cost to themselves and anyone who still has K14 machinery.