No Kodachrome mailers after 12.31.09

PKM-25 · Apr 29, 2009

I just got an email today from Dwayne's saying that they were notified today by Kodak that they will no longer be honoring Kodachrome Mailers after 12.31.09.

So keep that in mind as the year progresses.

I have no idea what this means in terms of CVS or Walmart or the film it self, so lets not jump to conclusions as Kodak might be just continuing the streamlining of the product so we can still use it for awhile.

nickrapak · Apr 29, 2009

That's not just Kodachrome mailers, that is for all Kodak PK mailers. This has been predicted before, and is now just confirmed.

lilserenity · Apr 30, 2009

Does anyone know if this includes the mailers you get in the currently process-paid boxes of Kodachrome 64 in the UK?

I have a whole stack of the stuff which I am actively using which has 2010 expiry dates and it's gonna be a real pain if in 2010 we'd have to additionally pay processing costs. (At the moment I pay around £25 for three rolls)

Keith Cocker · Apr 30, 2009

lilserenity said:
Does anyone know if this includes the mailers you get in the currently process-paid boxes of Kodachrome 64 in the UK?

I have a whole stack of the stuff which I am actively using which has 2010 expiry dates and it's gonna be a real pain if in 2010 we'd have to additionally pay processing costs. (At the moment I pay around £25 for three rolls)

I think I read elsewhere that this applies only to the US. I suspect that Kodak have a contractual obligation to process as the film is sold process-paid.

Steve Smith · Apr 30, 2009

lilserenity said:
Does anyone know if this includes the mailers you get in the currently process-paid boxes of Kodachrome 64 in the UK?

Not sure but I would think that legally, they would have to accept them for 'a reasonable length of time' otherwise it would be a breach of contract.

As to what a reasonable length of time is, I'm not sure but as you can still buy Kodachrome in the UK with these mailers (in fact, you can't buy it here without them) then they would have to be honoured for at least up to the expiry date of the film and probably a few years longer.

I'm pleased that I used my 1986 Kodachrome mailers last year as I'm sure that the reasonable length of time had long passed for them.

Steve.

railwayman3 · Apr 30, 2009

lilserenity said:
Does anyone know if this includes the mailers you get in the currently process-paid boxes of Kodachrome 64 in the UK?

I have a whole stack of the stuff which I am actively using which has 2010 expiry dates and it's gonna be a real pain if in 2010 we'd have to additionally pay processing costs. (At the moment I pay around £25 for three rolls)

I think that the issue is with US mailers purchased separately to cover the cost of processing non-process-paid film.

Kodak say that the UK mailers are just for convenience in sending, and it's the cassettes themselves which are marked as process-paid...(I've successfully sent a couple of films to Switzerland in a jiffy bag when I'd lost the mailer).

I'd guess that, if and when Kodachrome is discontinued, the prepaid films will be valid at least until the final film expiry date.....I'd be well peeved if not, but I'm thinking it just might be an idea to run down my own stocks a bit, before I start buying a whole lot more!

lilserenity · Apr 30, 2009

*wipes forehead*

Phew. I appreciate that by 2012 options (ie: I'm sure if Kodachrome comes through fresh until the end of '09 we should have 12/2010 expiries and a good year to get it mailed and processed after that) might be limited and I'll happily move over to Provia 100F (great stuff in itself) but there is just *something* about Kodachrome's look.

stealthman_1 · Apr 30, 2009

Kodak and Dwayne's both have recently rejected mailers I sent in that were good through late '07. Dwayne's, in the past told me they would and have honored them. No more. Only a few left, but...

Photo Engineer · Apr 30, 2009

Just FYI, I have seen joy expressed elsewhere that "there is a new Kodachrome batch out there" because the expiration date or emulsion # changed.

Here is a hint for you all. The emulsion # of Kodachrome takes the form "ABCD" where A is the only important number for you. "A" if the same between rolls, regardless of expiration date or "BCD" is the same emulsion coated the same day. Therefore 6232 and 6416 are both from the same production run of Kodachrome even if the expiration date is 2 - 3 years different between them.

So, if you check what you have, and they all begin with the same #, they were made in the same run, on the same day. The other numbers are for internal records keeping.

PE

kdanks · Apr 30, 2009

lilserenity said:
Does anyone know if this includes the mailers you get in the currently process-paid boxes of Kodachrome 64 in the UK?

Someone from Dwaynes just answered this on the Kodachrome Project forum. See the 4th message in this thread:

http://www.kodachromeproject.com/forum/showthread.php?t=298

The answer is no, by the way, process-paid films sold here are not affected.

Kevin

Ektagraphic · Apr 30, 2009

I don't see why some people are so mad at Kodak for not taking these mailers. There were a couple of really angry people on photo.net
If I was in charge at Kodak, I would only honor the mailers for a couple of years after they were purchased. I could see being mad about the mailers with out dates on them, but for the ones with dates, you bought them know they would expire....

railwayman3 · Apr 30, 2009

Photo Engineer said:
.

Here is a hint for you all. The emulsion # of Kodachrome takes the form "ABCD" where A is the only important number for you. "A" if the same between rolls, regardless of expiration date or "BCD" is the same emulsion coated the same day. Therefore 6232 and 6416 are both from the same production run of Kodachrome even if the expiration date is 2 - 3 years different between them.

So, if you check what you have, and they all begin with the same #, they were made in the same run, on the same day. The other numbers are for internal records keeping.

PE

Not doubting what you say at all, but numbers beginning where "A" is "1" seem to have been around for a long time.
I seem to have the idea from somewhere that one "master roll" produces around 25,000 35mm films, which seems low when another quoted figure is about 1,000 films per day being processed at Dwaynes.
Am I totally confused (again? :rolleyes: ):confused:

Photo Engineer · Apr 30, 2009

The numbers do roll over and so before "1BCD" there may have been a "9BCD" or a "0BCD". IDK. It could be that they are using the first two digits now. This is what I know about it from before.

I cannot help beyond this.

PE

stealthman_1 · Apr 30, 2009

Ektagraphic said:
I don't see why some people are so mad at Kodak for not taking these mailers.

I'd be angry too if I had $1000 worth of these still sitting around. Previous communication has led people to believe, expiration date or not, as long as Dwayne's had a contract with Kodak, they would be honored.
As an aside, in my state, you don't get to sell things like this with expiration dates, isn't it enough that the company gets to use my money, interest free with a guaranteed sale?

railwayman3 · May 1, 2009

I bought a stack of similar (undated) official Agfa E6 prepaid mailers a year or two ago in a special cheap deal.
Shortly after, and totally unexpectedly, Agfa went out of business.
The receivers announced, in all the photo mags, that they would honour the mailers up a final expiry date, (as I recall, 5 or 6 months after), but I was still left with some 30-40 unused mailers (I would have just have been wasting film to use them up).
Who's fault? Mine, of course, for taking the chance on a cheap deal, when I knew it would take me two or three years to use the mailers.
It's life. Some you win, some you lose.

L Gebhardt · May 2, 2009

With the old mailers do you just send them to Fair Lawn NJ address, or should they be sent to Dwayne's at another address?

Ektagraphic · May 2, 2009

All of the remaining mailers need to be addressed to Dwayne's.

No Kodachrome mailers after 12.31.09

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