Survey - Kodachrome Revival Price Point?

calebarchie · May 12, 2016

Photo Engineer said:
NO ONE WAS INTERESTED.

HEAR THAT!!!!

Except for the few here, no one was interested!

PE

I did it for you and you only my good friend <3

Sirius Glass · May 12, 2016

Are lynchings allowed on the internet? What about full body impalement?

Nzoomed · May 12, 2016

Photo Engineer said:
NO ONE WAS INTERESTED.

HEAR THAT!!!!

Except for the few here, no one was interested!

PE

There was alot of shooters who were using it right up to its end, including Steve Mccurry who has a small stockpile in his freezer

MattKing · May 12, 2016

Nzoomed said:
There was alot of shooters who were using it right up to its end, including Steve Mccurry who has a small stockpile in his freezer

Kodachrome and the Kodachrome process were designed as a movie film, intended to be developed in a movie film process.

The machines and the process really needed 1000s of feet of film at a time to work as they were supposed to.

So when PE says "NO ONE WAS INTERESTED", he really means "not nearly enough were interested".

Nzoomed · May 13, 2016

MattKing said:
Kodachrome and the Kodachrome process were designed as a movie film, intended to be developed in a movie film process.

The machines and the process really needed 1000s of feet of film at a time to work as they were supposed to.

So when PE says "NO ONE WAS INTERESTED", he really means "not nearly enough were interested".

OK, was that why Kodachrome had the remjet backing on it?
I dont think K-lab machines had to do thousands of feet to do a run, they certainly would have had a minimum requirement however.
Im surprised more K-labs didnt pop up back in the day, but i guess its use was declining even around that time.

Anyway, Kodak discontinuing Kodachrome40 Super8 and other film stocks would not have helped, it was VERY popular in the super8 and cine film community.
I expect that super8 kept a good deal of Kodachrome's processing line running.

MattKing · May 13, 2016

In my youth I got to attend a couple of employee family tour nights at the Kodak processing lab where my father was customer service manager.

Those K-14 machines took a reel of spliced customer film with a one mile piece of leader at one end, and a one mile piece of trailer at the other end.

The K-Labs that were the last Kodachrome machines weren't small, but they were smaller - this article includes some comparisons: http://www.kodak.com/cluster/global/en/consumer/products/klabs/index.shtml

calebarchie · May 13, 2016

Sirius Glass said:
Are lynchings allowed on the internet? What about full body impalement?

i like the sound of that.

Lionel1972 · May 13, 2016

Photo Engineer said:
NO ONE WAS INTERESTED.

HEAR THAT!!!!

Except for the few here, no one was interested!

PE

Dear PE, I have a huge amount of respect for you, but you seem to be locked in the same mindset that lead Kodak to prevent themself to invest into any promotion effort regarding their analog products up until recently (hopefully not too late). The key word in your sentence above is "WAS". Based on the same reasonning people should stop producing vinyl records because back in the days when the Compact Disk was introduced, suddenly "NO ONE WAS INTERESTED" in vinyl records anymore. I'm not saying Kodachrome sales could be back at the colossal amount they once were, but I'm certain that with the right marketing and promotional tools there would be a lot more people interested (including me) now than when no one was interested. And I also think this applies to Cibachrome and other legendary products and processes which could interest more people now that they are extinct.

Andrew O'Neill · May 13, 2016

Now, if you asked me about Kodak HIE, then I would play!

mooseontheloose · May 13, 2016

Andrew O'Neill said:
Now, if you asked me about Kodak HIE, then I would play!

Me too!

Nzoomed · May 13, 2016

Lionel1972 said:
Dear PE, I have a huge amount of respect for you, but you seem to be locked in the same mindset that lead Kodak to prevent themself to invest into any promotion effort regarding their analog products up until recently (hopefully not too late). The key word in your sentence above is "WAS". Based on the same reasonning people should stop producing vinyl records because back in the days when the Compact Disk was introduced, suddenly "NO ONE WAS INTERESTED" in vinyl records anymore. I'm not saying Kodachrome sales could be back at the colossal amount they once were, but I'm certain that with the right marketing and promotional tools there would be a lot more people interested (including me) now than when no one was interested. And I also think this applies to Cibachrome and other legendary products and processes which could interest more people now that they are extinct.

Yes I agree, it just needs the right people to think outside the square and come up with solutions.
If Kodak wanted to stay in the film business, they should have adapted and planned for a smaller market long ago before the onset of digital took hold, even if Kodachrome had to go, they could have done a better job to keep Ektachrome alive, the ironic thing is that they told us to use E100g as an alternative (which i was happy enough with using) and then they ditch that, just as i was starting to use the product fore the first time!

Perhaps Kodak are now finally looking at marketing their films better and hopefully they find a new target audience to market to(people like me!)
I commend them on the new super8 camera, but i hope they can fire up their research coaters and make some smaller runs of their discontinued films again!
They wont have a big market with super8 if they dont release a reversal film for the format, yes i think its great that they are taking care of the developing etc, but to appeal to a wider market, they need reversal film for projection, and I for one hope they actually recognise this and im crossing my fingers this may indeed mean we see a return of E100g again!

BMbikerider · May 13, 2016

Let us be truly realistic about this. The emergence of digital killed Kodachrome and most of the other transparencies stone dead. Whilst they still have a long way to go, projected digital images, especially the ones requiring the image to be sized at 1400pixels are almost as good as transparencies were in their heyday.
We as keen photographers can be, and usually are as picky as ever about quality, but the average Joe/Josephine in the street only wants instant gratification from their piddly little camera phones. The takeup of slide film will never ever reach the heights that it once was say 15/20 years ago. This means the vast cost of setting up a new plant to process Kodachrome will never happen. Especially as the cost of film will rise all out of proportion to the quantities used.

BrianShaw · May 13, 2016

Nobody really wants to be realistic in these lamentation threads. But your reality jibes with mine.

Diapositivo · May 13, 2016

I believe in an improving, with time, of the sales of analogue photography.
I think film sales in the next years will improve. They have bottomed around 2008 and there is a slight increase every year, according to some forgotten source.
We first have to revive slide film;
Then, maybe, if analogue photography continues to improve in gathering interest, peel-apart instant film could be revived;
Then, maybe, a process like Cibachrome.
And finally, after the world begun again shooting film as a habit, Kodachrome. Kodachrome is probably the least likely to ever see the light, of all photographic processes. But who knows?

PE has a clear interest in downplaying the possibility of a Kodachrome comeback because he's afraid of having to spend his remaining life in a barn, so he's not neutral on the subject

Wayne · May 13, 2016

Lionel1972 said:
I'm not saying Kodachrome sales could be back at the colossal amount they once were, but I'm certain that with the right marketing and promotional tools there would be a lot more people interested (including me) now than when no one was interested. And I also think this applies to Cibachrome and other legendary products and processes which could interest more people now that they are extinct.

No. You are being irrational if not delusional.

removed account4 · May 13, 2016

i am willing to bet people who are all weepy about it being gone
and say " if it came back at 200$ a roll including processing &c
i would buy 100 rolls a year and it will be my only film like, forever, i will do everything
i can to keep this project alive &c &c " ... won't.

maybe they just buy one roll, try it and complain quietly that it wasn't the same
as they remember and never buy another roll ...
then the project goes belly up...

... and then of course a few months later when a thread appears about how
people are so upset that the new and improved "reborne" kchrome is gone
they be all weepy saying how they miss the film and would have bought hundreds of rolls ...

i almost want to put all these kchrome threads on ignore.

BrianShaw · May 13, 2016

jnanian said:
i am willing to bet people who are all weepy about it being gone
and say " if it came back at 200$ a roll including processing &c
i would buy 100 rolls a year and it will be my only film like, forever, i will do everything
i can to keep this project alive &c &c " ... won't.

maybe they just buy one roll, try it and complain quietly that it wasn't the same
as they remember and never buy another roll ...
then the project goes belly up...

... and then of course a few months later when a thread appears about how
people are so upset that the new and improved "reborne" kchrome is gone
they be all weepy saying how they miss the film and would have bought hundreds of rolls ...

i almost want to put all these kchrome threads on ignore.

That is the cycle of life in a consumerist society... Well stated!

removed account4 · May 13, 2016

BrianShaw said:
That is the cycle of life in a consumerist society... Well stated!

thanks, i try

Wayne · May 13, 2016

I'm willing to pay thousands to create a dedicated Krazies for Kodachrome forum

Photo Engineer · May 13, 2016

Kodak advertised Kodachrome heavily until the early '90s when sales began to lag. About then it shared ads with Ektachrome, which had sales far greater than Kodachrome.

Kodachrome was coated once a year and supplied the entire world for that year at about that time. Then the coating schedule slipped because unused outdated Kodachrome was being returned. Gradually slippage to the coating schedule to about 1 time every 2 years, and just one master roll. When returns on that became too great, costs could not be supported.

As for keeping of the solutions, you have three developers with the developing agent and the coupler mixed together. These don't stand around long. In KRL we used to make blanks with no coupler or developer both for keeping and to allow easy experimentation. But to keep it running well, you had to keep it running or it went bad.

It is such a complex product that it overwhelms the making of vinyl records by orders of magnitude. You talk about this as a simple undertaking, but it is not. Steve Frizza worked a near miracle to get the results he got! And that is just with the process. The film already existed.

PE

pdeeh · May 13, 2016

God how I get sick of all this mimsy oh-its-impossible-no-one-would-make-it-or-buy-it nonsense.

Look at the poll at the top of the thread.

43 people would buy Kodachrome!

FORTY-THREE!

That's more than enough to support the rescue of some obsolete plant, refurbishment and recommissioning of same, let alone the building of a coating line and the startup of some chemical process engineering companies to supply the materials, plus of course the re-animation of a few dead engineers (obviously there are some possible roadblocks with that if they chose to be cremated, but hey, everything's possible if 43 people just wish hard enough ... surely?)

BrianShaw · May 13, 2016

LOL. pdeeh!

Diapositivo · May 13, 2016

Jnanian was right. The survey shows more than 57% of respondents would pay "any price". If that boundless love was representative of the feelings of the analogue community, Kodachrome would have never ceased being. People don't necessarily put their money where they put their mouth.

Gerald C Koch · May 13, 2016

pdeeh said:
God how I get sick of all this mimsy oh-its-impossible-no-one-would-make-it-or-buy-it nonsense.

Look at the poll at the top of the thread.

43 people would buy Kodachrome!

FORTY-THREE!

That's more than enough to support the rescue of some obsolete plant, refurbishment and recommissioning of same, let alone the building of a coating line and the startup of some chemical process engineering companies to supply the materials, plus of course the re-animation of a few dead engineers (obviously there are some possible roadblocks with that if they chose to be cremated, but hey, everything's possible if 43 people just wish hard enough ... surely?)

Are you sure its not 42, "the meaning of life, the universe, and everything."

Really these Kodachrome threads are trying everyone's patience except for a few wackos. Go and do a unicorn census or something else as productive.

Photo Engineer · May 13, 2016

What? Fifty Seven percent? My screen shows 3% and 57% would not buy it AT ANY PRICE. You all have it backwards. No one seems to want it at all.

PE

Survey - Kodachrome Revival Price Point?

What is the MAXIMUM you be willing to pay for Kodachrome plus processing?

film + processing <$40 per roll

film + processing <$50 per roll

film + processing <$60 per roll

film + processing <$70 per roll

No price limit

uninterested at any price

calebarchie

Sirius Glass

Nzoomed

MattKing

Moderator

Nzoomed

MattKing

Moderator

calebarchie

Lionel1972

Andrew O'Neill

Moderator

mooseontheloose

Nzoomed

BMbikerider

BrianShaw

Diapositivo

Wayne

removed account4

BrianShaw

removed account4

Wayne

Photo Engineer

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pdeeh

BrianShaw

Diapositivo

Gerald C Koch

Photo Engineer

Survey - Kodachrome Revival Price Point?

What is the MAXIMUM you be willing to pay for Kodachrome plus processing?

film + processing <$40 per roll

film + processing <$50 per roll

film + processing <$60 per roll

film + processing <$70 per roll

No price limit

uninterested at any price

Moderator

Moderator

Moderator

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