Why did Kodachrome fail in the end?

Meyer Trioplan

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Having collected Kodachromes dating from as far back as 1939, having picked up a number taken in the 1960's and 1970's, and having shot it as well in the 1990's, I always tended to feel that the oldest shots tended to be far superior to those taken after the mid 1960's, be it K25 or K64. From what I can read, the emulsion was different, with a slower ISO rating and a different process (K11 or K12 vs K14) to develop it.

While I still overall like the look of more modern Kodachromes, I'm just as happy to shoot E6 films since they are readily available in 120 format and give great results. If I could shoot the super slow ISO 10 to 12 OLD Kodachrome (particularly in 120) and have it properly processed in old K11 chemistry, I would do so in a heartbeat!
 

mehguy

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The ultimate killer for kodachrome was the lack of labs to develop it at. During the end of kodachrome's life, there was only a couple labs in the world to develop kodachrome, all the rest had moved on.
 

CropDusterMan

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I loved Kodachrome...I shot a lot of projects with it. Didn't Kodak try to emulate it's Kodachrome
with E100SW? Someone told me that once, but I never saw the similarity. Back then, I think I was sending my
Kodachrome to NJ.
 

MartinP

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One should also not forget that Kodachrome being developed only by Kodak, was made illegal in it's largest market. That led to mini-labs being introduced, and run by anyone who could buy one - resulting in the quality being very variable for most users and no longer 100% trustworthy for professional use. At the same time E6 was improving in quality and availability of consistent processing...
 

Vilk

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it didn't "fail" any more than the roman empire "collapsed"

i go for the kodachrome look while photoshopping my colour pictures more often than for all the other looks combined
 

Mainecoonmaniac

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I miss Kodachrome But didn't it fail because the chemistry was only for one film and isn't the processing machinery also special to process Kodachrome?
I've heard that Kodachrome film is basically BW film and the dyes are added to the film during processing?
 

Photo Engineer

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Basiclly all correct. But that is not why it failed.

People converted to E6 or digital.

PE
 

eng1er

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Photo Engineer said:
People converted to E6
Click to expand...

Yes. People loved Kodachrome, but at the end of the day the convenience of local (or self) processing won out. At the height of E-6 popularity, many pro labs offered 2-hour processing. Now that it's gone, everyone misses it, but the reality is that many (most?) of the folks that bemoan it's passing and wax nostalgic about the good old days of K-chrome, shot mostly E-6 in the final years.
 

fotch

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mehguy said:
The ultimate killer for kodachrome was the lack of labs to develop it at. During the end of kodachrome's life, there was only a couple labs in the world to develop kodachrome, all the rest had moved on.
Click to expand...

Lack of users have the need to process film, leading to closing labs due to low volume. While E6 was a factor, the undertaker was Digital.
 

CropDusterMan

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And the Kodachrome slides will still look good in 40 years....how many hard drives and image losses
will we have had by then. Will jpeg and tiff even be readable formats by then?...
 

flavio81

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CropDusterMan said:
And the Kodachrome slides will still look good in 40 years....how many hard drives and image losses
will we have had by then. Will jpeg and tiff even be readable formats by then?...
Click to expand...

Yes they will. They are standards.
Just as I can read images in the PCX format, which was introduced about 1984 or so.
 

AgX

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mehguy said:
The ultimate killer for kodachrome was the lack of labs to develop it at. During the end of kodachrome's life, there was only a couple labs in the world to develop kodachrome, all the rest had moved on.
Click to expand...

In the history of colour photogaraphy were a lot of propriatory processes. For several reasons, including technical and patent reasons. But those also enabled to bind the client to certain labs.

But in the end nearly all manufacturers settled at universal processes.

Kodak was kind of dinosaur sticking to the kodachrome process.
 
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Photo Engineer

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flavio81 said:
Yes they will. They are standards.
Just as I can read images in the PCX format, which was introduced about 1984 or so.
Click to expand...

What about the diskettes they are stored on? I have trouble buying 3 1/4 inch floppies and the larger ones are impossible. Drives are going bad.

PE
 

Photo Engineer

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Oh, BTW, Kodak's official word is that Kodachrome has been "retired". It was the flagship color product and was like an albatross more than a flagship!

PE
 

mehguy

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if kodachrome was able to be developed in c41, id imagine it would still be alive and well. either that or if the k14 process could be done at home.
 

AgX

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But then it would not be Kodachrome...

All one could do would be mimicking the colour reproduction of Kodachrome with a specially designed E-6 film.
 

Ian Grant

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CropDusterMan said:
And the Kodachrome slides will still look good in 40 years....how many hard drives and image losses
will we have had by then. Will jpeg and tiff even be readable formats by then?...
Click to expand...

Not my experience, my fathers Kodachromes have faded very significantly over the years. Optimism can be unfounded and bare little resemblance to reality.

I should add he shot on early Kodachrome and they were processed by Kodak and fading was noticeable within 20 yeras, my Kodachromes shot about 40 years ago are OK but so are my E4, Agfachrome and E6.

Ian
 

TheFlyingCamera

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Supposedly Kodachromes have better keeping properties when dark stored. Put them on a light box or project them often and they'll fade fast. Ektachromes deteriorate faster in dark storage but don't fade as fast on a light box or when projected. That was one of the reasons the commercial world went over to Ektachromes - they were putting them on light boxes and projecting them for editing magazine layouts for hours at a time.
 
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