Why did Kodachrome fail in the end?

[DREW WILEY]

I'd happily use Kodachrome again if they offered it in 8x10 sheets priced as low as 35mm film. Any venture capitalists out there?

 

[Paul Howell]

I'd be quite interested in seeing the sales numbers and the manufacturing costs of Kodachrome in its last ten years. I suspect that a combination of cost to manufacture increases and decline of sales, and the success of Ektachrome and also Velvia all contributed even before digital. The cost to manufacture a film product is quite high today. Certain marketplaces are willing to pay premiums for films that are unobtainable or otherwise unique; Witness New55. Large corporations like Kodak can never serve niche markets as well as micro and small companies do.

Dead Link Removed

I think the issue for both Kodak and Fuji is scale of production, massive plants that cannot just run a small of batch of any film. In terms of transparency films, I have never been a big fan of the slide show, when all the direct slide to print papers and chemistry gone all that is left is a digital copy so just shoot digital. I still shoot color for R4, but I would not shoot slide films. At this point I don't know who long Fuji will make any E 6 films, Ferreina is having birthing pains, all slide film may be just memories.

 

[Sirius Glass]

Ektachrome was always better.

Eh? Really?

Grain? Sharpness? Dye stability?

E6 films surpassed it. Prior versions couldn't really touch it, except for convenience.

Kodachrome when I was using it specialized in muddy colored skieswhile Ektachrome had skies the way people remember them.

 

[bobwysiwyg]

I'd happily use Kodachrome again if they offered it in 8x10 sheets priced as low as 35mm film. Any venture capitalists out there?

Contact The Donald.

 

[alanrockwood]

I wonder if part of the ultimate failure of Kodachrome in the marketplace was that Kodak did not update the product line after the K-14 process came out.

Did R&D on the Kodachrome product line stop well before it was discontinued?

 

[Sirius Glass]

I wonder if part of the ultimate failure of Kodachrome in the marketplace was that Kodak did not update the product line after the K-14 process came out.

Did R&D on the Kodachrome product line stop well before it was discontinued?

Kodak continued R&D on Kodachrome actively even in the last few years.

Kodak announce when the end of production would occur and from then on there was a run on the film. The last of Kodachrome quickly flew off the shelves and the supply ran out.

 

[MattKing]

PE has posted that his information was that a significant portion of the last master roll of Kodachrome had to be discarded because the film was not selling fast enough to be able to sell it within the quality control parameters acceptable to Kodak.

And the chemicals needed to process it had become special production products, used only for Kodachrome, and probably extraordinarily expensive as a result.

Kodachrome was desighed as a high volume motion picture film which could be used effectively for stills as well. When volumes went down, it became more and more ill suited for the market.

 

[Roger Cole]

Kodachrome when I was using it specialized in muddy colored skys while Ektachrome had skys the way people remember them.

A little vignetting in the upper corners from my lens shade but otherwise pretty much how I remember the sky.

Fall Colors01 by Roger Cole, on Flickr

 

[Sirius Glass]

Kodachrome when I was using it specialized in muddy colored skys while Ektachrome had skys the way people remember them.

A little vignetting in the upper corners from my lens shade but otherwise pretty much how I remember the sky.

Fall Colors01 by Roger Cole, on Flickr

The muddy brown Kodachrome skies were during the early 1960s. By 1966 I had switched to Ektachrome only [64, 100, 200, tungsten.

 

[Photo Engineer]

PE has posted that his information was that a significant portion of the last master roll of Kodachrome had to be discarded because the film was not selling fast enough to be able to sell it within the quality control parameters acceptable to Kodak.

And the chemicals needed to process it had become special production products, used only for Kodachrome, and probably extraordinarily expensive as a result.

Kodachrome was desighed as a high volume motion picture film which could be used effectively for stills as well. When volumes went down, it became more and more ill suited for the market.

I did not say that. I said that master roll coating was decreasing in frequency and that unsold film was being returned as expired.

R&D continued for a short time after introduction of the new process, but was stopped shortly after the introduction.

PE

 

[alanrockwood]

...R&D continued for a short time after introduction of the new process, but was stopped shortly after the introduction.

PE

That's what I suspected.

 

[Ken Nadvornick]

A little vignetting in the upper corners from my lens shade but otherwise pretty much how I remember the sky.

Fall Colors01 by Roger Cole, on Flickr

That's how I remember my Kodachrome skies as well. Such a beautiful film. Such a nice feeling on Saturday mornings in the fall, knowing that you had a Nikon F2 loaded with a new roll, a blue-sky day, low-angle warm sunlight, extended shadows, a chill in the air, and an entire weekend free.

Ahh, Kodachrome...

"Let us now praise famous men, and our fathers that begat them. All these men were honored in their generations... and were the glory of their times!"

Ken

 

[Roger Cole]

Heh, if only I had remembered how damned sensitive my Vivitar Series 1 28-105 is to lens shades on the wide end. Folding it back doesn't do it. You basically need to remove the shade. But I liked it well enough with that "look of fall" to include on my Flickr page anyway.

That's from my "farewell to Kodachrome" binge in 2010. I missed all the new stuff but was able to buy up some off eBay.

 

[MattKing]

I did not say that. I said that master roll coating was decreasing in frequency and that unsold film was being returned as expired.

R&D continued for a short time after introduction of the new process, but was stopped shortly after the introduction.

PE

Thanks for the correction PE. Sorry for the mistaken recollection.

 

[accozzaglia]

Since we're in a sharing mood...

What I shot this weekend night five years ago with KR64, an Asahi Pentax SV, and a 50mm f1.4 Super Takumar prime. (Friday, 22 October 2010)



I only got three years with Kodachrome. It would have been 13 years had those dudes at National Camera Exchange in '98 not steered/scared me away from Kodachrome with remarks like "oh, you'll have to wait a week for it", and "it's harder to shoot than other films," and "it's expensive," and "you won't like it," and "we're a Fuji dealer, so here, little girl, try this Sensia…"

(OK, the last one was a mild exaggeration, but the lack of faith they had in my excitement to explore emulsions and their obsession with steering customers toward Fujifilm products was something I'll never forget. While misogyny may be tough to prove incontrovertibly to the satisfaction of bros who swear up and down that misogyny don't real, any woman worth her salt knows that misogyny's happening when it's happening. Jerky jerks.)

It was also their pushing of Fujifilm why I never got to try any Ektachrome until around the same time as Kodachrome. I was impressed by E200 when I could still get it.

That's how I remember my Kodachrome skies as well. Such a beautiful film. Such a nice feeling on Saturday mornings in the fall, knowing that you had a Nikon F2 loaded with a new roll, a blue-sky day, low-angle warm sunlight, extended shadows, a chill in the air, and an entire weekend free.

 

[georg16nik]

A little vignetting in the upper corners from my lens shade but otherwise pretty much how I remember the sky.

Fall Colors01 by Roger Cole, on Flickr

This might count as blue sky if the area was polluted and low altitude, like at-sea-level low.

 

[Xmas]

Hi

It was my fault I only used 25 ISO so stopped when it was stopped did not like the colours of 64 or 200(?).
So switched to Fuji E6!
Then to C41 then local mini lab closed.
So Mono,...
I shoot a lotta film.

Noel

 

[accozzaglia]

because a blue sky shouldn't render as if it was touched by a '2000 Flushes' product…

This might count as blue sky if the area was polluted and low altitude, like at-sea-level low.

As Kodachrome blue skies go, how will this do?* And my avatar? Same question.





* it's not even a good scan, but then again, I didn't scan it.

 

[railwayman3]

Kodachrome is history, it's time to accept it and move on.

Nothing wrong with talking about history ???

 

[georg16nik]

As Kodachrome blue skies go, how will this do?* And my avatar? Same question.





* it's not even a good scan, but then again, I didn't scan it.

A bit massaged palette and there is a certain, Kodachromish, environmentally disturbed charm to it but I doubt it's faithful representation of the scenery.

 

[mooseontheloose]

I only got three years with Kodachrome. It would have been 13 years had those dudes at National Camera Exchange in '98 not steered/scared me away from Kodachrome with remarks like "oh, you'll have to wait a week for it", and "it's harder to shoot than other films," and "it's expensive," and "you won't like it," and "we're a Fuji dealer, so here, little girl, try this Sensia…"

(OK, the last one was a mild exaggeration, but the lack of faith they had in my excitement to explore emulsions and their obsession with steering customers toward Fujifilm products was something I'll never forget. While misogyny may be tough to prove incontrovertibly to the satisfaction of bros who swear up and down that misogyny don't real, any woman worth her salt knows that misogyny's happening when it's happening. Jerky jerks.)

It was also their pushing of Fujifilm why I never got to try any Ektachrome until around the same time as Kodachrome. I was impressed by E200 when I could still get it.

When I first started shooting slides it was also some flavour of Kodachrome. I had a very similar experience to yours, checking out various slide film emulsions (I wanted to try them all) at the local camera store (circa 2001) in Hiroshima. They had a cooler for Kodak slide and one for Fuji slide. While browsing the Kodak offerings an older Japanese man told me that I should go with Fuji because it was better (and Japanese!). For better or worse I took his advice and mostly shot various flavours of Fuji for a long while until the demise of Kodachrome loomed near. I managed to shoot a few rolls in the fall of 2010 and was glad I did. Interestingly, even though there are no more Kodak slide films now, I am still given the choice of Kodak or Fuji processing when I bring in my slide film (Provia).

 

[Roger Cole]

This might count as blue sky if the area was polluted and low altitude, like at-sea-level low.

It's very blue for where it was taken. I grew up there.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk and 100% recycled electrons - because I care.

 

[accozzaglia]

A bit massaged palette and there is a certain, Kodachromish, environmentally disturbed charm to it but I doubt it's faithful representation of the scenery.

Wow. Aren't you the cynic!

Palette is whatever default emerged from the Noritsu. When I get to scanning it again myself, I'm sure it won't look quite the same.

And "environmentally disturbed" just sounds like subjective sour grapes with nothing to measure it against.

I could say something comparably snarky about pretty much any film or image I didn't like subjectively. You know, the "clownish punch" of a Velvia sky… or the "pristine sterility" of a RAW digital capture, or… yeah.

 

[accozzaglia]

Interestingly, even though there are no more Kodak slide films now, I am still given the choice of Kodak or Fuji processing when I bring in my slide film (Provia).

That is interesting. E-6 is E-6, I thought, so I wonder what they do differently when going with "Kodak" or "Fuji" process.

 

[Ken Nadvornick]

Since we're in a sharing mood...

The Boys of Summer, 1965

Third row back, left-hand player, Kodachrome-X (ASA 64) in a Kodak Retina Ia
Photo credit to my late dad...

Yep, those are correct Dodger-blue baseball caps.



Ken