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Kodak Kills Kodachrome
eldavojohn writes "Another sign that digital cameras are slowly phasing out analog comes with Kodak's announcement to discontinue Kodachrome film. This should come as no surprise as Polaroid film was phased out long ago. At least the analog photography industry knows how to change with the times."
But Mama don't take my Velvia away!
I don't care why you're posting AC
Another sign that digital cameras are slowly phasing out analog
this is not a sign of anything. the article is being used by the submitter in an attempt to prove a point that he wants to make. in fact, if you read the entire article the assertion of the summary is clearly not supported. this film is hard to develop and there is only one lab in the US that does so. it also is among the worst-selling film that Kodak makes:
Kodachrome accounted for less than 1 percent of the company's total sales of still-picture films
so the story here is that Kodak got rid of the bottom selling film of their line. companies do that all the time, and this has nothing to do with digital cameras. film is still sold pervasively and easy developed at dozens of establishments in most towns.
Historians in 250 years time will be very interested in your holiday snaps. It won't matter that they aren't well taken etc, they will still tell them a lot about life in the early 2000s.
Evade death? Beans! Sometimes photography is just a matter of seeing something you'd like to have a static reminder of. It's not always about leaving some kind of legacy. Usually it's just as simple as "Wow. That mountain scene is lovely. I'd like to see that when I get back to my office every day. " Freakin' cynic.
And then when your basement floods/house burns down/fill in disaster you lose the one single physical copy your have. The advantage to digital photos are it is very cheap to make copies of them, and/or you can store them online so you will never truly "lose" your pictures. Plus I can fit 5,000 pictures in my pocket on a thumb drive without having to carry 500 lbs. of photo albums over to someone's house to look at them. Digital photos also do not degrade with the passage of time.
"But this one goes to 11!"
In other news, the Kodachrome Basin State Park is to beconcreted over to make way for the new Sandisk Extreme IV SDHC Mall. '"The majority of today's consumers have voiced their preference to experience the natural world with newer technology -- both DVD and Blu-Ray", said Mary Jane Vizigoth, president of Kodak's Film, Photofinishing And Other Stuff We're Trying To Get Rid Of Group. "While the Basin is a truly iconic Park that has served tourists very well for decades, the simple truth is that people have moved on and are no longer visiting it in sustainable volumes."
Seriously, this is a terrible shame, though hardly a surprise (here in the UK, we already have to post the exposed film to Kodak Switzerland, who forward it to the only lab in the world that can process the film, Dwayne's in Kansas). It's a bit like waking up one morning to hear that oil paints are no longer available, but acrylics should be an adequate substitute. Kodachrome is a truly unique film that works in a completely different way to any other emulsion, and gives a distinctive 'look' that no other film (let alone digital) can reproduce. Check out The Kodachrome Project to see why some of us will miss it so much.