RIP Kodachrome 1936 - 2009

Another household name passed into history this past Monday, June 22, 2009. Kodachrome film was once one of the common items to have around the house. I would guess that from the time I got my first 35mm camera (fall of 1963 to several years into our marriage, virtually all of our pictures were taken on Kodachrome slides. Processing costs being what they were, we reasoned that we could shoot a whole role of slides then make paper pictures out of 25% of the slides and still come out better than to shoot a whole role of Kodacolor film. Of course, we rarely did make paper pictures from the slides and so we drifted more and more to Kodacolor. Still, we probably have more Kodachrome slides than Kodacolor pictures.

Then in 1996 the company I worked for got a digital camera. It was so new that we really didn't know how to use it and when it made more sense than film. So one of my tasks was to become an expert with this new technology in my spare time. I took several pictures of family events and company events. The technology for downloading digital pictures was still in its infant stages so I thought film still had a place. And it was difficult to match Kodachrome's equivalent of 25 MEGAPIXELS per slide.

With my ow purchase of a digital camera two years later, my use of Kodachrome stopped. I think the rest of the world followed so that Kodak determined that there was no longer any market.

Interesting Trivia
Kodachrome slides (or at least the film they came from) can be dated to a year and quarter the film media was produced. Special codes were used in the non-picture area of the film. If you're interested check out the Kodachrome Slide Dating Guide.