Kodak retires Kodachrome

[NW Mailing List]

I was able to get the link to work after fiddling around with it and have taken the liberty of cutting and pasting to make its' message readable for all. It apparently didn't work for some systems.


Kodak retires Kodachrome

The company will discontinue the color film after 74 years.
Posted by Elizabeth Strott on Monday, June 22, 2009 10:52 AM
Updated: 4:50 p.m. ET.

"They give us those nice bright colors. They give us the greens of summers. Makes you think all the world's a sunny day," Paul Simon sang in the 1973 song "Kodachrome."

It looks like Simon will have to come up with a new song now that Eastman Kodak (EK) is retiring its Kodachrome color film after a 74-year run.

Kodachrome sales have plunged since the introduction of both new films and digital technology, and the product now makes up less than 1% of Kodak's still-picture-film sales, the company said. About 70% of Kodak's revenue now comes from its commercial and consumer digital businesses.

"It was certainly a difficult decision to retire it, given its rich history," Mary Jane Hellyar, president of Kodak’s Film, Photofinishing and Entertainment Group, said in a statement. "However, the majority of today's photographers have voiced their preference to capture images with newer technology -- both film and digital."
 
Hellyar said current supplies of Kodachrome will likely last until early fall. Dwayne's Photo, in Parsons, Kan., is the only photofinishing lab that still processes the complex Kodachrome film, Kodak said, and it will continue to do so through 2010.