[rollei_list] Re: The End of Kodachrome
- From: Douglas Nygren <dnygr@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 23 Jun 2009 07:14:26 -0400
I had read that to make developing Kodachrome economically viable large
quantities had to be run. That's what someone told me. It would be
interesting to know whether that's true and what the costs were. It was
not a simple process I understand from what I have heard.
Doug
On Jun 23, 2009, at 1:27 AM, Richard Knoppow wrote:
While discontinuing Kodachrome based on lack of sales may make
sense from a business standpoint I rather wonder if sales would have
been better if Kodak hadn't been trying to kill off Kodachrome for a
dozen years. The first step was eliminating processing for sizes other
than 35mm and making even that hard to obtain. Why buy a film that is
difficult to get processed when you can use another film which is
processed by every corner store.
I am not sure why Kodak decided to eliminate this product. One
long standing suggestion is that the processing required substances
which were difficult to control from an environmental protection
standpoint. If this is true it may have made the operation of
processing machines excessively expensive. Since all the film is made
on one line in one factory control on the manufacturing side should
have been easier.
Kodak began eliminating Kodachrome formats and processing very
early on. Up until the announcement of Ektachrome, c.1946, Kodak made
Kodakchrome in sheet sizes up to 11x14. All those went as soon as
Ektachrome came on the market. OTOH, Kodak did not offer Kodachrome in
roll film sizes until fairly recent times. Otherwise it was made in
35mm for still cameras and in 8mm and 16mm for motion picture cameras.
Well, its gone and nothing will bring it back. It was a bit of a
tour-de-force when first made. While Agfa beat Kodak to the punch in
having an incorporated coupler color film it was never anywhere as
good as Kodachrome.
--
Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles, CA, USA
dickburk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
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