8mm Forum: The end of Kodachrome

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Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on June 22, 2009, 06:38 PM:

It was announced on The NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams this evening that Kodak has ended all production of Kodachrome film, after 70 years. It was stated that Kodachrome only accounted for 1% of Kodak's total film sales.
'The end of an American Icon" as Mr. Williams put it.

Posted by Chip Gelmini (Member # 44) on June 22, 2009, 06:46 PM:

See my post here in this section....."In other news"

Posted by Gian Luca Mario Loncrini (Member # 1417) on June 22, 2009, 06:48 PM:

http://www.rnews.com/Video/video_pop.aspx?vids=158024&sid=32018&rid=2004

Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on June 22, 2009, 07:47 PM:

This means a beginning of the end of S8 K40 processing at Dwayne's.

I have 5 rolls in the fridge I should find a worthwhile use for.

64T is nice, but it's not on par with K40.

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on June 22, 2009, 07:49 PM:

As George Harrison stated ...

All things must pass ...

It's one of the reasons why I would like to get this reel of animated commercials out there on Super 8.

Things tend to follow like domino's. Before we know it, even those who have said that they'll be in the Super 8 film business for the long haul, when they see that the profit margin dwindles more and more, the almighty dollar will sadly have the last word and there will be no more Super 8 film stock produced.

I WILL get my reel of commercials made before then!

It's strange. I have always have a melancholy love for the passing of things ...

The passing of the Old West ...
The passing of the silent era ...
The passing of radio's Golden Age ...
The passing of the American animated cartoon studio's ...

The passing of the age of Super 8?

An earlier, simpler time, with it's simpler pleasures, is replaced by the quicker paced, hi-tech age ...

But ohhh ... how much do we truly lose, in favor of the next age?

We have a clearer digital image on a DVD, to be sure ...

But where is the reel changes?
The unkeep and care of those projectors?

What is left?

Insert disc, push play, and lie back in our Lazy-boys, while the next phase of modernization will insert disc, push play ...

and make ourselves, obselete.

Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on June 22, 2009, 10:24 PM:

In a future not too distant, infants will each get a USB port implanted behind the ear at birth and become instantly connected to whatever the Internet has become at that time.

(The wealthy will get wireless, of course!)

Their only conscious reality will be the entertainment pumped directly into their flaccid minds, and their vestigial limbs will be too atrophied to push a heavy video disk into a slot like their ancestors. Robots will accomplish this, lest anyone be injured by the effort.

Their voices will grow faint and rare, squeaking out "Error: lost network connection" and "Error: Low Battery" once in a while.

Rumors will persist within the collective consciousness of lost tribes who made their own entertainment with neither ones nor zeros and manifested images on screens without internal circuitry, yet they will believe it impossible.

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on June 22, 2009, 10:44 PM:

You know Steve, we really aren't all that far from that today, as I'm sure you well know.

Most people, whether young or old, believe everything they are spoon fed whether on the networks or beyond.

The attention span has went to bountiful to nearly a split second, and that, only long enough to see something go "Boom" or entrails splattering across the screen.

It is a fact, that this present generation of young people coming up, is the first generation in years that will actually have a shorter life span than they're parents; due to they're sedentary stationing before the video screen.

and, if I have properly stocked up on lamps and such, I'll be the old crank with one of those old shiny metal things, with strange discs on each end, magically projecting images on walls and such, and they will stare, drooling and proclaiming ...

" Oooh, Purdy! "

Posted by John Hermes (Member # 1367) on June 22, 2009, 11:10 PM:

Kodachrome was a beautiful thing, especially the 1950s version, before Kodachrome II in 1961. I transfer films for a living and have seen hundreds of thousands(maybe a million)of feet of Kodachrome from the 1930s-1980s. Sometimes, well-exposed, in focus, 16mm Kodachrome from the 1940s-1950s has a dreamlike quality. I remember once transferring a particularly good batch from the this period. I made a DVD of it and watched it on my DLP projector. It was like being transported back to those peaceful, slower-paced days, which people who lived back then will remember.
The filmstock didn't have much exposure latitude and an ASA of only 10, but when the photographer nailed the right settings, there's nothing like it. There's a psychological feeling to Kodachrome which no other film or video seems to have. The replacement Ektachrome 64 is a definite step backwards. The color is okay but it's too grainy and just doesn't have the "look". I mourn the loss of this wonderful invention.

Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on June 23, 2009, 09:20 AM:

I share your sentiments John. There will never be anything to compare with Kodachrome film. It was the equivalent of Technicolor to the home movie maker. As you point out, Kodachrome had very little exposure latitude, so you had to really know what you were doing to get a great picture. You had to learn about film speed, apertures, depth of focus, shutter speed, and parallax in those days. So you took great care on every shot to get it just right. As a result, your films usually looked great with steady camera work and short well exposed shots. And, most subjects were carefully spliced and edited and kept mercifully brief .
Contrast that with todays home videos - hours and hours of endless, monotonous, panning and tilting, and talking heads, with no careful composition or editing.
You tell me which is the best.

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