Kodachrome in the news -- Interview with Grant S. of Dwayne's ...

[chris00nj]

"Film is keeping Kodak alive. Kodak had film sales of $2 billion in 2007, which was about 20% of total sales. However, they made a profit of $369 million off film sales. Conversely, sales of digital cameras were $4.6 billion (about 45% of total sales), but they lost $92 million."

I'm not sure where you got that information, but it isn't accurate.

It comes from Kodak's 2007 10-K (their annual report for 2007), page 26 & 27.

 

[Rob-F]

Bill Pierce gave us a Leica-talk in St. Louis, sometime in the mid-1970's. Kodak had just discontinued one of the Kodachromes and replaced it with another. Probably it was Kodachrome II being replaced by Kodachome 25. Or else it was Kodachrome-X giving way to Kodachrome 64. At any rate, Bill said that he would have to stop shooting color for a couple of years until the bugs were worked out of the new film. He also said he wasn't sure he was too happy with his then-new M5. He thought he might rather have his old M3 back.

I wonder if Bill remembers that evening now?

 

[Al Kaplan]

Just about nobody projects slides anymore. Color negative rules the market. The big advantage of the Kodachromes, ALL the Kodachromes, is the stability of the dyes over the years. It beats any of the Ektachromes or color negative films. Maybe Kodak should put some research money into producing a color negative film using Kodachrome dye technology.

 

[Fred Burton]

"It comes from Kodak's 2007 10-K (their annual report for 2007), page 26 & 27."

According to Kodak's 3Q 2008 report, film sales were $764 million.

"* Sales worldwide totaled $2.405 billion, a decrease of 5% from $2.533 billion in the third quarter of 2007. Revenue from digital businesses totaled $1.641 billion, a 2% increase from $1.603 billion in the prior-year quarter. Revenue from the company's traditional business decreased 18% to $764 million on continued declines in Film Capture and Traditional Photofinishing."

 

[Melvin]

Interesting. I don't like the nostalgia angle, though. Kodachrome should be seen as a unique medium which is technically superb. It has a three dimensional quality in compositions with strong complementary colors (like green eyes, red lips; or red posy green foliage;, or burning airship, violet night) that is really special and leaves a film like Velvia looking pretty flat.

You can tell the reporter did his research on Wikipedia because of the Afghani girl mention. Also he sounds like Ted Baxter from Mary Tyler Moore.

If miracles do happen they'll bring back Kodachrome in 120 format. That and dye transfer printing.

 

[varjag]

Does the european Lausanne lab still accept the mailers and rolls (and send them out to Kansas and back to me)? Anybody knows?

Yes they still do. The mailers and film have to be not from the U.S. market however; similarly, Dwayne's won't honor European mailers if sent directly to them.

 

[philipb]

Yes they still do. The mailers and film have to be not from the U.S. market however; similarly, Dwayne's won't honor European mailers if sent directly to them.

UK-Lausanne-Kansas-Lausanne-UK is about three weeks at the moment.

A little OT, but why doesn't K64 scan like the old stuff? I scanned a ton of family holiday slides from the 60s and 70s with outstanding results, probably K25 I guess. The K64 I'm using now takes a lot of fiddling.

From 1971, New York to Southampton, QE2:

 

[Pherdinand]

thanks Eugene.
Have two rolls lying around for 2-3 months already, i should send them out this weekend.

 

[varjag]

UK-Lausanne-Kansas-Lausanne-UK is about three weeks at the moment.

I had record-breaking 12 days Norway-Switzerland-USA-Switzerland-Norway turnaround last month: they arrived quicker than the lot send to Dwayne's directly same day.

A little OT, but why doesn't K64 scan like the old stuff? I scanned a ton of family holiday slides from the 60s and 70s with outstanding results, probably K25 I guess. The K64 I'm using now takes a lot of fiddling.

They scan mighty fine for me, but then I have no older stuff to compare. Here are some on marine theme too, no crops at hand however:

 

[Al Kaplan]

When I look at the over sharpened bright colored images that people seem to prefer these days I can understand why Kodak got out of the Kodachrome business.

I guess it was when the patents had expired on the original Kodachrome that Kodak got some competition for a few years with a film made by 3M. It was contrasty and I never liked the colors, but it was less expensive, at least here in the U.S.

Our government wanted to do away with Kodak's monopoly on Kodachrome processing and let other labs compete, so no more packaging of Kodachrome complete with a prepaid processing mailer, adding to the cost for consumers. Not so in Europe, and soon grey market French and British Kodachrome II was being sold in the U.S. that included processing and was packed with a mailer. U.S. Kodak labs honored the pre-paid processing, which was essentially free because the European film sold for just a few cents more than the U.S. film without processing. The work of "big government" protecting consumers?

 

[sepiareverb]

Well I'll shoot it till I can't anymore, and project it till I can't see.

 

[sherm]

Al..... Just wait a bit, BIG GOVERNMENT is on the way !!

 

[shadowfox]

Eugene, this photo is just gorgeous.

 

[bean_counter]

Al..... Just wait a bit, BIG GOVERNMENT is on the way !!

Hey, maybe they could make using Kodachrome CUMPULSORY 😀

 

[varjag]

Thanks Will!

 

[bob338]

The big advantage of the Kodachromes, ALL the Kodachromes, is the stability of the dyes over the years. It beats any of the Ektachromes or color negative films.

this is very true, i have around 10,000 stereo slides from the late 40s through the present and the kodachromes are the only ones that have kept their color. all of the ektachromes, anscochromes and other various brands have gone magenta or faded entirely away.

my own slides that i began shooting around 1993 on fuji or kodak elite 100 seem to be holding up, but they have never been left in a damp basement or next to a furnace.

i hope dwaynes keeps processing and accepting mailers for K64, i just bought 100 rolls and a ton of mailers.

bob

 

[Chuck Albertson]

Our government wanted to do away with Kodak's monopoly on Kodachrome processing and let other labs compete, so no more packaging of Kodachrome complete with a prepaid processing mailer, adding to the cost for consumers. Not so in Europe, and soon grey market French and British Kodachrome II was being sold in the U.S. that included processing and was packed with a mailer. U.S. Kodak labs honored the pre-paid processing, which was essentially free because the European film sold for just a few cents more than the U.S. film without processing. The work of "big government" protecting consumers?

There *was* some competition eventually, but it didn't really arise until the late 1980's, when Kodak spun off their processing to Qualex and the quality tanked. Partly in response to that, a few independent labs (The New Lab, A&I, BWC, and others) made the not-insignificant investment in setting up and running a K-14 line, and for a few glorious years you could get really good standard processing, push-processing of K200 for a few dollars more, etc.

Mind you, I have had no complaints about Dwayne's quality, or their prices.

 

[Rob-F]

Just about nobody projects slides anymore.

Well, Al there are a few of us still projecting slides. I've been fascinated by projected images ever since Cinemascope and Cinerama came out. So when I was a kid I decided I would show my pictures that way when I grew up. here's my rig:

 

[35mmdelux]

" Kodachrome was the first color film invented by the Eastman Kodak Company. "

I was not aware of this interesting fact. Tks.

 

[Rob-F]

Kodachrome was invented by two musicians, Mannes and Godowski--I am going by memory here, on the spelling. They timed the chemical baths by whistling bars of classical music.