Kodachrome has come to its end

[Henry Tenby]

this article today will be of interest to slide photographers......
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servl...ory/TPBusiness

Photography buffs fear digital tech will end film's era
Associated Press

September 23, 2008

It is an elaborately crafted photographic film, extolled for its sharpness, vivid colours and archival durability. Yet die-hard fan Alex Webb is convinced the digital age soon will take his Kodachrome away.

"Part of me feels like, boy, if only I'd been born 20 years earlier," says the 56-year-old photographer, whose work has appeared in National Geographic magazine. "I wish they would keep making it forever. I still have a lot of pictures to take in my life."

Only one commercial lab in the world, Dwayne's Photo in Parsons, Kan., still develops Kodachrome, a once ubiquitous brand that has freeze-framed the world in rich but authentic hues since the Great Depression.

Eastman Kodak Co. now makes the slide and motion-picture film in just one 35mm format, and production runs - in which a master sheet nearly a mile long is cut up into more than 20,000 rolls - fall at least a year apart.

Kodak won't say when the last one occurred nor hint at Kodachrome's prospects. Kodachrome stocks currently on sale have a 2009 expiration date. If the machines aren't fired up again, the company might just sell out the remaining supplies, and that would be the end.

"It's a low-volume product; all volumes [of colour film] are down," says spokesman Chris Veronda.

For decades, Kodachrome was the standard choice for professional colour photography and avant-garde filmmaking. But the landmark colour-transparency went into a tailspin a generation ago, eclipsed by video, easy-to-process colour negative films and a desire for hand-sized prints.

Nowadays, Kodachrome is confined to a small global market of devotees who wouldn't settle for anything else. And before long, industry watchers say, Kodak might well stop serving that steadily shrinking niche as the 128-year-old photography pioneer bets its future on electronic imaging.

The film has captured its share of spectacular images: the giant Hindenburg zeppelin dissolving in a red-orange fireball in 1936; Edmund Hillary's dreamy snapshot of his Sherpa climbing partner atop Everest in 1953; and Abraham Zapruder's 8-millimetre reel of President Kennedy's assassination in 1963.

Steve McCurry's portrait of an Afghan refugee girl with haunting grey-green eyes that landed on the cover of National Geographic in 1985 is considered one of the finest illustrations of the film's subtle rendering of light, contrast and colour harmony.

"You just look at it and think, 'this is better than life,' " says Mr. McCurry, 58, who has relied heavily on Kodachrome for all but the last two years of a 33-year career.

Dwayne's still processes tens of thousands of rolls annually but admits sales are sliding.

"If film volumes become so small that we're unable to economically process it, then we might stop," says owner Grant Steinle.