At 09:31 PM 9/13/2005, Herb Chong wrote:
E-6 chemistry will be around for a while, in small, variable quality, and expensive rolls, since there are multiple suppliers. Kodachrome's days are numbered.
My favorite films are already gone anyway. Kodak made an ultra-fine grain negative film with an ISO of 25, if I'm not mistaken. It's been so long since I could get it that I forget the details of it, but I believe it was the finest grained color negative film that Kodak ever made for pictorial use.
I used to love Kodak's Technical Pan B&W, and I believe it's gone as well. (I used to buy that in 150' bulk rolls.) I loved the ultra-fine grain. The deeply extended red response gave my images a certain tonality that I liked as well.
I also loved Kodachrome 25. I shot much more of it than I ever did of Kodachrome 64. Some of the best scenics I have ever taken were on Kodachrome 25.
I can remember reading several years ago about a photographer lamenting the loss of Kodachrome 8x10 sheet film. I've never seen any in person, but I imagine the images you could create with 8x10 Kodachrome would be fantastic.
Looking back over history, it occurs to me that there were several changes in gear and materials that many people mourned. The large format boys mourned the (near) death of their format. Even the medium users I think complained about those new "miniature" 35 mm cameras. ;) As for film, we lost the large format Kodachrome, as I mentioned. This was followed by the discontinuation of many other types of film held precious in the minds of many photographers. Today, digital cameras of all sorts are pushing out film cameras (as well as film itself).
I guess the point is, no matter what we lose, there always seems to be something else that comes along which allows photographers to create stunning images, and to share their unique vision of the world. I'll miss certain types of film, and I'll miss certain cameras, but at least I won't have to worry about giving up photography for a very long time to come indeed.
When one door closes, another is opened. ;) take care, Glen
