When I was young, it would have been impossible to convince me that this film would EVER disappear (Page 8): When I first started using Kodachrome the ASA was *8! If the exposure...

Dave243 Loc: Bothell, Washington

When I first started using Kodachrome the ASA was *8! If the exposure wasn't spot on there was a blue cast. I never thought I'd ever be able to use an ASA [ISO] of 12,800 and get a useable image, or even the 200 I normally use.

billwassmann Loc: Emerson, NJ

It should never have disappeared but Kodak blew it. They had the first digital but didn't realize what they had. No vision. Very sad.

hpucker99 Loc: Anchorage, Alaska

I discovered Kodachrome 64 back in the early 70's. Best film I ever used. I switched to a print film in the late 80's so I could see the prints, but the colors were never as good as K64.

I now use Canon digital cameras (Rebel XSI, S95), but rarely match the colors that I got from slides.

hpucker99 Loc: Anchorage, Alaska

billwassmann wrote:

It should never have disappeared but Kodak blew it. They had the first digital but didn't realize what they had. No vision. Very sad.

It would have been very difficult for management to decide to further develop a digital business that would cut the legs off their lucrative film developing and printing business. When it finally happened, the Kodak cameras never really stood out (we had a few) and they couldn't make headway in this new market.

gym Loc: Athens, Georgia

hpucker99 wrote:

billwassmann wrote:

It should never have disappeared but Kodak blew it. They had the first digital but didn't realize what they had. No vision. Very sad.

It would have been very difficult for management to decide to further develop a digital business that would cut the legs off their lucrative film developing and printing business. When it finally happened, the Kodak cameras never really stood out (we had a few) and they couldn't make headway in this new market.

It would have been difficult, but not impossible. If Kodak had been forward thinking, they would have realized that their film industry days were numbered. They also had a HUGE medical imaging film business, but medicine, too, has gone digital. And the quality is significantly better than it was with film - with greater margin for error.

It is a shame because Kodak is a major part of our country's history.

wlgoode Loc: Globe, AZ

gym wrote:

quote=hpucker99 quote=billwassmann It should nev... (show quote)

I agree but I think many of us who have been shooting seriously for many years had an emotional attachment to Kodak. It was the mainstay of film and darkroom supplies that we all cut our teeth on. But it seems that many big US companies have trouble with business nimbleness. I look at Fuji who was called the Japanese Kodak and they seemed to be nimble enough to adapt to digital.

gym Loc: Athens, Georgia

wlgoode wrote:

It is a shame because Kodak is a major part of our country's history.

I agree but I think many of us who have been shooting seriously for many years had an emotional attachment to Kodak. It was the mainstay of film and darkroom supplies that we all cut our teeth on. But it seems that many big US companies have trouble with business nimbleness. I look at Fuji who was called the Japanese Kodak and they seemed to be nimble enough to adapt to digital.[/quote]

Yes. They did. Because they were a much better predictor of the future of digital than Kodak. It's kinda like the Swiss watchmakers in the 70's choosing to continue their focus on mechanical watches, in spite of the fact that Quartz crystal was the next big thing. They lost.

wlgoode Loc: Globe, AZ

And many big camera companies that adapted well to digital are also in the medical imaging business- Leica, Olympus and Nikon to name a few.

gym Loc: Athens, Georgia

wlgoode wrote:

And many big camera companies that adapted well to digital are also in the medical imaging business- Leica, Olympus and Nikon to name a few.

Yep. They, too, were better predictors than Kodak. THe small film market for use today in regular X-ray is still dominated by Kodak but I would guess that within 5 years that use will disappear entirely.