Eastman Kodak announced that the camera film immortalized by Paul Simon’s 1973 song “Kodachrome” was being discontinued after 74 years. Born in 1935, Kodachrome was first sold as 16mm movie film but was later sold in other formats including 35mm. Dwayne’s Photo, in Parsons, Kansas, will continue processing Kodachrome throughout 2010. Kodak will donate the last rolls of Kodachrome to the George Eastman House photography museum in Rochester, New York. Digital cameras give better quality, but aesthetically Kodachrome had something you can’t reproduce digitally, although there will probably be a Photoshop filter someday that will say “Kodachome effect.”

We have also lost most of the photographic consumables of the last 30 years. Remember Grade S Stabilization Paper. It built the phototypesetting market. The stabilization processor held two chemicals, a developer that brought out the image on the paper and a stabilizer that stopped development so that the paper would not be exposed by ambient light. The two chemicals were in plastic bottles that stuck up from the processor and replenished the trays as needed. Although rollers removed much of the liquid as the paper came out of the processor, it was still damp. Some users laid it flat to dry and others hung it on clothes lines (where is stretched slightly).

An entire market grew up to support S Paper. There was that gizmo that hooked on the front of the unit to create a mini darkroom. You inserted the cassette with the exposed photo paper, got it started in the rollers, and then slammed the cover shut. There were two guys at Compugraphic who saw the order for a few thousand of the Ektamatic 214 Processors and went out and started their own company to design a processor with built-in mini darkroom and drum heater for drying. Compugraphic then bought their company.