Kodak announced that it is discontinuing it’s famous Kodachrome line of film. I greet this news with sadness. I remember using Kodachrome years ago, when I was in highschool and again in college. More recently, I’ve used Ektachrome, a film with which I’ve been able to achieve stunning results (in terms of color rendition, clarity, and so forth). However, the digital age has been upon us for some time now and sooner or later film will be a quaint thing of the past.
In some ways, this is a good thing. Film processing produces a bit of pollution and waste that digital photography virtually eliminates. Furthermore, digital manipulation can be less expensive and time consuming than the “old” way of chemicals and enlargers. No the results are not the same; they can’t be the same. The process is different. Thus, it is neither better nor worse in my opinion, simply different. I can accept that and adapt. Along the same lines, photography is open to more people due to reduced costs. This is another good thing as there are some sharp eyes out there who might otherwise not have a chance to practice the art.
Still, I miss days of winding film into a holder, exposing it, waiting until it came back from the lab and that thrill of getting a great shot. It’s sort of like Christmas morning every time with both the joy and disappointment of getting what you want or not.
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