Today's announcement of the demise of Kodachrome will come as a shock to many photoenthusiasts like me. However, I have to confess, that until I'd heard that Kodak had stopped production I hadn't realised that you could still buy it. I haven't bought a roll for at least five years, and its death hasn't spoiled my plans for tomorrow.
Honour
We have to honour the roles that Kodachrome and the 35mm film camera gave to photojournalism. High quality film and 35mm cameras allowed photographers to capture the world and show it to the rest of us. Its legacy will remain, but its usefulness had waned. Purists will recognise the film's unique qualities and colour rendition, but another view of the world is that digital photography allows us to capture the world in an interactive way, continually allowing us to get a glimpse of the image we've just recorded and see if we can improve it.
Capture
Kodachrome has captured many of the world's greatest images, but digital photography will capture more. Three weeks after taking them, how many of us have looked at the cardboard-mounted slides and thought: "If only I'd moved to a faster shutter speed or changed the angle of view?" With digital we can interact with a scene by looking at what we've captured and change it while the subject is still in front of our eyes. We can now capture a slice of life at 1/1000th of a second, examine our results, make alterations and within three seconds we can capture an improved image - we could never do that with film. Life moves on.
Honour
We have to honour the roles that Kodachrome and the 35mm film camera gave to photojournalism. High quality film and 35mm cameras allowed photographers to capture the world and show it to the rest of us. Its legacy will remain, but its usefulness had waned. Purists will recognise the film's unique qualities and colour rendition, but another view of the world is that digital photography allows us to capture the world in an interactive way, continually allowing us to get a glimpse of the image we've just recorded and see if we can improve it.
Capture
Kodachrome has captured many of the world's greatest images, but digital photography will capture more. Three weeks after taking them, how many of us have looked at the cardboard-mounted slides and thought: "If only I'd moved to a faster shutter speed or changed the angle of view?" With digital we can interact with a scene by looking at what we've captured and change it while the subject is still in front of our eyes. We can now capture a slice of life at 1/1000th of a second, examine our results, make alterations and within three seconds we can capture an improved image - we could never do that with film. Life moves on.
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