Steinle says that although all dyes will fade over time, if Kodachrome is stored properly it can be good for up to 100 years. "The film itself is basically black and white," says Grant Steinle, vice president of operations at Dwayne's Photo in Parsons, Kans., the only photo-processing center still equipped to develop Kodachrome film. While all color films have dyes printed directly onto the film stock, Kodachrome's dye isn't added until the development process. The next year, they tried out the process on film for still cameras, although the procedure was not for the hobbyist: the earliest 35-mm Kodachrome went for $3.50 a roll, or about $54 in today's dollars.
KODAK IT8 TARGET FILM MOVIE
Disappointed by the poor quality of a "color" movie they saw in 1916, the two Leopolds spent years perfecting their technique, which Kodak first utilized in 1935 in 16-mm movie film. and Leopold Mannes, two musicians turned scientists who worked at Kodak's research facility in Rochester, N.Y. The Kodachrome process in which three emulsions, each sensitive to a primary color, are coated on a single film base was the brainchild of Leopold Godowsky Jr. It also ends a legacy that includes some of the most enduring images of 20th century America. So while Kodak's discontinuation of the iconic color film will affect only the most devoted photo buffs sales of Kodachrome account for less than 1% of the company's revenue the June 22 announcement breaks one of the largest remaining ties to the era of pre-digital photography. While color photography had been around in one form or another since the 1860s, until the Eastman Kodak Company came out with its Kodachrome film in 1935, those wishing to capture a color image had to deal with heavy glass plates, tripods, long exposures and an exacting development procedure, all of which resulted in less than satisfactory pictures dull, tinted images that were far from true to life. Or yellow or red or blue, for that matter.