Okay, let’s get one thing straight right off the bat. There is no more development of Kodachrome film.
But what if you were still able to take pictures that looked like Kodachrome shots – albeit digitally?
Now I know there’s various plugins for Photoshop and other digital image software suites that can simulate the saturated look of Kodachrome… but what if there was a way to take the picture digitally and replicate those nice bright colors and those greens of summers, and make us think all the world’s a sunny day?
Yeah, I’m skeptical, too.
Every so often, I’ll search my favorite camera store, B&H Photo Video (B&H :: Chuck = Marshall’s :: Amanda Talar), and I’ll punch in a keyword and see what comes up. So I punched in “Kodachrome,” figuring I’d see maybe some artbooks or some leftover photo materials.
What I did find was a collection of new Kodak Easy Share digital cameras – the M577, the M583 and the Z990 MAX – that supposedly will replicate not only the colors of Kodachrome, but also Kodak’s other popular color films such as Ektachrome, Kodacolor and Tri-X. These cameras are expected to be released in mid-April of 2011.
Something about this bothers me. See, Kodachrome was not just a type of film – it involved the skill of a photographer in capturing the moment under the most precise of conditions; it involved the skill of a developer in blending the exact formula of dyes and chemicals to create a tiny work of art. You had the development of the film and waiting for it to come back from the lab and the anticipation of finding something exciting and brilliant in the mailed pouch of white-bordered slides.
Now? You point and shoot and if you don’t like the picture, you delete it and take another one. And you use a combination of whatever pre-programmed filters exist in your computer software to replicate the saturation of Kodachrome colors.
Trust me. These Easy Share cameras may be the best non-Nikon point-and-shoots ever made, but suggesting that they take Kodachrome pictures is like suggesting I can win the Masters golf tournament because I once hit a hole-in-one at Hoffman’s Mini Golf course in Loudonville.
Chuck The Writer 
It’s called progress.
LikeLike
Shhhhh, nobody tells Chuck about fake Polaroids….
LikeLike
Hm, Chuck, I’m taking this with a large bag of salt considering one of your more successful photos of 2010 is a polar panorama — something relying on digital magic.
LikeLike
I know you’ve been a hardcore Kodachrome purist for almost a year but it’s like this – not so long ago to be a writer you had to type up a manuscript, find a publisher who wanted it, go through an editing process and then have the finished product printed and bound into a book. Don’t let it bother you because now anyone with a blog or a self-publishing account can call himself a writer.
LikeLike