Few people have heard of it, yet many consider John Blankenbaker's KENBAK-1 to be the first commercial personal computer.
Mama took my Kodachrome away...
By James Grahame
Kodak isn't having a good year. With sales of traditional film dropping about 15% annually, they awkwardly chose the 40th anniversary of Super 8 to discontinue Kodachrome 40.
For those who've been under a rock since 1971, K-40 is THE classic Super 8 movie film. At the height of its popularity, Kodak sold over 19 million three-minute cartridges each year. These days, they sell a mere 100,000 annually, but there is a vibrant and dedicated small-gauge film community built around this stuff. A hopefully-good-enough replacement is slated for release in August, but I doubt it'll feel the same.
The Kodachrome cancellation notice first appeared on the Kodak UK site, but quickly spread across the rest of the world. Rumor has it that Kodak will process Super 8 Kodachrome at their Swiss lab until the end of 2006. Dwayne's Photo in Kansas (USA) has indicated they will continue to process the film as long as it remains available from Kodak in 16mm and 35mm formats. 'tis a sad day, indeed.
