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Dwayne's changes their mind-- now says they're shutting down Kodachrome on December 10th


Jim Carlile

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Gee, it would've been kind of nice if they'd told us, no?

 

http://www.kansas.com/2010/07/14/1403115/last-kodachrome-roll-processed.html

 

"As Kodachrome is no longer manufactured, Steinle said that on Dec. 10 Dwayne's Photo will end its processing of Kodachrome.

 

"All this is going to be discarded," McCurry said of the processing equipment for Kodachrome, " ... so it's just a piece of history. It's nostalgic. It's kind of sad. I have about 800,000 Kodachrome images in my lab and these will be the last."

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Gee, it would've been kind of nice if they'd told us, no?

 

http://www.kansas.co...-processed.html

 

"As Kodachrome is no longer manufactured, Steinle said that on Dec. 10 Dwayne's Photo will end its processing of Kodachrome.

 

"All this is going to be discarded," McCurry said of the processing equipment for Kodachrome, " ... so it's just a piece of history. It's nostalgic. It's kind of sad. I have about 800,000 Kodachrome images in my lab and these will be the last."

 

The article is old and from july. What McCurry says or a journalist writes has little legal value.

 

Most important is what they have on their own website as public statement.

 

Far better would be if Kodak and Dwayne's would extend the deadline. As there are still zillions of frames of Kodachrome to expose. Which can be a chore if you are not working a daytime job.

 

Who do we need to pester at Kodak? Any clues?

Edited by Andries Molenaar
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The article is old and from july. What McCurry says or a journalist writes has little legal value.

 

Most important is what they have on their own website as public statement.

 

Far better would be if Kodak and Dwayne's would extend the deadline. As there are still zillions of frames of Kodachrome to expose. Which can be a chore if you are not working a daytime job.

 

Who do we need to pester at Kodak? Any clues?

 

 

My understanding is Dwayne's would continue processing if they could, and its kodak who have pulled the plug on supplying the chemicals to the lab. Is there enough users of kodachrome to influence kodak? I doubt it, just look back to when kodak axed super 8 k40, there was a petition etc, yet when they axed k64 last year, hardly any outcry all, certainly nothing like when they axed k40... Its the old saying of use it or loose it, i'm afraid too many people chose other stocks or went down the digi route.

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  • 1 month later...

Use it or lose it is right.

 

On the plus side, I sent to Dwayne's 5 rolls of K40 on 10/12 and received them all back on 10/18, less than a week. Nice turnaround time. I plan to shoot my remaining rolls of K40 all within the next month.

 

Nice tthing, if they'd only keep on doing so. As of recently, their processing order form has been updated with a 3-day lab time for processing S/8 K40 (was 1 day). That would still be acceptable, but fact is they actually reserve a 1-week lab time. I was very upset when I learnt this on the phone, because it could impact on some footage I need by X'Mas. I wish I had known beforehand.

 

So be informed: if you have a tight schedule, consider their lab time has increased.

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Turnaround is much quicker than it has ever been before. Just be glad with it. It is certainly going out at a high point. Kodak Switserland used much more time then Dwayne's does. Why on earth is Kodak stopping supplies to Dwayne's If they are happy why needs Kodak to sabotage other people's business?

 

This tight planning in winter time when transport can be frustrated by snow and such is just asking for complications.

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  • 2 weeks later...
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CBS Sunday Morning news hour did a segment on Dwaynes. Dwaynes apparently kept running their kodachrome lab through today, Dec. 30th 2010. It was Kodak no longer supplying the chemicals that made Dwaynes shut down the kodachrome lab. Theoretically, Kodak should keep supplying chemicals for kodachrome processing at least for six months to one year after the last kodachrome 40 expiration date on the planet for either still or movie film.

 

I wonder if Kodak ever experimented with storing their chemicals in a powder form, then just add something to it to actually activate it when ready to use. I sure wish the last remaining kodachrome processing machine would not be destroyed, and that Kodak would consider some type of dry powder processing concoction so that if someone was interested, they could do a kodachrome run once a month for the next couple of years.

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There was a major screwup on Kodak's website concerning the last day. Kodak's website stated the last day for processing would be December 31st, as we all know Dwayne's cut off accepting Kodachrome at noon today.

 

I found out about this Wednesday in time to get four rolls off via FedEx morning delivery (they got there at 9:02AM today) but lost my last day project which was to drive up to Northern Oklahoma and shoot winter wheat fields in their gorgeous, Kodachrome loving, yellow-green color. At this time of year wheat farmers graze cattle on their wheat fields with the potential for a breath-taking photo or two.

 

Two reasons to hate the Koda-Grinch: Discontinuing Kodachrome AND passing out bad information about Dwayne's drop dead date.

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Dwaynes got so much kodachrome film in that they may be processing over the weekend, although that does not mean they will answer their phone.

 

According to a USA Today article times Dwaynes got 500 hundred fed-ex boxes today and 18 Postal mail bags of film from the post office.

 

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2010/12/kodachrome-slide-film-rolls-into-history/1

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well, of course they will work through the heap and not close down the machines. They should re-open them as there are 100.000s of filsm still around. Why stop a moneymaking business?

 

Makes you wonder how Kodak managed in the old-times. After the holiday season they likely got these amounts every hour at numbers of locations across the globe :)

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I sent my last three rolls USPS Priority mail on Tuesday, December 29th.

 

According to the online tracker, my film made it on December 30 with only an hour or two to spare to deadline.

 

A week later, on January 6, I finally received my PayPal notification.

 

I think Dwaynes is working through a very large backlog this week for all Kodachrome that made it under the deadline.

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Well, of course they will work through the heap and not close down the machines. They should re-open them as there are 100.000s of filsm still around. Why stop a moneymaking business?

 

Makes you wonder how Kodak managed in the old-times. After the holiday season they likely got these amounts every hour at numbers of locations across the globe :)

 

There was more than one Kodachrome lab in old-times though, too. . .

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I've sent them 11 rolls of Kodachrome K64 ( still film ) and called them yesterday. They told me that they have a lot of films, and my package wasn't even opened yet ( they don't have me on list of opened packages ) and they told me to call again in couple of weeks.

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When I was in high school and college in the late 70's, early 80's, I worked at a camera shop just outside New York City.

 

For Kodachrome and Ektachrome processing by Kodak (there was another less expensive lab we used for our price conscious customers), normal turnaround time was 48 to 72 hours. However, we had a rush bag, which usually resulted in a 24 hour turnaround. I think the Kodak lab was in Cherry Hill NJ.

 

Needless to say, I always put my own personal films into the rush bag.

 

Those were the days!

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Well, of course they will work through the heap and not close down the machines. They should re-open them as there are 100.000s of filsm still around. Why stop a moneymaking business?

 

Makes you wonder how Kodak managed in the old-times. After the holiday season they likely got these amounts every hour at numbers of locations across the globe :)

 

Kodak took the Kodachrome Processing Chemical Tree and won't give it back.

 

I wonder if Dwaynes even had enough chemicals to process all of that film. One marketing idea that Dwaynes could have done was start raising the processing prices by a dime every week starting at the beginning of January 2010. This might have gotten them a more steady flow before this huge end of it all processing rush that they did get.

 

Come on Kodak, make a dry power processing batch for Dwaynes so they can keep their machine running for another year or two.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I think I can settle all of this, gang.

 

December 30, 2010 was the last scheduled day of Kodachrome processing at the last lab on the planet still processing it, Dwayne's Photo. I was at Dwayne's Photo in Parsons, Kansas on December 30, 2010. They received over 500 Fed-Ex packages, 200-300 UPS packages, and 18 bags from the USPS. I heard that from the Vice President, Grant Steinle, as I interviewed him in his office that day.

 

As far as the chemicals go, Kodak stopped selling them in 2009, I believe. So, Dwayne's Photo had to purchase all of their chemicals at that time. For the record, they had enough chemical supply to last until December 30, 2010. More importantly, they had the chemicals to last until January 18, 2011, which was the actual final day of Kodachrome processing (due to the influx).

 

On January 18, 2011 the final frames of Kodachrome were processed. I know because I was in the room watching it happen. :) Shortly before the final roll of Kodachrome 35mm was processed, the final Kodachrome motion picture film was processed. That film was mine, and will be shown in my upcoming film "Saturation of Memory," which is currently in production.

 

More info on that here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Saturation-of-Memory-A-film-by-Jeremy-M-Borg/181376175228088

To stay up to date, "Like" the page.

 

If you have any other questions about the end of Kodachrome, I can likely answer them for you. I considered attaching photos of the moment, but have decided against it at this time.

 

 

-J.

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Sorry, I forgot to also mention that owner of Dwayne's Photo, Dwayne Steinle processed a couple of his rolls last. He finished shooting it while I was there. Just before the final few rolls, which were shot by Dwayne and son (VP) Grant, was some stuff shot by Dan Bayer of The Kodachrome Project.

 

You can learn more about Dan's 6-year project here. Prepare to be impressed: http://www.kodachromeproject.com/

 

 

-J.

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