Kodak Ektachrome Slide Film Making Comeback

Kodak Alaris said this week that it will bring back Kodak Ektachrome professional slide film in the fourth quarter of this year.

The color reversal film will be made for 135-36x camera formats and will have an ISO of 100.

Discontinued in 2012, Kodak Alaris said in a news release that Ektachrome was known for its extremely fine grain, clean colors, tones and contrasts.

The company noted that photographers for National Geographic magazine used Ektachrome film for several decades.

The company said there has been an increase in interest in analog photography, which has driven demand for film products.

The news release said sales of professional photographic films has risen in recent years because some photographers have been drawn to “the artistic control offered by manual processes and the creative satisfaction of a physical end product.”

The revived Ektachrome, like its discontinued counterpart, will use E6 processing. Kodak has never ceased making color negative film.

Concurrent with the reintroduction of Ektachrome slide film Kodak is bringing back Ektachrome Super 8 film.

Its Curtains for Kodak Ektachrome Slide Film

Shown is the last box of Ektachrome that Akron Railroad Club President Craig Sanders will ever likely buy. Indeed, he photographed it with the digital camera he purchased last July.

The dwindling band of railfan photographers who still capture images on slide film got some bad news last week. In a development that probably surprised no one,  Eastman Kodak announced that it will cease making all slide films, including its Ektachrome color reversal film

The move will end 77 years of manufacturing slide film for the iconic film company, which in January sought bankruptcy protection.

Kodak blamed “a steady decrease in sales and customer usage, combined with highly complex product formulation and manufacturing processes.” Kodak offers three types of Ektachrome: E100VS, E100G and Elite Chrome Extra Color 100.

In 2009 Kodak discontinued its popular Kodachrome slide film, which arguably was the most popular slide film among railroad photographers before the digital era began.

Kodak said the end of slide film production would not affect any other films that it makes, including color negative and black and white films.

Presumably, slide shooters will continue to be able to purchase Fuji slide film.