It almost sounds too good to be true, but there is hope that Kodak Alaris might bring back Kodachrome slide film.
Reports have surfaced on photography websites that Kodak is considering resurrecting what is, arguably, one of its most famous products.
In the wake of an announcement that Ektachrome would return to the market later this year, Kodak Chief Marketing Officer Steve Overman responded to questions about whether Kodachrome might be next.
“We get asked all the time by filmmakers and photographers alike, ‘are you gonna bring back some of these iconic film stocks like Kodachrome . . . , ” Overman said earlier this month during CES, a global consumer electronics and technology show. “I will say, we are investigating Kodachrome, looking at what it would take to bring that back . . . Ektachrome is a lot easier and faster to bring back to market . . . but people love Kodak’s heritage products and I feel, personally, that we have a responsibility to deliver on that love.”
Aside from Ektachrome, Kodak is also bringing back the Super 8 camera.
Some would argue quite strenuously that its rich colors made Kodachrome the best color film. Period.
But it was also a complex film to process and the cost of doing that was a major contributor to the film’s 2011 demise when the last lab in the country to process Kodachrome developed its last roll. Kodak had stopped manufacturing Kodachrome in 2009.
Aside from the fond memories of thousands — and maybe millions — of photographers who used Kodachrome, there are some who still have rolls of Kodachrome film, some of it exposed but never processed, stashed away on shelves or in freezers.
If Kodachrome does make a comeback, look for a lot of film cameras to come out of the closet as the novelty factor kicks in.
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