Kodachrome is the trademarked brand name of a type of color reversal film that was manufactured by Eastman Kodak from 1935 to 2009.Kodachrome was the first successfully mass-marketed color still film using a subtractive method, in contrast to earlier additive "screenplate" methods such as Autochrome and Dufaycolor, and remained the oldest brand of color film.
Kodachrome film was manufactured for 74 years in various formats to suit still and motion picture cameras, including 8mm, Super 8, 16mm, and 35mm for movies and 35mm, 120, 110, 126, 828 and large format for still photography. For many years, it was used for professional color photography, especially for images intended for publication in print media. The film was sold with processing included in the purchase price except in the United States, where a 1954 legal ruling ended that practice.
Kodachrome is appreciated in the archival and professional market for its dark-storage longevity. Because of these qualities, Kodachrome was used by professional photographers like Steve McCurry and Alex Webb. McCurry used Kodachrome for his well-known 1984 portrait of Sharbat Gula, the "Afghan Girl" for the National Geographic magazine. It was also used by Walton Sound and Film Services in the UK in 1953 for the only official 16mm film of the coronation of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second. Subsequent prints for sale to the public were also produced using Kodachrome.
Competing slide films, such as Fujichrome and Kodak Ektachrome, use the E-6 process which is simpler, less expensive, more quickly processed and more widely available; this eroded Kodachrome's market share as the quality of competing films improved during the 1980s and 1990s. As digital photography reduced the demand for all varieties of film in the first decade of the 21st century, Kodachrome sales further declined. On 22 June 2009, Kodak announced the end of Kodachrome production, citing declining demand.[4]
During its heyday, many Kodak and independent laboratories processed Kodachrome; by 2010, one Kodak certified facility remained: Dwayne's Photo in Parsons, Kansas.[5] On 14 July 2010 it was announced that the last produced roll of Kodachrome was developed by Dwayne's for photographer Steve McCurry on assignment for National Geographic. The 36 slides will be permanently housed at the Eastman House in Rochester, NY and most of the pictures, excluding a few near-duplicates, have been published on the Internet by Vanity Fair magazine.
Dwaynes Photo announced it would cease Kodachrome processing on 30 December 2010. However, the company received such a large quantity of film during December 2010 that processing continued until 18 January 2011.