I've just had two emails from Kodak's PR agency today, one announcing the release of a new wireless photo frame and, second, rather more historic and profound - that Kodak is to officially retire Kodachrome slide film this year.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujhdf9_IO4w[/ame]

Kodachrome, immortalised in the 1973 Paul Simon song 'Kodachrome' ([I]Mama don't take my Kodachrome away!) [/I]has been on sale since 1935, but it's a difficult (read expensive) film to manufacture, as well as to process. Today, only one lab in the world officially processes Kodachrome, in Parsons, Kansas. That lab will continue to process Kodachrome film until at least August 2010.

There has always been a certain something about Kodachrome that has maintained its popularity all these years. Kodak introduced Ektachrome in the 1940s because Kodachrome was often too slow for the uses photographers required. However, it has only now entirely replaced Kodachrome, which just shows how important the qualities of Kodachrome have been to millions of photographers. The E6 process for modern Ektachrome films continues and Kodak hopes Kodachrome users will switch to its latest Elite Chrome brand Ektachrome slide films.