It was a more complicated process than developing slides in E-6, and Kodak preferred to develop Kodachrome itself, rather than risk having other processors do a second-rate job that would harm the high reputation of Kodachrome.
For years, Kodak sold Kodachrome with the processing included. When you finished taking your pictures, you simply put your 35mm film cartridge in a mailer that came with the film, and mailed it to the nearest Kodak photo lab.
Unfortunately, our saviors in Washington decided that it was illegal for Kodak to do that. Why? Because it gave Kodak a "monopoly" on processing Kodachrome.
Any photographer who did not like this arrangement was free to use some other color slide film, one that could be developed in E-6. As so often happens, the government was solving a non-existent problem-- and creating a real problem in the process.
Most photographers who used Kodachrome still preferred to have Kodak develop it. So we had to buy the mailers separately -- and keep track of how many mailers we had, to make sure we had enough for all the rolls of Kodachrome we had.
When Kodachrome was discontinued, I was left with mailers that cost money but were now worthless.
Fortunately, only the U.S. government had this ridiculous ban on selling the mailers and film together. When I was traveling in other countries, I bought the combination together and could mail my Kodachrome to be developed in London, Paris or wherever.
Now that E-6 seems to be following Kodachrome on the path to oblivion, we relics of the past are left with color print film, but the time may yet come when we will just have to cope with digital.
Someone once called me "the last of the Luddites." The passing of E-6 makes me feel that way.
To find out more about Thomas Sowell and read features by other Creators Syndicate columnists and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate web page at www.creators.com. Thomas Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305. His Web site is www.tsowell.com.
COPYRIGHT 2010 CREATORS.COM