Mama don't take my Kodachrome away

(By Richard Holway 10.00pm 22nd June 09)

Kodachrome

They give us those nice bright colors

They give us the greens of summers

Makes you think all the world's a sunny day,

Oh yeah, I got a Nikon camera

I love to take photographs

So mama don't take my Kodachrome away.

So sang Paul Simon in one of my favourite 'summer' songs from back in 1973.

Well, today, Kodak did just that. They ‘retired’ the Kodachrome brand. The almost complete conversion to digital photography, even by professionals, meant that sales of Kodachrome are now just a fraction of 1% of the Kodak's total and only one commercial lab in the world still processes it.

It is amazing how something that has been around for so many decades can disappear so relatively quickly as technology advances. Same thing is about to happen to all those old analogue radio sets I've collected throughout my life that I still have and use throughout my home.