Kodachrome RIP.

I've pretty well lost interest in photography these past few years- but from about '95 til ~'06, my informal(yet near bulletproof!

) test for a "new to me" camera with automatic exposure, was to shoot a roll of Kodachrome 64. I always deliberately took many of the shots in "difficult" conditions- and with one of my favorite cameras(a sweet little pocket-sized Olympus Stylus Epic), it adjusted for ASA 50 instead of 64!
Anyhoo, my yardsick was simply this- if it would expose Kodachrome 64 properly, it would probably expose *anything* properly, & modern color print film should be almost foolproof. And FWIW- those exposed-at-ASA(ISO)-50-settings from the little Epic came out beautifully. Of course, the difference was only 1/3 stop. (ASA = showing my age!

)
It's a shame, but I'm surprised it lasted as long as it did. We have slides my Dad took in the late 1940's- some are on a different film brand(begins with "A"? can't think of the name), they've all faded badly, almost turned browntone. The Kodachrome slides are still bright & beautiful. It's also worth noting that even though the last estimates of image life on Kodachrome were something over 200 yrs if kept frozen, the fact is that if kept frozen, they're virtually certain to last that long- and may last *much* longer. (If the power doesn't go out, of course!

) They'll certainly last much longer than the people in the photos, even when stored in the proverbial shoebox.