"Kodak is Discontinuing Select Black and White Photography Chemistry"

This was discussed here when Kodak made the announcement. In October. Just another segment in our long "Film Is Dying" saga.
 
In the past 2 weeks, Brandess-Kalt in Chicago went out of business, absorbed by Omega Satter in Maryland.

Brandess was one of Kodak's master distributors.

The business started after the war (WWII) and at one time was the largest photo distributor in the US.

It looks like Omega will take over the business from B-K. As one of their employees told me when I called about the change - "Honey if they (Brandess) had it, we got it".

Omega is moving to a new warehouse facility to accommodate the increase in stock. The storms on the east coast have caused havoc with getting stuff from Chicago (known for its great weather this time of year) to the new warehouse. While this isn't directly related to the discussion, it is another sign that things at all levels in the photo industry are changing.
 
I saw that on his site. Looks interesting. At the slow rate I'm using up Rodinal (100:1 goes pretty far), it will be a while before I need to resort to coffee. I agree that his results look good.
Paddy C said:
I was just about to post the same thing. Stephen Schaub over at the Figital Revolution is in the process of putting together a book on Caffenol C development. He's already tested a number of films to find ideal combinations. The results, that he's posted, look very good to my largely untrained eye.
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wgerrard said:
This was discussed here when Kodak made the announcement. In October. Just another segment in our long "Film Is Dying" saga.
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Where there's smoke there's usually fire!

With Kodak and Fuji selling bulk film to Freestyle to re-package and market as generic ... we have the beginnings of a 'fire sale' IMO!

Or not! 😀
 
Keith said:
Where there's smoke there's usually fire!

With Kodak and Fuji selling bulk film to Freestyle to re-package and market as generic ... we have the beginnings of a 'fire sale' IMO!

Or not! 😀
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Yeah, I know. Film can't seem to get a break these days. It is interesting, though, that we can get in a tizzy all over again about an old press release. My sole digital sees little use, but I've seen nothing to change my conclusion that film is going to vanish from retail shelves. When? Pphhftt, I dunno.

Has Kodak or Fuji acknowledged they are supplying Freestyle? Has Freestyle? I wonder if it's just a temporary measure. I.e., dumping already produced film that they can't sell. Or, are they making, or will they make, film specifically to sell to Freestyle. That would not be unusual, as many familiar brands make products that groceries etc., sell under house labels.
 
I don't worry about Photo chemistry at all.
There are more than 20 manufacturers of photo chemistry worldwide, that is more than enough. Even if some of them will leave the market, there will be enough left.
In Germany alone we have six manufacturers of photo chemistry:

Tetenal (by the way: they are producing the Ilford chemicals for the european market; for USA and Asia Ilford chemicals are produced by Champion in USA, which are also producing the Kodak chemistry)

Calbe

Connect Chemie (former Agfa chemical plant in Vaihingen)

SPUR

Moersch

Suvatlar

And Agfa-Gevaert in Belgium is making photo chemistry as well.

And it is not difficult to mix your own developers.

Best regards,
Jan
 
Unlikely - the shift towards outsourcing chemistry production already started in the eighties. It is more likely due to the fact that the 80's surge of idiot operated mall minilabs was only feasible with liquid kits. Shipping what is predominantly water with few months shelf life is uneconomic, which must have hurt even more so in the price fights that followed in the wake of the minilabs, so that they had to fan out production of their main bulk of chemistry (i.e. colour kits) to regional partners if they wanted to avoid setting up global production themselves.

Sevo
 
Pickett Wilson said:
sevo, I think Champion took over production of Kodak's chemistry in 2006, part of Kodak's decision to become a "digital" company.
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Kodak is historically a chemical company. Film is based on chemical manufacture and Kodak was once a major maker of industrial chemicals. To me, when they outsourced the making of processing chemicals is when they finally turned their back on the company's heritage. Chemicals are used by a lot of industries in the USA and elsewhere, it seems to me that remaining a chemical company (even if they ever stop making film) would have made sense.
 
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