bmattock
Veteran
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,17947221%5E36375,00.html
When I predicted these things, everybody lined up to take a swing at me. I was wrong, I was unfair, I was making things up, I had no facts. I said it was a fact that these things would happen - I was told that I offered no proof.
Every single thing I said about Kodak has now been frankly and openly admitted by Kodak's CEO. Those who said that Kodak has never said they would abandon the film manufacturing business - here is is, black and white, read it and weep.
My next prediction is as follows - Kodak will soon announce that they intend to spin off their film photography business - film and film-based cameras, papers, chemicals, etc - to sink or swim on their own. Digital imaging will not be part of that group, they will remain with Kodak corporate. Kodak the film company will die quickly, just as Agfa Photo did. They're being cut loose without an oar or a star to steer by.
I said color photographic film had two years left. I was wrong. It may be less.
Best Regards,
Bill Mattocks
When I predicted these things, everybody lined up to take a swing at me. I was wrong, I was unfair, I was making things up, I had no facts. I said it was a fact that these things would happen - I was told that I offered no proof.
Every single thing I said about Kodak has now been frankly and openly admitted by Kodak's CEO. Those who said that Kodak has never said they would abandon the film manufacturing business - here is is, black and white, read it and weep.
My next prediction is as follows - Kodak will soon announce that they intend to spin off their film photography business - film and film-based cameras, papers, chemicals, etc - to sink or swim on their own. Digital imaging will not be part of that group, they will remain with Kodak corporate. Kodak the film company will die quickly, just as Agfa Photo did. They're being cut loose without an oar or a star to steer by.
I said color photographic film had two years left. I was wrong. It may be less.
Best Regards,
Bill Mattocks
tetrisattack
Maximum Creativity!
What would I do without these bi-weekly reminders!
bmattock
Veteran
tetrisattack said:
I aim to please. Is it really that often? Hmmm. Maybe I oughta consider a vacation of some sort.
Best Regards,
Bill Mattocks
KoNickon
Nick Merritt
OK, but he also said in an American publication -- I forget which one, but I think it was either the NY Times or Newsweek -- no more than 3 weeks ago that basically film is still important to them, and something they'll keep making as long as people are buying it. Presumably that means film in one-time-use cameras as well, which is where the main sales of film come from.
You may well be proved right. God knows that corporate executives are always saying one thing and then doing another; we come to expect it. Thinking that China would go through a film phase and only then into digital always struck me as totally without basis.
You may well be proved right. God knows that corporate executives are always saying one thing and then doing another; we come to expect it. Thinking that China would go through a film phase and only then into digital always struck me as totally without basis.
tetrisattack
Maximum Creativity!
I mean, there's no sense in ignoring the reality that the biggest market, the consumer color market, is switching to digital capture, but I still sense undercurrents of a healthy interest in classic b&w materials, especially in the bigger-than-35 formats. And there's still no real replacement for 4x5, especially not one that amateurs can use for a buck a shot. There are a lot of pieces of the Big Transition that still need to be put into place, and I think that's what ilford is banking on.
I have a feeling that mail-order b&w will be an option until really good, small, lightweight, high-rez gear hits the market.
I could care less about color. Viva la silly-putty skintones and whatnot.
I have a feeling that mail-order b&w will be an option until really good, small, lightweight, high-rez gear hits the market.
I could care less about color. Viva la silly-putty skintones and whatnot.
bmattock
Veteran
KoNickon said:
He didn't lie - he used execu-speak. "As long as people keep buying" is actually "As long as we make money," which is perfectly reasonable, but for some reason it is never polite to say so.
As you see, they fired that clown. Problem is, just a few years ago, they were ALL getting out of little cars under the Big Top. They just fired the most obvious clown, the rest are still loading their squirt-gun boutonnieres and running major corporations.
Best Regards,
Bill Mattocks
bmattock
Veteran
tetrisattack said:I mean, there's no sense in ignoring the reality that the biggest market, the consumer color market, is switching to digital capture, but I still sense undercurrents of a healthy interest in classic b&w materials, especially in the bigger-than-35 formats. And there's still no real replacement for 4x5, especially not one that amateurs can use for a buck a shot. There are a lot of pieces of the Big Transition that still need to be put into place, and I think that's what ilford is banking on.
I have a feeling that mail-order b&w will be an option until really good, small, lightweight, high-rez gear hits the market.
I could care less about color. Viva la silly-putty skintones and whatnot.
I think you're right about Ilford as well as Efke, Forte, Foma, Lucky, and so on. They're aiming for a niche market in B&W only that may have a longer life span than color film. A decade, maybe? Valid enough to have a business model.
Best Regards,
Bill Mattocks
C
ch1
Guest
If there is any upside to the possibility of film "disappearing" it is that so then will these darn threads! :bang:
W
wlewisiii
Guest
It's Kodak. They'll be gone due to thier blunders and both digital and film will survive. But Kodak won't exist even as much as Polaroid still does. The fact that their CEO has no clue is all that's really pointed out every time he opens his mouth.
That's what I keep predicting anyway...
William
That's what I keep predicting anyway...
William
zuikologist
.........................
Bill
It is no surprise that Kodak have screwed up big time.
They were inwardly focused, fighting a battle with Fuji in a shrinking market. They have only really woken up to digital in the last three (?) years. They will probably survive as a digital company merely because they are big. Meanwhile, China is making the digicams that the West buys - why wouldn't they use them themselves. There is a report on the Luminous Landscape website on a trip to China. There was an observation that 90% of the Chinese tourists were using digital. If Kodak had even 20 people on the ground market testing and observing in China they would have realised that film has been bypassed by most Chinese.
Let's enjoy film while it lasts, in whatever form.
It is no surprise that Kodak have screwed up big time.
They were inwardly focused, fighting a battle with Fuji in a shrinking market. They have only really woken up to digital in the last three (?) years. They will probably survive as a digital company merely because they are big. Meanwhile, China is making the digicams that the West buys - why wouldn't they use them themselves. There is a report on the Luminous Landscape website on a trip to China. There was an observation that 90% of the Chinese tourists were using digital. If Kodak had even 20 people on the ground market testing and observing in China they would have realised that film has been bypassed by most Chinese.
Let's enjoy film while it lasts, in whatever form.
Kim Coxon
Moderator
Any such news about Kodak is not all that surprising, at least this side of the Atlantic. The major downturn in Kodak sales started long before the "D" revolution. At one time all the little corner shops, tourist attractions, supermarkets had yellow boxs and the mini labs had yellow machines. For a long time now it has all been turning green. You almost have to hunt to find yellow these days. The D revolution has just hastened the process. I for one couldn't give a stuff for Kodak, I stopped using their products years ago.
Kim
Kim
C
ch1
Guest
Hey, Old Yellow is real cutting edge. Check this little baby out. If they put a keypad on it it might make it as a cell phone.
What a piece of s*it
Hope the attachment "makes" it!
What a piece of s*it
Hope the attachment "makes" it!
jaapv
RFF Sponsoring Member.
copake_ham said:
Well, it has the same err... rustic elegance as the original Brownie. Real Kodak style I would say!
jan normandale
Film is the other way
Bill , I think film will be around made by someone somewhere until I'm dead. Price will definitely be a driver. I think Kodak has a problem. Digital means their strategy will lead to only one final solution... end game.
Kodak's strategy whether they realize it is to compete with makers of cameras , something they know nothing about. That always spells trouble. Playing with the big boys when you are big but in a different game is a recipe for "a hard education". Kodak shareholders take note. Because if they aren't film what are they? Definitely not camera manufacturers. As I write this I think maybe I should start shorting Kodak.
Kodak's strategy whether they realize it is to compete with makers of cameras , something they know nothing about. That always spells trouble. Playing with the big boys when you are big but in a different game is a recipe for "a hard education". Kodak shareholders take note. Because if they aren't film what are they? Definitely not camera manufacturers. As I write this I think maybe I should start shorting Kodak.
C
ch1
Guest
jan normandale said:
Good points.
In the end it may well prove out that what Bill is "documenting" is not the death of film but the death of Kodak.
taffer
void
In fact I have no trouble at all with digital, it's auto-everything that drives me nuts, and that started many years ago anyway
They could ask for advice from real people before designing the ergonomics of their models though, nowadays everything starts looking like an ipod...
And in fact I like Neopan better
Conor, for some reason your current avatar seems intentionally on par with the above sentence !
Oscar
They could ask for advice from real people before designing the ergonomics of their models though, nowadays everything starts looking like an ipod...
And in fact I like Neopan better
Conor, for some reason your current avatar seems intentionally on par with the above sentence !
Oscar
back alley
IMAGES
ok, this is MY theory...bill has been abducted by aliens and in his place they left a TROLL!!
bill, i have a large cut and was wondering if i could borrow a cup of salt?
joe
bill, i have a large cut and was wondering if i could borrow a cup of salt?
joe
VinceC
Veteran
Well, long before Kodak was a film company, it was a camera company. George Eastman essentially invented the point-and-shoot with his motto "You push the button, we do the rest." Kodak referred to the camera system, not the film. Film processing was the cash cow, but most people identified with the box camera itself. For a good quarter-century or more, people spoke of "taking along my Kodak" whenever they travelled with a simple, easy-to-use camera for the non-technical person.
BrianShaw
Well-known
back alley said:
C
ch1
Guest
BrianShaw said:
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