Good news/bad news

[Huck Finn]

The bad news first . . .

I took my old Nikon N8008s into the repair shop yesterday to have it rehabilitated. (It had frozen up - due to lack of use, I suspect.) In the course of small talk, I was told that the Kodak rep had been in a month ago & told them that that Kodak has made the decision to get out of the film business. No effective date was given. Damn! I do like Kodak UC film.

The good news . . .

It seems that they can't keep costs low enough to compete with Fuji. So, it wasn't a matter of there not being a market for film. Whew! In fact, one of the film processors I use told me that they're finding a number of people coming back to film after going digital - at least partially. It seems that many people have neither the time, interest, nor the energy to get involved in the post processing & printing of digital pix. They'd rather shoot casually with film, drop it off, & pay someone else to do the work. Now that's really good news.

 

[back alley]

as much as dislike kodak it would seem like a pretty strange world without the yellow boxes in it.

joe

 

[Solinar]

I'd take that store employee's info with a grain of salt. It is more likely than not that Eastman Kodak will try to spin off the film division for some much needed cash.

I wish that my store employee was so knowledgeable. I can't even get them to stock a full line up of Ilford products. I bought the last two packets of Kodak HCA in the store. The clerk hadn't a clue regarding my request for Ilford WASHAID.

 

[shadowfox]

My prediction is that Kodak will go back to film after realizing (if not too late) that the digital industry has a much faster pace and even more cutthroat competition that they can keep up with.

Waffling, anyone?

Now let's keep using film, and telling others about the virtues of film.

 

[Michael I.]

I once heard from a store employee that ilfords CEO killed himself. That seems a hypertrofied George Eastman story.

 

[FanMan]

The bad news first . . .

... I was told that the Kodak rep had been in a month ago & told them that that Kodak has made the decision to get out of the film business. No effective date was given...

Same discussion I had with the guy developing my films. His expectation is that not so far in the future there will only be Fuji. He has some AGFA film currently on stock, which I prefer to use at the moment.

 

[Pherdinand]

kodak has some serious plans in the digital industry.
And has some very serious research and development going on, with promising results.
This frome a confidential source 😉

 

[dcsang]

<snip>Now let's keep using film, and telling others about the virtues of film.,</snip>

I know the virtues (and so do most here)....but in today's disposable / instant / 15 minutes-of-fame society - everyone wants to see the image NOW.

Sure there are still folks using film. Students, folks like us, and luddites - it's not such a bad thing - but trying to convince someone who lives as fast as they possibly can, it's going to be a hard sell at best.

Try selling film to the folks out there that don't see a camera as a tool for creating "art" (and that's subjective) but instead see the camera as a tool for snapping a photo of "proof" that something exists. Those that don't want to wait and those that don't want "fine art prints" but instead want the CD/DVD to print it at WalMart for 0.25/ 4x6. It'll be difficult to sell it to those folks imho.

The digital genie was out of the commercial retail bottle almost a decade or more now ....it's going to be hard to force it back into that tiny space.

I am, however, always open to having my hypothesis proven incorrect 😀

Dave

 

[Michael I.]

I use fuji for color and though I prefer kodak for BW ilford is just as good if not better.

 

[mw_uio]

I agree with Dave! The people who go to Wal-mart, really like their digital photos regardless of quality, so we can say "opium for the masses" 😀


Cheers

MArk
Quito, EC

 

[FanMan]

Hopefully Fuji will not become as expensive as the Kodachrome currently is.

 

[d30gaijin]

Hopefully Fuji will not become as expensive as the Kodachrome currently is.

Amen. Or even as expensive as E100G is getting to be.

Yesterday I went looking for a 20 pack of Kodak E100G slide film on the internet. I spent an hour or more checking various web sites and no one stocks the 20 pack anymore, and the best price I could find on individual rolls was $6.19. That's $124 for 20 rolls compared to $92 for 20 rolls of Fujia Provia-F 100. I like E100G a little better than Fuji Provia-F but not that much better (it's actually difficult to tell the difference). For the same price as E100G I can buy four 20 roll packs of Fuji for the price of three 20 roll packs of E100G.

A sad situation.

If anyone knows of a source for E100G 20 roll packs at a better price let me know.

Thanks,

Don

 

[traveller]

The bad news first . . .

I took my old Nikon N8008s into the repair shop yesterday to have it rehabilitated. (It had frozen up - due to lack of use, I suspect.) In the course of small talk, I was told that the Kodak rep had been in a month ago & told them that that Kodak has made the decision to get out of the film business. No effective date was given. Damn! I do like Kodak UC film.

The good news . . .

It seems that they can't keep costs low enough to compete with Fuji. So, it wasn't a matter of there not being a market for film. Whew! In fact, one of the film processors I use told me that they're finding a number of people coming back to film after going digital - at least partially. It seems that many people have neither the time, interest, nor the energy to get involved in y with film, drop it off, & pay someone else to do the work. Now that's really good news.

Doing a lot of business with rep's one question comes to my mind:

Will he be a Fuji rep next time he is visiting the store? Working in sales I have heard so many stories from rep's that I take such stories not only with a grain but with tons of salt. I don't sell film but in my experience with US companies like Fisher Scientific, Thermo Electron or Corning rep's either don't have that information before it gets official or don't talk to customers in fear of getting sued.
Should he have had a loose mouth I apologize and I will really miss TriX

 

[airds]

The bad news first . . .

the Kodak rep had been in a month ago & told them that that Kodak has made the decision to get out of the film business.QUOTE]


Maybe that is why they were giving it all away 🙂

 

[cfoto]

The Online Photographer had posted an article on article on February 8th entitled Kodak Might Sell It's Film Business. The timing of this report coincides with the date of sales reps account. Hopefully a company will purchase the film part of the company that will pamper it and give it the attention it needs.

 

[tkluck]

And don't forget:

http://www.luckyfilm.com/eng/