Kodak Busts a Move

[XAos]

OTOH, if you wish to use your business as a platform for your politics, do not be suprised or offended if people who do not share your political views no longer wish to support your business. The whole corporate endorsement of ideas and movements really baffles me. At best you risk alientating 49% of your potential customers, a reasonable chance of offending 51%, and a non zero chance depending on the platform and your customers of offending an even larger portion.

 

[bmattock]

Anyway, Kodak really continues to baffle me. They have so much knowledge in film, all that money, expertise, time invested in research for film, the envy of many, and they go ahead and squander it with their very mediocre entries into digital. I have seen many samples taken with various cameras using their sensors, from professional to "P&S", and it's appalling. The DCN was great under the right conditions, but outside the portrait studio, it's just as mediocre as, say, Vivitar.

Still, all the reputable photo printers have a Fuji printer. Walgreens has horrible customer service, uneventful at best, and Kodak riding on them is a bad bet.

IMHO, of course.

Kodak's sensors are, as I understand it, quite advanced for the pro models. I could be wrong, but that's what I've heard. They got into R&D on digital early and spent big. That was smart. The dumb thing was deciding that a) digital was a fad and b) digital would not ramp up as fast as it has. The first item - their bad. The second? Everybody underestimated how fast digital was going to blow up. Digital went all the way live faster than fiddy cent.

Walgreens has 1100 stores nationwide, and my local Walgreens now has 1/4 of the film stock it had - all Kodak and 'house brand'. They've ditched all Fuji film. Customer service? That's Walgreen's battle to fight. They're in faces and that's all they care about at the moment. Service comes later - right now it is a battle for floor space. And believe me, blood is flowing. Kodak wants to own this market badly.

Kodak isn't 'riding' on Walgreens - they are putting their name and new digital products in customer's faces where they shop. Smart move.

Kodak is throwing away over a century of film experience? Not hardly. They are keeping over a century of imaging experience in photography. They're not a FILM company - they're a PHOTOGRAPHY company. An IMAGING company. That's what they've decided they are and want to be. Clinging to a dying standard is a sucker bet. A lion's share of a shrinking market. Fuji seems to want that, Kodak is ceding it to them and Ilford (for the B&W). It's as if a buggy manufacturer had decided to get into car-building - just in time.

Look for an agreement between Kodak and another company to continue to produce classic Kodak B&W films - they want out of that business, but they have a large debt load associated with the recent modernizing of their B&W plants.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

 

[bmattock]

I can usually find someone in any company whose views I disagree with. Why, I even disagree with myself sometimes. I'd have to become a suvivalist and move into the forest if I decide to stop buying products of companies who employ folks I don't agree with.

Robert

True, and I don't fight every battle or walk around with a chip on my shoulder looking to be offended. But when someone sells me something and then a member of their leadership tells me that in their opinion, my country sucks, well...I don't really want to buy from them anymore. Everybody has to make their own decisions, I suppose.

I've never been to a movie that has Jane Fonda in it. That's just my choice, and I won't compromise. Somehow, I don't think I've missed much.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

 

[Byuphoto]

I don't drink Pepsi and i quit Heinz catsup during the presidential campaign. I quit French's mustard because it refers to France(not all the people just the Govt. policies and there forgetfullness of how pulled there noogies out of the fire). I am now out with Kodak and I had already quit Sears. I don't understand how Gay/lesbians have so much influence. Their largest concventration only makes up 2 % of the population of S.F.

 

[bmattock]

I don't drink Pepsi and i quit Heinz catsup during the presidential campaign. I quit French's mustard because it refers to France(not all the people just the Govt. policies and there forgetfullness of how pulled there noogies out of the fire). I am now out with Kodak and I had already quit Sears. I don't understand how Gay/lesbians have so much influence. Their largest concventration only makes up 2 % of the population of S.F.

Not going there, sorry. My reasons are logical to me, QED.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

 

[DerekF]

I smells an ideological battle brewing...

 

[bmattock]

I smells an ideological battle brewing...

It'll be one hand clapping. I've had enough and won't play.

 

[digitalox]

RC Cola is still around? Seriously I was just wondering about that the other day, I haven't noticed it here in Houston in a while. Then again I don't usually look for it.

Been thinking about settling on one or two films for a while now, just to streamline the development process and be able to develop more than one roll at a time. If kodak looks like it might stop doing B&W, maybe I should choose another company? Or maybe everyone going elsewhere will be just the thing to send Kodak fully digital?

 

[dmr]

Something I noticed a couple months ago now makes sense. I noticed that Walgreens had all yellow boxes and no green. I asked the teenyd00d there what the story was and he said that they dropped Fuji due to "problems" they had with it. (Yeah, right!) Kodak probably made a very sweet deal for them to handle yellow exclusively. Oh well -- Fuji is still available almost everywhere else. Wally world (yeah, I know, I won't go out of my way to give them my money, but if they are handy I will) still does and so does the one remaining real camera shop in the area.

 

[rover]

RC Cola is still around? Seriously I was just wondering about that the other day, I haven't noticed it here in Houston in a while. Then again I don't usually look for it.

Been thinking about settling on one or two films for a while now, just to streamline the development process and be able to develop more than one roll at a time. If kodak looks like it might stop doing B&W, maybe I should choose another company? Or maybe everyone going elsewhere will be just the thing to send Kodak fully digital?

Yes I believe RC is still around, but it has retreated to a regional product. I used to like RC.

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

I quit French's mustard because it refers to France

Really? Interesting. Not because it refers to somebody's name that used to be "French"? There's a hair stylist not too far from where I live called "Jon English", and it's not because he's English from "England".

I heard some people started giving freedom kisses.

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

It'll be one hand clapping. I've had enough and won't play.

I think the rhetorical one hand clapping does not apply to those of us with rather big hands (and mouths). It sounds like a muted sorting machine.

Me tired too.

 

[XAos]

Yes, RC is still around in the southeast. I'm not much of a cola man though. Dr Pepper (the original soft drink btw. (You can actually drink Dr Pepper in character at a cowboy action shoot/dress up event, as it's period correct). Sun Drop is actually a decent citrus soda - I've never done taste tests, but I drink it when available and don't really think anything about it. Coca Cola, while they may be the leading cola, has never been able to make a passable Dew or Pepper substitute.

Back to film though - I'd settled on Tri-X, but I like what I'm seeing in the new Ultra stuff from Freestyle, at least in 120, and at the price I may end up settling on that.

 

[JOE1951]

Hello

II am now out with Kodak and I had already quit Sears. I don't understand how Gay/lesbians have so much influence. Their largest concventration only makes up 2 % of the population of S.F.

Usually highly educated, descerning consumers with high disposable income, very strong loyality to "gay friendly" brands, and in some cases, highly visable, thus potentially influential.

A lot of companies try to attract this group, their money is as good as anyone elses, and they usually have lots of it. Their advertising tends to be aimed directly at this group, so unless your apart of this group, you probably won't notice it.

 

[back alley]

ok, this has stopped being about anything rf related a while ago.

time gentleman please...