Kodak ceasing production of all film - FALSE ALARM

[Keith]

Sheesh ... Kodak can't even get their own demise right! 😛

 

[Roger Hicks]

I've just sent e-mails to two senior people at Kodak about this, specifically linking this thread. As we've already set up a meeting with one of them at photokina and she mentioned nothing, as I say, I'd be VERY surprised. But under Perez, anything is possible.

Cheers,

R.

 

[newsgrunt]

there you go Roger, you had to mention The Name that Shall Not be Mentioned 😉 looking forward to reading what you hear back.

 

[Merkin]

great. someone went and posted this lunacy and innuendo to reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/photography/comments/y55op/rff_member_told_by_kodak_that_kodak_has_ceased/

mass freakout in 3... 2... 1...

 

[FrankS]

Keep calm and carry on. I can't imagine that news of this magnitude would be reported first in an email to a customer inquiry from a sales rep. Just my opinion.

 

[Keith]

Did someone say 'viral?'

 

[BlackXList]

I'm REALLY hoping that Roger's email can get a different response to mine, and that someone in the UK end of the business has got their wires crossed at some point

 

[Roger Hicks]

I'm REALLY hoping that Roger's email can get a different response to mine, and that someone in the UK end of the business has got their wires crossed at some point

So am I! Or indeed, any response at all...

Cheers,

R.

 

[starless]

Obviously, the person you've been talking to got it wrong, customer support or not. End of story.

 

[PatrickONeill]

can you tell about the mfg date of film by looking at the experiation date? I'm about to pop into my local shop and snoop around their films.

 

[Jamie123]

Absolutely not a troll, (or a Fox News reporter)

True. A Fox News reporter would at least add a question mark at the end of such unconfirmed claims.

 

[Aristophanes]

Kodak is in bankruptcy protection.

Therefore it must notify all creditors through the court-appointed administrator of changes like this as it would affect its revenues, gross sales, and customer base. All of these have a material impact on the net worth of Kodak and its associated product lines. These are potentially saleable assets so deliberate diminishment of them--at any assigned or market value--must be demonstrated first prior to end-of-life announcements.

I have no doubt that Kodak is only doing minimal product runs due to the loss of most credit save through an emergency, priority lending scheme with full indemnity over all prior lenders. I bet they are running mostly on inventory of the film products division. The only thing keeping Kodak's emulsions afloat now is its legacy motion picture film runs. That is where the value lies (and where a commercial buyer for the film line may emerge).

 

[jippiejee]

Kodak replied on reddit:

"All - I work with Kodak's PR agency for the Film business. Kodak has not ceased production of its film line and we continue to offer the portfolio comprising color negative and B&W films. I realize that this email and subsequent phone call has caused confusion and we're looking into it. You can find our full portfolio on Kodak.com/go/professional."

 

[Roger Hicks]

Both my Kodak contacts responded very rapidly. Here is what one of them wrote:

Hi Roger, This is a mistake on Rangefinderforum. Very aggravating. We will find the source and correct it immediately. Looking forward to seeing you at Photokina.

The other said much the same.

Hope this settles the panic!

Cheers,

R.

 

[London CDK]

All - as I said on the Reddit forum, I work with Kodak's PR agency for film. Kodak has not ceased production of its films. We'll be at Photokina in September with our full film portfolio.

 

[BlackXList]

Very relieved to hear that it's a misunderstanding at the customer service end.

BW400CN is still listed on the site linked from the reddit discussion, so now I'm none the wiser whatsoever.

Jamie, I think I've made my position clear on this thread from the beginning that I was hoping that the information was incorrect, however what I reported was only exactly what I was told by the company themselves, and later confirmed by phone, hardly Fox style sensationalist news reporting.

I'm beyond happy that the information seems to be incorrect, however there are a couple of members who'd do better not to default to wanting to shoot the messenger when they're trying to help.

On a personal note, although the fate of BW400CN is somewhat unconfirmed, I think I'll add to my stock of it just in case

 

[paulfish4570]

excellent ...

 

[__hh]

Case closed. We can all head back to the classifieds to spend the money none of us have, buy stuff that we don't need, to impress the people we don't like 🙂

 

[zsas]

Both my Kodak contacts responded very rapidly. Here is what one of them wrote:

Hi Roger, This is a mistake on Rangefinderforum. Very aggravating. We will find the source and correct it immediately. Looking forward to seeing you at Photokina.

The other said much the same.

Hope this settles the panic!

Cheers,

R.

Good work Roger

 

[newsgrunt]

In other news, did NBC cut out part of Eric Idle's song during the closing ceremony ? the bit that mentioned "life's a piece of#$*" ?