Kodak ceasing production of all film - FALSE ALARM

[.... _]

Fuji's been discontinuing films left and right so I'm not sure that they're really that commited to keeping film alive.

Well they have a range of positive and negative films. Yes they have been cutting back on some lines as have all film companies but they are still designing and making new film cameras. I think that shows a lot more committment than some. i.e. while there is a viable market they will be in it. I think there is a viable black and white paper market in the US. Why did kodak stop B+W paper production.

 

[gdi]

Well they have a range of positive and negative films. Yes they have been cutting back on some lines as have all film companies but they are still designing and making new film cameras. I think that shows a lot more committment than some. i.e. while there is a viable market they will be in it. I think there is a viable black and white paper market in the US. Why did kodak stop B+W paper production.

Right, and they are still selling the pa-45 film holders, after discontinuing all 4x5 instant film. Fuji is great.

 

[Jamie123]

Well they have a range of positive and negative films. Yes they have been cutting back on some lines as have all film companies but they are still designing and making new film cameras. I think that shows a lot more committment than some. i.e. while there is a viable market they will be in it. I think there is a viable black and white paper market in the US. Why did kodak stop B+W paper production.

They've just recently discontinued several of their film cameras and they haven't introduced any new ones in a while. The BessaIII/GF670 was only a limited production run, too. While they haven't discontinued all slide films, they have been cutting back a lot and I suspect this trend is going to continue. Also, they haven't improved any of their emulsions in years whereas Kodak's new Portra films are a great improvement over their predecessors. And they also introduced Ektar.
The difference between Fuji and Kodak is not the commitment they have to film, it's that Fuji is doing ok as a company while Kodak isn't. I actually think that the employees at Kodak probably care more about film than those at Fuji simply because that's the thing that defines Kodak.

 

[MartinP]

Well they have a range of positive and negative films. Yes they have been cutting back on some lines as have all film companies but they are still designing and making new film cameras. I think that shows a lot more committment than some. i.e. while there is a viable market they will be in it. I think there is a viable black and white paper market in the US. Why did kodak stop B+W paper production.

Not correct. Ilford have been increasing their range of products, and even making bizarre sizes on request, for years. There is a reason why they are the world leader in their field.

About the Kodak paper . . . the mass-market paper would have been Polycontrast. In the lab where I worked at the time (as b+w printer) we did a "blind tasting" of papers with some customers, purely on looking at prints of the same neg, and Polycontrast was consistently behind Ilford and Agfa (this was more than 20 years ago). They chose not to keep the product up with the quality of the competition, with the obvious result.

EDIT: I happily use Portra, so please don't think I'm bashing Kodak film division 🙂

 

[Photo_Smith]

It can't downsize its site and plant the way it is now. IMO it needs to build a new film based plant totally seperate from its existing site of the right scale for it to be economically viable. But it isn't doing that and that means its going to fail in the film based stakes.

I'm not sure that's true. In the last 10 years Kodak has downsized worldwide it's film production drastically It now only has two coating halls (both next to each other), as far as I can see it has downsized pretty effectively.
Having the base production near the coating plant makes sense, they now outsource all confection of film to their Mexico operation.
They have made great strides in adapting the coatings to make smaller runs, and production is about as efficient as it can get.
Hard to see how moving anything else will gain them anything but costs.

We may think that upper management may be steering the corporate boat toward the ice burg but that has nothing to do with the film division and their efficiency or their attempts to match supply with demand.

We can only hope the film division will be spun off, I'm sure the world biggest producer of film can survive without the boat anchor of the rest of the company.

 

[paulfish4570]

well, wal-mart has not sold kodak films for about a year now. the walgreens i use for c-41 processing/scanning has not re-stocked kodak or walgreens house brand (box says made in japan) c-41 film in months. the same for the cvs chain. the closest cvs store has a few rolls of tri-x left at near expiration date, and the boxes are very dusty (i may buy them up today). wolf/ritz do not sell film any more. this leaves a single photo store in a metropolitan area of 1 million people that offers a variety of c-41 and other color and black and white films. i imagine it is the same in most usa metro areas. kodak will have to make some sharp moves to stay alive in what is becoming a boutique business for customers like us. cinema? scientific? surely digital is making inroads there. tough business is getting tougher. i hope the kodak film division survives and thrives.

how about you other film shooters from the usa? is it one hobbyist/pro photo store per 1 million people across the country? i sure hope not ...

 

[Roger Hicks]

. . . We can only hope the film division will be spun off, I'm sure the world biggest producer of film can survive without the boat anchor of the rest of the company.

Not just the boat anchor. Also the millstone(s), anvils, concrete overshoes...

Cheers,

R.

 

[Gumby]

... the closest cvs store has a few rolls of tri-x left at near expiration date, and the boxes are very dusty (i may buy them up today)...

Ask the manager to discount them for you. That's what I did and I got a great deal. The manager said he would be happy to have that rack space available again for something that actually sells. I went back to my local Walgreens a few months later and that rack space was filled with disposable cameras -- film cameras. Ha ha ha.

 

[Aristophanes]

Maybe the employee got canned or will be soon and this is his revenge kill Kodak by spreading false rumours. False rumours can kill a stock company very fast and easy.

Dominik

Ch. 11 means Kodak works for creditors, not shareholders.

 

[Gumby]

Not just the boat anchor. Also the millstone(s), anvils, concrete overshoes...

... or albatross.

 

[.... _]

Not correct. Ilford have been increasing their range of products, and even making bizarre sizes on request, for years. There is a reason why they are the world leader in their field.

About the Kodak paper . . . the mass-market paper would have been Polycontrast. In the lab where I worked at the time (as b+w printer) we did a "blind tasting" of papers with some customers, purely on looking at prints of the same neg, and Polycontrast was consistently behind Ilford and Agfa (this was more than 20 years ago). They chose not to keep the product up with the quality of the competition, with the obvious result.

EDIT: I happily use Portra, so please don't think I'm bashing Kodak film division 🙂

yes Ilford have been making an effort. But they acquired Kentmere and many of the Kentmere products were dropped which we were promised wouldn't happen. Apparently due to EU regulations.
Ilford dropped G4 Ilfobrom paper and others but that doesn't surprise me as most people use VC paper these days.

 

[thegman]

I think internet shopping has a lot to do with this, I'm in London, I can walk to several pro processing/film shops and buy new film in fridges, it's all very professional and pleasant. The fact is though, it's more convenient to order online, there is a bigger, cheaper range.

Retail operations are going to have a very hard time in all fields selling predictable consumables like this, you don't have to select films personally any more than you have to select blank DVDs personally. It's not like clothes etc. which need to be tried on and so forth.

Garry

well, wal-mart has not sold kodak films for about a year now. the walgreens i use for c-41 processing/scanning has not re-stocked kodak or walgreens house brand (box says made in japan) c-41 film in months. the same for the cvs chain. the closest cvs store has a few rolls of tri-x left at near expiration date, and the boxes are very dusty (i may buy them up today). wolf/ritz do not sell film any more. this leaves a single photo store in a metropolitan area of 1 million people that offers a variety of c-41 and other color and black and white films. i imagine it is the same in most usa metro areas. kodak will have to make some sharp moves to stay alive in what is becoming a boutique business for customers like us. cinema? scientific? surely digital is making inroads there. tough business is getting tougher. i hope the kodak film division survives and thrives.

how about you other film shooters from the usa? is it one hobbyist/pro photo store per 1 million people across the country? i sure hope not ...