FROM http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1400524,00050001.htm
Ending a century-old tradition, Eastman Kodak Co Will soon stop making black-and-white photographic paper, a niche product for fine-art photographers and hobbyists that is rapidly being supplanted by digital-imaging systems.
Kodak said yesterday it will discontinue production of the paper, specially designed for black-and-white film, at the end of this year. But the world's biggest film manufacturer will continue to make black-and-white film and chemicals for processing.
"It's a shame to see it go," said Bill Schiffner, editor of Imaging Business magazine in Melville, New York. "Digital has done a lot of good things for the industry but it's done some bad things too. It's making a lot of these processes obsolete."
The paper is manufactured at a plant in Brazil. Kodak declined to specify how many employees would be affected by the production shutdown, which is part of a three-year overhaul to eliminate 12,000 to 15,000 jobs by 2007 and shrink the company's work force to around 50,000.
As the industry shifts rapidly from chemical-based to digital imaging, demand for black-and-white paper is declining about 25 per cent annually, Kodak spokesman David Lanzillo said.
John Eoff, owner of Photo-Lab Inc., said his 91-year-old shop in Schenectady, New York, still sells "a fair amount" of black-and-white paper to photography students and enthusiasts, while professional photographers have mostly gone to digital printing systems already
Ending a century-old tradition, Eastman Kodak Co Will soon stop making black-and-white photographic paper, a niche product for fine-art photographers and hobbyists that is rapidly being supplanted by digital-imaging systems.
Kodak said yesterday it will discontinue production of the paper, specially designed for black-and-white film, at the end of this year. But the world's biggest film manufacturer will continue to make black-and-white film and chemicals for processing.
"It's a shame to see it go," said Bill Schiffner, editor of Imaging Business magazine in Melville, New York. "Digital has done a lot of good things for the industry but it's done some bad things too. It's making a lot of these processes obsolete."
The paper is manufactured at a plant in Brazil. Kodak declined to specify how many employees would be affected by the production shutdown, which is part of a three-year overhaul to eliminate 12,000 to 15,000 jobs by 2007 and shrink the company's work force to around 50,000.
As the industry shifts rapidly from chemical-based to digital imaging, demand for black-and-white paper is declining about 25 per cent annually, Kodak spokesman David Lanzillo said.
John Eoff, owner of Photo-Lab Inc., said his 91-year-old shop in Schenectady, New York, still sells "a fair amount" of black-and-white paper to photography students and enthusiasts, while professional photographers have mostly gone to digital printing systems already
