No more home for Ektachrome

aperture64 said:
I have been a Kodak user for years because I don't like the blue shift when scanning Fuji. I used E100VS, then E100SW, then E100GX and E100G when the E100GX was discontinued. Last week, I went to buy more E100G for my Zero 2000. I couldn't believe the E100G 120 was $6.99, while the Provia was $3.79. So, I went back to Fuji. Why would anyone else go with Kodak at almost double the price?
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This has always been my gripe. I love Kodak slide films, but they are priced out of range compared to Fuji. I am not sure if we can compare the Kodak 100G with the Provia 100F (I would think its more akin to Velvia 100), its still ridiculously priced. 😎

Having said that, if anyone is interested go grab 5 pack of Kodak 100G in 120 for $27 on Amazon with super saver shipping before they are gone!
 
Kodak still makes Ektachrome 100D in 35mm, an E6 color motion picture film according to their website. It's not the same but it may be worth trying.
 
The dust is still settling at EK and will continue to do so for some time. But if they've figured out that they need to concentrate on C41 and black & white only in order to stay afloat, then it's hard to second guess them.
 
I still say this is window-dressing for investors who don't know what film is in the first place, let alone slide film. "This is not worth it, let's shut it down," they do understand. I give up on Kodak, they really deserve the mess they're in.
 
"due to a steady decrease in sales and customer usage, combined with highly complex product formulation and manufacturing processes..."

The very same words they used for Kodachrome.
Apparently Kodak don't think much about the IQ of their customers...

I am the worst economist on the planet, but profit=sales-cost is no rocket science
If these films are not worthy, and I guess Kodak is probably selling just OK, it means they don't seem to know how to produce the stuff economically like others do.

I have reached the conclusion that a quick collapse or alternatively a decision to let go all the film stuff would be the best thing to happen (for the film niche). A smaller player would probably take the production and run at least a good part of it.
Instead, the company is slowly sinking, killing one product line after the other, and these won't be available to rescue when (and if) someone will end up buying K's film production. Worse, by pushing more and more users to drop film, they are, as was formerly mentioned, engineering the next line stopping under the argument that "nobody buys it".
Sometimes, timing can be everything. I have a feeling that the film market will be very dependent in the next few years, not only on how many of us still want to shoot film, but on how the dynamics of the companies will drive the market, the prices, the distribution and the availability of processing.
Very sad all that...
 
sanmich said:
"due to a steady decrease in sales and customer usage, combined with highly complex product formulation and manufacturing processes..."

The very same words they used for Kodachrome.
Apparently Kodak don't think much about the IQ of their customers...

I am the worst economist on the planet, but profit=sales-cost is no rocket science
If these films are not worthy, and I guess Kodak is probably selling just OK, it means they don't seem to know how to produce the stuff economically like others do.

I have reached the conclusion that a quick collapse or alternatively a decision to let go all the film stuff would be the best thing to happen (for the film niche). A smaller player would probably take the production and run at least a good part of it.
Instead, the company is slowly sinking, killing one product line after the other, and these won't be available to rescue when (and if) someone will end up buying K's film production. Worse, by pushing more and more users to drop film, they are, as was formerly mentioned, engineering the next line stopping under the argument that "nobody buys it".
Sometimes, timing can be everything. I have a feeling that the film market will be very dependent in the next few years, not only on how many of us still want to shoot film, but on how the dynamics of the companies will drive the market, the prices, the distribution and the availability of processing.
Very sad all that...
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Well, do you doubt that there was a steady decrease in sales and customer usage with Kodachrome?? It was true there and it's probably true in the case of Ektachrome.

This is what annoys me a little about the reaction of people to this news and it was the same with Kodachrome. Everybody's so sad it's gone but if you ask around who is actually using it on a regular basis only a handful of people say yes. If you use Kodak's Ektachrome is your go-to film I truly feel for you but if you've only been buying one or two rolls a year then sorry, you don't get to complain. (and by 'you' I don't mean you, sanmich, I mean the generic 'you')

The discontinuation of Ektachrome emulsions has been on the horizon for a long time. Kodak already hinted at it when they released Ektar and said it was a good replacement for slide film. I don't know whether or not it was still profitable but listening to other photographers and pro lab owners I'm sure that sales were decreasing. If the profits decrease from year to year it's probably best to shift the resources to something where the demand is more sustainable.

And if Kodak closed up shop altogether today, it's not at all certain that anyone would buy up the film division and make the same kind of film. Look what happened to Polaroid. You can buy up the machines and hire the same staff but that doesn't guarantee anything. The Impossible Project is still producing a horribly inferior product at a very high price.
 
You also have to remember that Kodak's ability to make decisions is going to be limited in Chapter 11.

I'm not sure if it has happened yet, but a bankruptcy management company will swoop in and start making decisions on behalf of the bondholders.
 
jb17kx said:
Ahh damn 🙁

Provia it is then.

EKTACHROME 100D 5285/7285 is derived from and essentially identical to E100VS.
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Double damn. Provia - it just doesn't do it for me, feels flat like digital.

Not having been around film that long (just a few years), I'm starting to realize why so many people have had a chip on their shoulder from Kodak, and refuse to buy their product. Kodak keeps dropping bombs and their remaining customers get hit with the shrapnel. After a while, who wants to keep taking it?

I wish they could at least drop the price so people could stock up without breaking the bank... But, that's how it goes in f'ed up corporate bankruptcy.
 
Hmm, at least Provia isn't as digital as Ektar.
Really makes you miss EPR and EPP.

As to the price rises, is that Kodak doing that or retailers? I can't help but note a pattern with B&H prices just after a discontinuation - like the $20 rise on Plus-X bulk rolls.

I always have a wry smile for Kodak's estimation of how much time stock will be available for too - six months based on demand before you told people they couldn't have it any more.
 
It just occurred to me that Kodak should have discontinued E6 films quite a while ago, kept Kodachrome and marketed the hell out of it as a niche product, while improving access to K14 processing. Kodak has never been able to niche market, however. They would have to hire people from Harmon/Ilford.
 
Funny, since Astia's end, I decided to give Kodak's Slide film another look. As seems to be par for the course for me, as soon as I get into something, it soon goes away.
 
This is truly depressing news. First they killed off Kodachrome, so I moved to E100G and got used to shooting that and now they've killed that off as well.

Frankly I wonder whether Kodak shouldn't just give up on film altogether. People who don't care what they shoot will always buy the cheapest, and by and large that isn't Kodak. People who care what they shoot will test different films and then choose a couple to work with and learn how to get the best results from them. If Kodak are going to carry on discontinuing their films on such a regular basis you start wondering why anyone would bother investing the time in using them if it is likely that a year down the line you'll need to go through the whole process again.

Like one of the earlier posters I have always found Provia to be a bit too flat for my tastes, so where do I go from here?
 
Yeh, Ektachrome 100G was a nice Kodachrome substitute. But expensive. I never like the saturated stuff.

Elite Chrome was a nice and inexpensive slide film.

I guess it's now Fuji from chromes or nothing.
 
Jamie123 said:
Well, do you doubt that there was a steady decrease in sales and customer usage with Kodachrome?? It was true there and it's probably true in the case of Ektachrome.
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I know it's not the same with E6, but my idea of the end of Kodachrome is that they made every effort to push people NOT to use the stuff (no distribution in lots of countries, no advertisement for years, trying to keep the monopoly of processing-with success in most places- thus keeping processing both complex and expensive to the user, slowly cutting down more formats and emulsions etc.), and then, they stopped it.
They probably had some brilliant idea on what product is the one to promote and which is not...
I really think (without any clear information) that other people, another company, would have yielded better results, maybe keeping a viable Kodachrome product line.
At that pace, and the way they are running their boat, the pure and simple stoppage of film production, even stuff like tri-X, makes perfect sense....:bang:
 
batterytypehah! said:
Plenty of reasons, if you're Kodak and fighting for sheer survival, or at least a decent funeral. Anything that helps their stock price, whether true or a smokescreen.
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When you are fighting for survival, literally, the stock price becomes irrelevant.

Fixing the balance sheet and pleasing bond holders and new investors is what you need to do.

I don't think this is just a Kodak story. My guess is that you'll start to see other makers drop films at an accelerating pace.
 
sanmich said:
I know it's not the same with E6, but my idea of the end of Kodachrome is that they made every effort to push people NOT to use the stuff (no distribution in lots of countries, no advertisement for years, trying to keep the monopoly of processing-with success in most places- thus keeping processing both complex and expensive to the user, slowly cutting down more formats and emulsions etc.), and then, they stopped it.
They probably had some brilliant idea on what product is the one to promote and which is not...
I really think (without any clear information) that other people, another company, would have yielded better results, maybe keeping a viable Kodachrome product line.
At that pace, and the way they are running their boat, the pure and simple stoppage of film production, even stuff like tri-X, makes perfect sense....:bang:
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You seem to have lots of conspiracy ideas of how Kodak wants people to stop using Kodak. That's ridiculous. Kodak has surely made a lot of mistakes but they don't have an evil plan to kill film. If they wanted to stop producing film altogether they simply would have done it.

The fact is that most people stopped using Kodachrome long before Kodak stopped producing it. I'm not talking about Joe McRFF who buys two rolls a year and brags on internet forums about how much he loves Kodachrome, I'm talking about pros like Steve McCurry who used to shoot hundreds of rolls of that stuff. They went digital a long time ago.
 
Jamie123 said:
You seem to have lots of conspiracy ideas of how Kodak wants people to stop using Kodak. That's ridiculous.
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No conspiracy. No motive for that (I agree, claiming that is ridiculous)
Just plain good ol' mistakes, pushing this product vs that one etc.
Or maybe not mistakes, just not believing in a line of products, and trying to change the course of their business without making too many people too angry.
Of course I could be totally wrong, but I simply get the impression that others than Kodak would have ran the business entirely differently, and better.
but, hey, what do I know..🙄

One thing I am pretty sure of: the PR people at kodak are not very good when it comes to making us, the customers, feel like we are considered as intelligent people.
 
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