What will Kodak's final film be?

What will Kodak's final film be?

  • Portra

    Votes: 9 4.0%

  • Ektar

    Votes: 22 9.7%

  • E-Series (E100G, etc)

    Votes: 3 1.3%

  • ELITE Chrome

    Votes: 1 0.4%

  • T-MAX

    Votes: 19 8.4%

  • TRI-X

    Votes: 124 54.6%

  • BW400CN

    Votes: 5 2.2%

  • PLUS X

    Votes: 1 0.4%

  • A non-professional Kodak film

    Votes: 24 10.6%

  • Something that hasn't been invented yet.

    Votes: 19 8.4%
  • Total voters
    227
Suppose film becomes a niche product (which is sort of is)....everyone's all doom and gloom. I would be happy if I could get Tri-X, FP-4, and any 400 or 100 speed C-41 or E6 emulsion, in 35mm-8x10. Kodak currently makes 5 black and white films, and a whole bunch of color films, Ilford makes 6 black and white that I know of, there are a myriad of tiny chinese and eastern european companies making black and white film... You can get film in wack-a-doo sizes like 7-17 and 4x10. As long as there is a single VC fiber paper to print on people like us will buy the film.

Maybe there will be a lot less of it, but hey, they didn't shoot all the horses once we invented cars, and I've seen a few sail boats in my day, despite that fancy propeller.
 
funkpilz said:
Out of interest—why do you dismiss the big crunch hypothesis? What is your alternative explanation for the origin of the time/space continuum?
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There have been a number of theories on the end of the universe, though as far as our solar system, the Earth will reside inside of the sun in about 5 billion years, the sun being perhaps already a third generation star, perhaps the bits of other star systems that came together here had Tri X, and it just took 5 billion years to get to it.

The oscillating universe concept has been widely discounted because the numbers do not add up to generate enough gravity to stop the current expansion and then reverse it, indeed, there seems to be no end to the expansion of the universe in to what ever is beyond, so no "big crunch" and no "control alt delete" buttons.

Just based on math and the data at hand.


Regards, John
 
I know we are considered backward by some countries but I am pretty sure X-Rays are nearly all digital in Oz. My last 2 xrays (total hip replacement) were digital, imediatley came up on the screen and able to be checked and another taken if required. My dog fell off the back of my ute and I helped the vet X-Ray her leg (I held the dog in place). Imediate feed back on the vets laptop, so even the vets have gone digital. However for my hip a film was supplied for me to take to the city for my surgeon to check and for me to keep.
Thanks for the heads up on the worlds end, I'll tell my dog, she's interested in that sort of thing.

ron
 
Smart dog.

At least no big crunch, and we should have Tri X until the end. ;-)

Glad the dog is OK, how is the ute? I remember them from "My cousin Vinny".
 
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I think surveillance film will be last from all manufacturers. In fact, that's only film which will last forever. Because governments will use it more and more. I don't see evindence of reverse.
 
Perhaps film is going the way of cigarettes: with shrinking markets in the northern hemisphere, companies like Kodak and Fuji are pushing film more vigorously in the developing world, probably through a variety of business models, selling products at lower prices, at least in the short-term. I suppose the niche segment in industrialized countries will continue to be served as long as there is sufficient profit but perhaps by smaller sized companies instead of the current flagship ones.
 
semilog said:
Dental X-rays. Let me know when they can fit a (digital) area detector in your mouth.
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Yep, had it done recently. They scan your mouth with a similar size device that looks like the film holder... then they look at the images on an LCD screen.
 
It is an amusing notion that they would wait until they have a single product to shut down. They'll get chopped-up for parts before then.
 
Why don't all the film haters stop worrying about how long is left until they get to say "I told you so!" and start worrying about when they have to upgrade their digital camera system... again.

;)
 
Neare said:
Why don't all the film haters stop worrying about how long is left until they get to say "I told you so!" and start worrying about when they have to upgrade their digital camera system... again.

;)
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Hi Neare,

They're really worried about upgrading! Every year or two they want to...! They suffer inside that trap thinking what will come next, even the day they buy another digital camera again! And their photographs don't get any better after upgrading! And they don't get any more fun after upgrading!

They just pay more, carry more, and go to forums more to talk about megapixels and ISO! And they feel they're smart when they say film is dead!

Some of us have a lot of fun with them and with film!

Cheers,

Juan
 
Getting back to the original question. Kodak's last film, I predict, will be large format. Let's say KODAK Pro EKTAR 100. P&S, DX, and FF already have eaten away at the 35mm market. As someone who recently bought his first DSLR and was an avid 35mm film user, have to be honest, I currently find it hard to justify 35mm film use especially for color. 35mm to me is for fun, developing, getting your hands dirty, doing a "craft" etc. But results are very close. A 35mm film camera might edge out a DX DSLR in outdoor shots with good light and slower film speed, black and white might look a little better in some circumstances but it's negated by the freedom of digital to "shoot away", the control you have over your image in post, the ability to set white balance, the high iso performance, the ability to alter iso on a shot-by-shot basis of the current crop of cameras, their ability to capture motion in a pinch, ability to "chimp"... etc. All the vices of any serious digital camera has been negated as of 2009 to me - shutter lag, start up time, high iso performance, battery life, lack of prime lenses, dynamic range (to a reasonable degree), noise control, and prohibitive costs (adjusted for inflation, the D5000 I purchased cost about as much as a Yashica Electro CC did in 1976, which was $169 US. Prosumer level costs, but certainly not out of reach.) Every generation of digital will get better and better until 35mm film is completely obsolete from a purely practical perspective... in fact, it already is. However, it is fun playing with old cameras, collecting them, fooling around with them, trading them and they do give excellent results - but that's not a "practical" reason to shoot film albeit a valid reason. Film emulation software is quite good, actually (imo) in capturing the film "look", which when it comes right down to it is are just "preset curves", saturation, and contrast setting set by the manufacturer if you will, that can be emulated with a degree of "close enough for government work" accuracy. There will always be a hobbyist market for doing your own black and white but that will go to another player - Ilford is my bet, or the Chinese manufacturers. It'll be around. Digital, however, can't compete with 120 or large format. It just doesn't, in the same way that 35mm film doesn't compete with 120 or large format. Digital wins the "small format" wars. Film wins the larger format wars. No serious landscape photographer in Arizona is going to shoot their landscapes with a FF DSLR. There will never be a "large format" sensor of this size due to the cost and practicality of producing sensors of this size. That constraint will exist until the next technology comes along that replaces CCDs as an image capture technology.
 
The best I can do is shoot 10 sheets of 4x5 a week. The worse I can do is zero. So averaging that out plus some spikes in usage like a trip to Yellowstone or something I can do with 400 sheets a year. So if they announce the discontinuation of 4x5 films tomorrow I can still stock up 10,000 sheets in the freezer and they are good for the next 25 years. What me worry? As far as 135 format is concerned digital is a fully capable substitute, IMHO.
 
I wouldn't bet on digital not blowing medium format film out of the water pretty soon. And large format not long after.

Regardless, plenty of people will line up in the future to spend money on film, just as they do for letterpress, litho and etching supplies. Kodak probably will not want to work that market, but wouldn't Ilford stand a good chance of thriving during the transition from mass to art/hobby market?
 
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Interesting result in the poll. Tti X scored 54%. Some unsubstantiated rumor from Kodak some years ago. Tri X sales accounts for 50+% of their black/white sales in one size or another.
 
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