Confusion about TMY 400 in 8x10...?

[Kodachrome25]

So this got a little weird yesterday....

This LF shooter has a project in which he is preferring to use Kodak Tmax 400 in 8x10 format. To preface this, as many of you know, Keith at K. B. Canham provides the service of special ordering TMX, TMY and TXP in 8x10 format, a practice that has essentially been in place since 2010 for the format according to B&H's Henry Posner. And speaking of good ol' B&H, they have 139 boxes of TMY-8x10 in stock, just incase you were going to run to your freezer and count your personal stash.

It was brought to my attention via a link on APUG that this gentleman has described his lack of faith of Kodak cutting another batch of TMY in 8x10 using rather provocative headlines on his project page like:

"Rural Transitions: A Photographer shoots the Last sheets of Kodak film ever made".

With a sub-head that read:

"Photographer Chris Walker has a share of the last 8x10 B&W film Kodak ever made."

Pretty bold statements, eh, especially as key info for those who would be deciding or not to donate to the cause. He has since ommited that info and brought forth an explanation, but the archived version still reads on the K.B. Facebook page.

So I only use TMY in the formats I shoot, 35mm, 120 and 4x5 so I have no facts as to how it is doing, who will put in another order or what. But I suspect there are several on here that do use TMY in 8x10 and want to continue to do so.

I would be interested to hear about other 8x10 shooter's plans for 8x10 TMY and if they have heard that there might not be another batch of it according to what Mr. Walker has to say about it as of late. No offense to the guy and I wish him luck on what looks to be a great project, but several people were not happy at all with his choice of marketing angles including Kodak, Keith Canham and a number of loyal TMY users.

Any word on TMY in 8x10 in going forward?

[Sal Santamaura]

It's not completely impossible that this guy knows something about Kodak's (and the UK Kodak Pension Plan's -- soon to be the entity that markets Kodak-branded film) plans to not cut and package any more 8x10 TMY-2, which has been a special order item for some time. However, his nonsense about dichroic fog after the film is a mere one year old in his so-called "extreme processing methods" certainly diminishes his credibility in my eyes.

I'm not one who normally sees the future of Kodak film through rose-colored glasses. Nonetheless, I suspect that, since 4x5 TMY-2 is cut from the same master roll as 8x10, we'll continue to see special order availability at least through 2015, at which time the long-term supply agreements for motion picture film expire. That's when I would begin to worry about any Kodak films, in any size, that I wanted to purchase. At this point, the linked item reads like fiction intended to motivate donations. Note too the very specific wording (emphasis added) of this excerpt:

"Recently, he received a share of the last regular production run of the particular brand and size of Kodak film he uses to create these images."

There have been no regular production runs of 8x10 TMY-2 since it was converted to a special order item several years ago. This signifies nothing negative about the availability and freshness of that product bought today from B&H, which places its own minimum quantity special orders, or through K.B. Canham group purchases.

[jp]

Maybe he's on another planet where there is more cosmic radiation than here.

My freezer stash of 2011 era tmy2 continues to work well and I expect it will for years to come.

[Drew Wiley]

Just looking at the batch (emulsion) codes for both my 8x10 and 4x5 TMY makes it perfectly apparent that they're frequently running it. And Keith informs me each
repetitive time a custom cut is made of even the less popular TMX 8X10, which has quite a bit of industrial demand by someone. But TMY400 is a homerun product that can easily pull it's own weight in terms of profitability and hence sustainability. The fate of Kodak's film label per se also seems to have been stabilized for the
foreseeable future. Just sounds like more useless film bashing. I'll bet enough people on this forum alone use enough 8x10 TMY to keep it viable. It's my favorite b&w sheet film at this point in time - cost a little more, but saves money in terms of curve linearity (versatility handling diverse lighting conditions), reliability (excellent quality control and resistance to damage in handling), and speed (less shots lost to wind movement etc).

[Drew Wiley]

... sounds to me like that so-called source is just using a little snake-oil salesmanship to promote a personal project, at the expense of the facts. But at least another Uncle Earl incident would be amusing...