Calumet Closing!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Bob Salomon]

Right but what I mean is an opportunity for someone to buy and produce them.

Probably not if it is an active patent. Then whoever ends up with the patent would have to decide what to do with it.

[Oren Grad]

http://www.photobusinessforum.com/im...e_14-08908.pdf

This link will take you to the list of Calumet Corporate entities included in the filing.

Yes, I've seen that. What I don't know is the rest of the picture - who is the parent entity globally, how do/did the American and European pieces fit into the global organization (who are the beneficial owners, who controls what), and who owns what pieces of the brand and the intellectual property in which jurisdictions.

[Bob Salomon]

Yes, I've seen that. What I don't know is the rest of the picture - who is the parent entity globally, how do/did the American and European pieces fit into the global organization (who are the beneficial owners, who controls what), and who owns what pieces of the brand and the intellectual property in which jurisdictions.

We only are a supplier (creditor) to the stores and in the past were a customer for the Fidelity division when Linhof still sold them (decades ago). So we are only in contact with the store division in the USA. The entire company was bought a couple of years ago by someone in the UK.

[Oren Grad]

We only are a supplier (creditor) to the stores and in the past were a customer for the Fidelity division when Linhof still sold them (decades ago). So we are only in contact with the store division in the USA.

Understood.

The entire company was bought a couple of years ago by someone in the UK.

Aye, that's where the murk begins.

[koh303]

The real loss here is the "service" department in Chicago, which was (and most likely is, until it goes into the dumpster) a single and huge source of Cambo/Calumet LF camera parts. I doubr any of us will ever see any of those again (unless someone can point me in the direction of a corporate phone that someone will answer so i can salvage whats left of it...)

[Robert Jonathan]

Since Calumet owned Penn Camera, people like me in the Virginia/DC/Maryland area have lost another camera store.

But let's face it guys, this area doesn't have any camera stores that are worth visiting anyway. Penn Camera was pathetic, Ritz Camera is pathetic (are they still around?), and all those other ones listed are also not worth the trip. I've been to Ace Photo once, and it was surprisingly decent for a store in Virginia that I've never seen/heard of before, but I couldn't find a reason to buy from them.

For LF, I've been buying used anyway. I hope places like KEH will be around forever.

The good news is that we do have some good labs that will process up to 8x10, like DodgeChrome ( http://www.dodgechrome.com ).

[Bob Salomon]

.....

but I couldn't find a reason to buy from them.

One reason could be that they have what you were looking for.

[hoffner]

Another reason could be that you didn't want to buy it from a different store.

[Kirk Gittings]

Frankly though they were my "go to" store into say the year 2000 or so, in the last while because of their dinosaur website or not stocking what I need etc. they became the last place I shopped in recent years. So this does not effect me personally at all. The businesses I frequent now seem to be going strong, Freestyle I always give the first shot (I believe they have a long term commitment to the kind of photography I do) and then if that fails B&H.

But its "the sign if the times" this represents that I find dismaying. Even with bad management I think they would have survived in a better economy and industry perhaps. A friend of mine who finally just left Calumet last summer summarized it thus-it was simply "terrible management". He didn't blame the economy or the industry.

I think a comparison is in order. As Calumet was tanking Freestyle was growing and prospering......what might we surmise from that obvious fact in this situation? Now I have a dog in this hunt-the CEO of Freestyle is an old college fraternity brother of mine, and I am on their advisory board, but I think their success is pretty clear beyond my affection for the guy and his organization. He likewise had absolutely NO background in photography when he was recruited to take over the company but did have some real success actually salvaging distressed companies before Freestyle.

[Robert Jonathan]

One reason could be that they have what you were looking for.

Wrong. If I get it from B&H, the shipping is usually less than the sales tax I would have to pay, or shipping is free, with zero sales tax.