Kodak 4X5 B&W to be packaged in 10 sheet boxes (only)?

[Sal Santamaura]

...Kodak know well, that it will not be able to sell a box of TMY2 at $135, beside another boxes from ILFORD, Bergger, Foma and Others at lower than half price...

And yet, B&H keeps selling it and replenishing its stock. At the moment, after a large quantity arrived within the last few days, there are 242 boxes in stock. Two boxes sold between when I checked this morning and now. I'll be ordering a box Monday when they reopen.

Only those who recognize both the product's superiority and how small a percentage of their total photo-travel expenses it represents will continue to buy 4x5 TMY-2. I'm among them. I also have three boxes of 5x7 TMY-2 on the way from Keith Canham, with delivery expected in around five weeks. Spreading fixed costs across smaller and smaller volumes leaves only two choices. Raise prices or cease production. I'm glad Kodak keeps choosing the first option.

[Thalmees]

Thanks Sal for your comment.
Please continue reading after what you have quoted:

Kodak know well, that it will not be able to sell a box of TMY2 at $135, beside another boxes from ILFORD, Bergger, Foma and Others at lower than half price.
But they already increased price again, decided, based on a robust! conclusion! What does that mean?
Other manufacturers will follow, soon or not much later. The market(any market) does not need a reasonable justifications to move in either direction, and Kodak is still at least a traditional leader!
If Kodak is seriously willing to continue film industry, they should sell their fixed assets or at least share with another manufacturer. Only, If it's true that they are really supporting continuity of photographic film.

As for Kodak other options and consequences, will come back with more details.
Thanks.

[Sal Santamaura]

Thanks Sal for your comment.
Please continue reading after what you have quoted:

...Kodak know well, that it will not be able to sell a box of TMY2 at $135, beside another boxes from ILFORD, Bergger, Foma and Others at lower than half price.
But they already increased price again, decided, based on a robust! conclusion! What does that mean?
Other manufacturers will follow, soon or not much later. The market(any market) does not need a reasonable justifications to move in either direction, and Kodak is still at least a traditional leader!
If Kodak is seriously willing to continue film industry, they should sell their fixed assets or at least share with another manufacturer. Only, If it's true that they are really supporting continuity of photographic film...

As for Kodak other options and consequences, will come back with more details.
Thanks.

I think the idea that Eastman Kodak could or would sell Bldg. 38, including the equipment therein, to another photographic film manufacturer, which would then continue operating the facility to produce photographic film, is way outside the realm of reality. Kodak would scrap its coating line and demolish the building first. As for 'sharing' it with another manufacturer, Kodak might be comfortable with contract coating, but I can't imagine it turning over the line to a competitor's team to come in and operate.

Eastman Kodak, like every other publicly held corporate entity, is interested only in supporting continuity of its own profit. If that means selling photographic film, fine. If it means printing boxes, just as fine. Apparently enough customers have been willing to pay a substantial premium for TMY-2 in comparison to alternative 4x5 black and white negative films that Kodak Alaris can market it for $135 per 50-sheet box at retail. I don't anticipate HARMAN or FOMA increasing prices even close to that per sheet; their sales would plunge dramatically if they did.

[faberryman]

The market(any market) does not need a reasonable justifications to move in either direction, and Kodak is still at least a traditional leader!

The justification is supply and demand. They set the price on the demand curve to maximize profit.

What is Kodak leading in on the consumer side?

[Thalmees]

Hello all,
Hope the non-stop "increasing film prices" per se, will get more exposure.
Just put my 200 cents! in a separate thread. Wish it find your acceptance to share your opinions.
"Kodak Vs Film. Bourgeois Extorting Laborers? TMY2 Raising Price Again!"
http://www.largeformatphotography.in...ng-Price-Again!
Thanks so much.

[Rich14]

I just spoke to Freestyle Photo today about a pre-order I put in for TMX and TMY to be shipped in mid-April. I don't know to whom I was speaking, but he assured me that both will be available in 10 sheet and 50 sheet boxes for as long as there is demand for those quantities. He agreed that the smaller quantity option is necessary for students/first time users who likely find the 50 sheet price an insurmountable obstacle to ever trying these films, therefore never becoming customers. I suggested that having 10, 20, 50 and 100 sheet options could only result in increased sales over all. He thought the 20 and 100 sheet options were a good idea. Small quantities at a reasonable price and larger quantities at a quantity discount make sense.

The only way to ever get these options is to show Kodak there's a market. Money, or the promise of a sale at the right price/quantity talks. Let them know you want the product in the quantity that makes sense to you.

Rich

[faberryman]

How are you going too show Kodak there is a market for 20 and 100 sheet boxes if they don't offer them?

[Rich14]

Request them from vendors. Freestyle said they are listening.

[Pere Casals]

The justification is supply and demand. They set the price on the demand curve to maximize profit.

What is Kodak leading in on the consumer side?

Justification is marketing/corporate policy for the short term or for the long term.


New LF photographers adjust their process for Ilford (or FOMA, mainly for studio), exactly same results can be obtained and the sheet is half the price, just different filter and process settings.


There is a pool of established users that are using TMXY films, and they are not going to change their process, so Kodak is to extract as money as they can from them now, and tomorrow does not matter...


For this reason future is easy to guess, it happened before:


Ilford BW paper range: http://www.ilfordphoto.com/products/...graphic+Papers


Kodak BW paper range: ????


90% of Ex factory film cost is emulsion. Why punishing LF this way?


IMHO if Kodak/Fuji were promoting LF photography popularity they were going to promote film prestige in a field where digital cannot match performance/aesthetics, at the same time they were promoting the rest of film photography. And this would result in a nice long term business.

They are using primitive marketing analysis tools with little HumInt factor. And this is destructive.

[koraks]

I have an eery feeling of deja vue. Maybe a few boxes of TMY2 or another Kodak product will make this go away.