LOL........I read this thread about Kodak everytime one comes up. I like to just watch who sees the cup half empty instead of half full.
LOL........I read this thread about Kodak everytime one comes up. I like to just watch who sees the cup half empty instead of half full.
The days of the salesman who knows his product line are gone. The crap I hear whenever I'm trying to buy anything is straight out of a textbook of how to sell people crap they don't need. Extended service plans? Please. They never cover what you need them to. My utility sends me an offer for a service plan for my furnace at least once a month. Of course, it excludes my type of furnace. They've called too, and I've discussed it with them, but you never get off their list.
The exceptions are so exceptional that they become legends.
Kodak's film will be gone before we know it. Their infrastructure is too big to adapt to the smaller market. Stockholders will not stand by while they stay in an unprofitable (for them) business for the sake of being dedicated to their customers. Look at what they've already cut out of their lines.
Exactly my point Terence. Because they are still selling film, then they must be profitable otherwise Kodaks shareholders would not stand for it. This is what the sales people were telling me. The decline of film has leveled off and film is profitable and here to stay for a while.
Well put Terence! Thanks.
As far as seeing few film cameras among the masses, when did you ever see film cameras among the masses? Many people carry cameras that never would have before, in their cell phones, or because it's the trendy gadget. It doesn't hurt film photography if 99% of people goof around with digital images. They never would have bothered with film cameras anyway.
Serious photographers going to digital is a different story. Also serious family-photo recordists, that's a loss of revenue, if it continues. But for some reason this reminds me of the digital watch fad in the 70's. For a while, you could hardly find a regular watch with hands. They were all LCD and LED. Then people realized they didn't really like them, and started buying the ones with hands again. Now you can get both kinds, but mechanical watches are in the majority.
I think lots of people who embraced digital for its advantages will go back to film for its advantages. I'm one of them; I thought digital was gonna be great until I saw the pictures.
This may be more of a pendulum swing than just a straight deterioration. A nice photographic print is usually better than an ink-jet print. Running out of batteries every two hours is a hassle. Cables and memory cards can be annoying.
I hope you are correct, but I believe the CEO before I`ll believe a salesman.
Being a solid Tri-X guy for as long as it lasts, I hate to say this. Last May at the Large Format Conference the Kodak salesmen pledged everlasting love to the L/F crowd. Less than a month later Kodak killed Azo.
When you buy a car do you pay list price because the salesman tells you that's the best he can do?
"Serious photographers going to digital is a different story"
Burtynsky was talking about the possibility of going digital with the new MF 39 mp backs coming out from Imacon/Hassleblad etc which he is busy testing. If they meet the quality and convenience he wants he will use them - if they don't he won't. (For one thing he finds LF with a Linhof MT a pain for aerial shots and believes these will be an improvement for that in particular). If he finds they do what he wants with less hassle than 4x5, then he will use them. If not, then no. (for example, he can still get a faster look at detail by shooting a test Pol type 55 shot and looking at the neg with his 10x loupe in a few seconds than he can waiting for a digital file to run through the system)
You'd be amazed how small the demand is for pictures of trees... - Fred Astaire to Audrey Hepburn
www.photo-muse.blogspot.com blog
Jonathan,
Given the tourism in NYC, cameras have always been prevalent here. On average I'd say I see over a dozen per day here even when I'm not in the more touristic spots.
I'm a die-hard film user myself. I don't like to sit in front of a computer more than I need to for work. But when I was in a town of 5000 in Turkey last year and tried to buy film, the clerk at the store asked me why I wasn't shooting digital.
Keep in mine comrades, despite all the short comings of salesman they made one very good point. Color film will not just instaneously vanish. The process of terminating color film will start with the consolidation of the number of different types of film you can buy followed by the final demise. The considation of color film has not happened yet. I believe it will start first with consumer grade films and then finally the professional film will disappear.
Until then chill out and enjoy life.
Salespeople are very similar to politicians. [Caveat] Oftentimes, they'll tell you what you want to hear in order to placate you and win your vote/support. And, when asked a straight-forward question that directly contradicts what management/party line tells them... surely, they're NOT about to divulge the honest contradicting answer!
Secondly, as Bob F. has already stated... the sales force isn't "usually" the one to make these types of decisions. It's normally the CEO and the Board of Directors that steer the future of a corporation such as Kodak. A sales force may have a "sense" of what's going on in "their territory" but it's the global numbers from the entire sales force. that a CEO/CFO/Board of Directors will have available, that will drive the decision to continue producing (or not) a certain product line.
Therefore, as much as I'd like like to take the salespersons' word at face value... I think I'd be more likely to believe what the CEO says instead.
Lastly, by the time film finally disappears from the shelves, digital backs/systems will be much improved and will have matured somewhat as a product. Therefore, their pricing will be more affordable than what it is today. And, since I now have enough film in my freezer to last a good number of years... I'm not going to worry about unknown "evenualities" in the next 10 years with regards to film!
Time to go and burn some film now!
Cheers
Life in the fast lane!
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