Kodak

[Brian C. Miller]

If Kodak ran out of cardboard boxes, then what are they using to ship their medical 8x10 film? Maybe they ran out of box stickers instead.

No. Wait. This is bogus. Kodak is shipping 8x10 x-ray film faster than a goose can s***. The medical industry is gobbling it down like no tomorrow, and we're supposed to think that there's just no more left?? No cardboard boxes? A lack of stickers? And ZZ Medical sells Kodak x-ray film for $38/100? And ortho Ektascan for $77/100?

Am I the only one smelling a rat?

What is Ilford's volume on 8x10? Anybody know?

[Greg Blank]

Don't know Brian, Maybe the medical film is a different box. I am going off something I heard from a fellow employee that I can no longer ask, someone that had a direct connection to the sales department at Kodak. Even if its just labels which I doubt, its still kind of a bad decision. But as said nothing new.

[Roger Cole]

Doesn't Kodak still sell 8x10 film? Greatly reduced offerings but Freestyle lists Portra 160 and 400 and Ektar, plus TXP though the latter is out of stock and "overdue from vendor." B&H also lists E100G though also lists TMY as out of stock.

[Gene McCluney]

Didn't Kodak sell its X-ray film business a few years ago? If so, then they just contract out for it. Like they do for "Kodak" branded chemistry.

[Mark Sampson]

I have a hard time believing that Kodak has stopped selling 8x10 film because of a box shortage- not least because I bought a box of fresh Kodak 8x10 film as recently as August. I worked for Kodak for 19 years, and one thing I can tell you is that second-hand disaster stories (which this one surely is) are as common as cloudy days in Rochester. There may have been a shortage of boxes for a while- Kodak outsourced their box-making efforts awhile back, and no doubt some manager made a mistake in ordering, but not even EK would discontinue film for that.
And the X-ray film is now sold by Carestream but still OEM'd by Kodak.

[Drew Wiley]

What gets packaged in 8X10 or not is simply a function of what they perceive as
current demand (correctly estimated or not). The popular new Portra and Ektar color
neg films are generally avail 8X10, and there's not really any competitor supplying this
category in the US at the moment. B&W films are now largely specially cut to 8x10
on demand. I have gotten both TMY and TMX as part of group orders in the last year.
Tri-X seems to be periodically offered as a standard 8X10 cut. I doubt that boxes have
anything to do with it, unless they just wanted to tweak some extra profit or simplify the packaging lines by discontinuing the larger 50-sheet packs of 8X10 ... annoying
move, but better than no film at all. E100G chrome film is also still avail 8X10.

[Michael Kadillak]

I have a hard time believing that Kodak has stopped selling 8x10 film because of a box shortage- not least because I bought a box of fresh Kodak 8x10 film as recently as August. I worked for Kodak for 19 years, and one thing I can tell you is that second-hand disaster stories (which this one surely is) are as common as cloudy days in Rochester. There may have been a shortage of boxes for a while- Kodak outsourced their box-making efforts awhile back, and no doubt some manager made a mistake in ordering, but not even EK would discontinue film for that.
And the X-ray film is now sold by Carestream but still OEM'd by Kodak.

I do energy management work for Carestream here in Colorado. It is pretty cool to see a coating operation in full swing. This is an example of how a company can survive absent the myopic management style that continues to be Kodak's downfall.

[Matus Kalisky]

I am completely absent of insights to Kodak structure or management, but can imagine that downsizing a company (or large department of it) is a process that makes it much harder to keep efficient and avoid overhead - quite opposite when a company os growing.

[Greg Blank]

Nothing Kodak does surprises me. However: I said they stopped making 810 film- I meant like on hold. However that did not connote, discontinuing. My bad for awkwardly stating what I meant to say. As far as I know though to get 8x10 requires a minimum purchase at the case level by either a distributor or the reseller- so that would be in agreement with what Drew said.

I have a hard time believing that Kodak has stopped selling 8x10 film because of a box shortage- not least because I bought a box of fresh Kodak 8x10 film as recently as August. I worked for Kodak for 19 years, and one thing I can tell you is that second-hand disaster stories (which this one surely is) are as common as cloudy days in Rochester. There may have been a shortage of boxes for a while- Kodak outsourced their box-making efforts awhile back, and no doubt some manager made a mistake in ordering, but not even EK would discontinue film for that.
And the X-ray film is now sold by Carestream but still OEM'd by Kodak.

[Gene McCluney]

You know, if Kodak has master rolls of film coated on the thicker base required for sheet film and they still offer it in 4x5, then its only a matter of cutting and packaging it in other sizes. I wonder why they can't take a annual large format order like Ilford does. Ilford is profitable.