Kodak bankruptcy soon inevitable?

[MWitmann]

Why is everyone saying Portra is dead and no longer listed on the Kodak website? Am I the only one capable of using Google?

http://www.kodak.com/global/en/profe...ath=13319/1230

http://store.kodak.com/store/ekconsu...oryID.40677700

http://store.kodak.com/store/ekconsu...ctID.188421800

http://store.kodak.com/store/ekconsu...oryID.40677300

And following the link you've posted, try the "shop now" option and find some 4x5

http://www.kodak.com/global/en/profe...l?pq-path=2986

[Tom J McDonald]

20 sheets pack of Fuji 160NS = 74£

Not bad at all....

Warning, that store has given me nothing but terrible service. I suggest you find elsewhere if possible.

[MWitmann]

Warning, that store has given me nothing but terrible service. I suggest you find elsewhere if possible.

Tom, thanks for the advice...anyway, i was a bit ironic about the price

Probably in the near future (maybe already now..) would be useful to build a film availability database, in order to know what&where to buy.

I know that the idea could sound a bit alarmist, but would be probably useful. I keep Badgers as reference but i'm pretty sure that not everybody uses Badgers.

Ebay is a good source but sometimes what you find one day, can't be found in the future.

I think that the point is also about some psychological comfort, which would be offered by having 24/24 an usable producer site, from which order a standard set of products (ex. Kodak and their 4x5 products line) without the fear that the second day will disapear.

Having said that i will add that, at this time, Badgers are currently out of stock for the 4x5 new Portra 400; the only available 4x5 color negative is the Portra 160, and they are also out of stock for the Ektar 100 (probably few months...)

[Tom J McDonald]

MWitman, sorry, I thought you were quoting 10x8 and though it was a good price!
I agree about the database and have a list of the usual suspects.

[Roger Cole]

http://store.kodak.com/store/ekconsu...oryID.40677700

http://store.kodak.com/store/ekconsu...ctID.188421800

http://store.kodak.com/store/ekconsu...oryID.40677300

And following the link you've posted, try the "shop now" option and find some 4x5

http://www.kodak.com/global/en/profe...l?pq-path=2986

Humm, but Freestyle, B&H and Adorama all list it in stock.

Time to stock up? I can't really afford to buy a large amount but maybe 10 boxes...of course, with these great idea 10 sheet boxes that isn't so much film.

[MWitmann]

Not even with 1000 boxes of film i would feel safe, and at this moment i can't even afford 10 boxes...

[Lenny Eiger]

This worries me. At some moment there will be a tipping point and film will be no more. I watched this happen with typesetters after the output got almost as good. (Note the almost.) There are plenty of instances where the businesses will simply 'be no more". Blockbuster video is also going away, as Netflix is the way most people stream...

Kodak spinning off film - maybe. That would be good. I can't imagine a bankruptcy court allowing them to continue selling product based on an old paradigm. But Kodak has never been that smart - ok, dumbest company ever. They might just not spin it off, or take 5 years to do so.

Kodak going down could also take Ilford down. I use Delta as my primary film these days, I think its better than TMax 100 anyway. Regardless, it could all go away. Just like typesetters. One has to have distribution outlets, stores, and the like. If the major film supplier goes away distribution channels may just disappear.

I hope I am just paranoid, and all wrong about this. However, it certainly seems a bit dangerous to me...

What with everything else going on in photography these days, post-modernism's ugly and boring imagery, Getty, Flikr and others selling so many pre-shot images and wiping out the commercial arena, it certainly is a new world where photography, as I studied it, seems not too welcome.

Lenny

[Kevin Crisp]

Kodak "going down" would take Ilford down because......?

[clay harmon]

The future ain't what it used to be.

[MWitmann]

I hope I am just paranoid, and all wrong about this. However, it certainly seems a bit dangerous to me...


Lenny

same here.

If shooting film/LF will become so specialized all the available film, i mean the remaining producers, will sell their product in a appropriate range of price, and i mean high.

Also the releases and the development will suffer a lot, meaning that all the new products will enter a very specific category..i mean that you'll pay like you would buy supplies for a rocket project, and not some sheet film.

As i've suggested before, i think that could be a canhe if the business would end in the hands of a smaller company but, again, everything will turn in an almost "family business", (like for Ebony, Polaroid>Impossible project etc) and rising the prices.

So shoot film will clearly become a form a resistence, like in the opening scene of Rise of the machines..