Kodak discontinues three colour reversal films

[Brian C. Miller]

I was just down at Glazer's, and guess what? A hoarder out of New York city bought all the 8x10 E100G!!! They said he was buying all the E100G in the US. I got the last two boxes of E100VS (No, Woot, I'm not sharing!), and that looks like that's it for 8x10 color film in Seattle. It's all gone.

But they do have a decent amount of Tri-X, and also one box each of 7x17 (Ilford FP4?) and 14x17 (TMax 400). There were some really big yellow boxes of Kodak in the back of the fridge, but I didn't ask about those.

[Daniel Stone]

Hmmm... looks like B+H has raised the price of E100G in 8x10 to $132.99... wasn't it just $20 cheaper? I'm glad I stocked up late last year now...

-Dan

[Daniel Stone]

Enjoy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvUpnE-fKF4

-Dan

[John NYC]

I was just down at Glazer's, and guess what? A hoarder out of New York city bought all the 8x10 E100G!!! They said he was buying all the E100G in the US. I got the last two boxes of E100VS (No, Woot, I'm not sharing!), and that looks like that's it for 8x10 color film in Seattle. It's all gone.

But they do have a decent amount of Tri-X, and also one box each of 7x17 (Ilford FP4?) and 14x17 (TMax 400). There were some really big yellow boxes of Kodak in the back of the fridge, but I didn't ask about those.

I would guess that "hoarder" is simply one of the big high end retailers or auction houses that still shoot chromes of products on a DAILY, yes daily, basis. So if so can you really blame them?

[Daniel Stone]

If they can order up all the extra stock, you'd think they could swing getting a double-size custom run done, that way it'd all be the same emulsion #

oh well, it'd be nice to see E100G stand alone as the remaining Ektachrome. Alas Fuji will get my money once my stash runs out(which probably won't be for a while at my current consumption rate (extremely low in 8x10, 2-3x that in 4x5))

-Dan

[David Callard]

It looks to me like Kodak is pretty near dead. Unbelievable yes, but the writing is on the wall. I doubt whether they can survive on printers alone, when so many others are already well established in the field. Kodak is a classic case of a company failing to move with the times and now incredibly they have sold the only assets that might have saved them. I have wondered whether some entrepreneurial Chinese company might feed off the entrails and pickup some of the pieces - who knows? Anyway, it seems like we will be left with Fuji materials only for which we should be duly thankful, at least as long as they last. Does anybody have any ideas on Fuji's likely continuing film manufacture, especially of colour reversal materials? I am sadly considering whether it might be time to give in and sell all my film gear from 35 through MF to 4x5.

[Old-N-Feeble]

Man... all this chatter is making want to stock up and freeze enough film to last the rest of my remaining years and then buy all the raw chemistry to make my own C-41 from scratch... enough to process all that film. Now... where the heck did I lay that 50 pound bag of 100 dollar bills??

[Brian C. Miller]

Does anybody have any ideas on Fuji's likely continuing film manufacture, especially of colour reversal materials? I am sadly considering whether it might be time to give in and sell all my film gear from 35 through MF to 4x5.

Fuji now has a monopoly on reversal films. Whether that amounts to anything, I have no idea. E6 was about 1% of Kodak's film business, and that may be a similar market share for Fuji. Personally, I can't afford the digital stuff that performs close to what I can get with film. And then, of course, next year's equipment is going to be better.

Man... all this chatter is making want to stock up and freeze enough film to last the rest of my remaining years and then buy all the raw chemistry to make my own C-41 from scratch... enough to process all that film. Now... where the heck did I lay that 50 pound bag of 100 dollar bills??

My freezer is too small for that. I have to make do with what I can get through the market today. And your bag of money was buried in that weedy lot that got dug up for that strip mall development project. No, the construction crew didn't get it because the earth mover stripped off the top six feet at one go. It's probably fill dirt someplace, now.

One of the problems with the "use it or lose it" advocacy is that everybody who would use it, has been using it, and there just aren't enough to use it to make it worth a company's investment. How many master rolls of E6 did Kodak coat per year before they discontinued it? If the volume dropped below one per year, then that's what the manufacturer has to look at.

[Old-N-Feeble]

^^^ All good points... and all the more reason to "panic", buy a big deep freeze, buy tons of film and plenty of raw chemistry to develop it all.

[Noah A]

I mostly shoot Color negative films (and have a freezer-full of Portra 160!). But I had a 10-sheet box of E100G I was going to test for an upcoming project. I hadn't shot 4x5 chromes since college and haven't shot any E6 for a few years.

Since it's now a dead-end and I figure it's stilly to start a project with it, I used the film for some lens comparison tests.

I got it back from the lab today and while my pictures are rather pedestrian tests, damn, it's a nice film! I'm drum scanning it now and the detail previews looked amazing. It seems to scan well (and easily) and looking at the 4x5 chromes is definitely more pleasing than looking at orange negs.

I'm sorry to see it go, and sorry I didn't shoot more of it when it was around. I'll be sticking to negs for most of my work regardless, but I do hope Fuji sticks around and continues to make E6 film an option for those who want it.