Bye Bye Tmax ?

[davidb]

Has the Big Yellow Monster finally done it?

There is a thread on APUG that Kodak has killed off Tmax 100 and 400 in medium format.

Confirmation to be made tomorrow.

Has anyone else heard this?

[Gordon Moat]

APUG has many people who like to bash Kodak, or just post doom and gloom in general. If you talk to some camera stores/labs/self proclaimed insiders, then it should be impossible to buy any film today . . . you know, film is dead. Consider why Kodak would tell some random lab in Canada they are discontinuing a film . . . this defies logic.

On the off chance production stops this year, that many several years worth of supply prior to expiration dates taking affect. In fact, I recently got some AGFA APX100 good until November 2010. If that is any indication for Tmax, even if production ended this year the current supply should be fine into 2010 to 2012 at least. Buy that time, if you still want to shoot B/W, I would imagine a replacement could be found, or you would have enough frozen to last longer.

Ciao!

Gordon Moat
A G Studio

[tim atherton]

they like scaring themselves over on APUG - it's a sort of masochistic thrill thing...

and who can tell with Kodak these days - they don't even bother to mention it on their website anymore when a film is doscontinued (I'm not even sure they know themselves).

That said, most of these things usually come from - a guy from my lab who has a cousin whose mistress knows a guy who works for Kodak told me...

but they do like their thrills over in the analogue compound

[jnantz]

i was told by a store owner 3 weeks ago
that kodak stopped making plus-x ... 7 years ago

[JW Dewdney]

Well - thank god they're still making pan(atomic)-x...! If they killed that - I'd REALLY be screwed!!

[reellis67]

Whew! It's a good thing no one ever bashes anyone else over here...

As to the original post, I would contact Kodak directly if it's that important to you. Every site on the 'net seems to have their underwear in a bunch over this, but no one has anything but the same rumor that could have been started by some dork in a camera shop that decided to quit stocking it...

- Randy

[Michael Kadillak]

I have a suggestion.

If each and every time in the future the same doom and gloomers try to get everyone else worked up about nothing and their posts fall on deaf ears they will go somewhere else where they can all get worked up together. Nothing gets me worked up faster than those that have not a clue as to what is going on behind the scenes just wanting to be a spoiler. Kodak would not be hiring back B&W emulsion engineers to improve their product if they were bailing out of the film business.

Fact - we have more qualify films in every size imaginable and life is very good.

Get out there and make some photographs as that is the best solution possible to any concerns about film availibility.

Smile

[Jim Rice]

While i respect the hell out of you Michael, and I'm certain this is yet another cow pile, Kodak did, in fact, simply poof from the paper business, after assuring us all that they REALLY do love us. You reap what you sow.

[roteague]

Fact - we have more qualify films in every size imaginable and life is very good.

Not necessarily. Tried to get any 11x14 Velvia lately? For that matter, how many 8x10 color films are left?

[John Kasaian]

TMax 400 is a great film IMHO and everyone I've spoken with at Kodak has been very helpful with all my odd ball questions. I understand some of us feel slighted by Kodak and Mr Perez' bizarre behavior in particular, but boycotting Kodak does nothing but harm LF. The more competition the better.

As it stands, per sheet Kodak film is the same price as Ilford at the places where I buy it. This wasn't the same story a few years ago, but Ilford ended up in receivership anyway and Kodak as we all know cut back several well loved product lines while at the same time putting a lot of people out of work.

Kodak lost my paper business when they quite making AZO, but I still buy quite a bit of film and chemicals in yellow boxes---I like the stuff and I know what it does. I also buy Ilford because Ilford makes things that Kodak doesen't (like a great 125 asa sheet film and a 400 asa film in 5x7, ortho film and graded fiber based enlarging paper) I also buy Efke and FOMA stuff. My point is that I see these as tools, not economic/political statements. More importantly they are products made by workers who care about what they produce. With film becoming a "niche" market for hobbyists and a few sought after artists, the notion of someone loosing thier job (and mortgage, car, marriage etc...) because they got laid off because I boycotted Kodak (or Ilford or FOMA or whomever) is a bigger poverty than loosing a particular brand of sheet film or paper. Like Michael said, there are plenty of films being made today, so buy the products you enjoy using. If you feel that if you want to "punish" Kodak all you're doing is giving someone like Perez more reason to further cut back film and put more of the people who have supplied us with lf materials out of work.

That's a greater poverty.