A krummy deal from Kodak?

[Terence McDonagh]

Not to say Ilford's prices won't increase drastically, but the dollar has been in decline for a while now, and Kodak's making their product in the U.S. and paying it's work force in dollars. If anything, Kodak should have a labor cost advantage over a company paying its workers in British pounds. The weak dollar should be HELPING them, relatively.

I am assuming fuel, silver, etc. costs are roughly equal as they are world commodities.

[Michael Kadillak]

The title of this post is terribly misleading. Every manufacturer in a free market economy prices their product at a cost that they arrive at considering a myriad of external and internal components. Nobody has a legal contract to purchase any Kodak product with minimium volume requirements.

If you are not happy with the price, quality control, packaging or just hate the company please - go purchase Ilford or Efke and go make some photographs. Complaining about it does not help the situation.

[tim atherton]

It's not really anything to do with the dollar or silver prices. It's to do with Kodak's pricing strategy.

8x10 has always been quit a bit more expensive per sheet when bought in 10 sht boxes as opposed to 50 sht boxes.

Kodak decided to do away with 50s ht boxes - and, in the process, done away with the cheaper 50 sht pricing.

So they took the 10sht price, added a bit more (a sort of "normal" price increase such as we have seen with lford etc) et voila - the cost per sheet of any 8x10 b&w film from them has jumped significantly (because 50sht boxes are no longer available) - but as far as Kodak is concerned, it's just a "normal", smallish price increase - because the price per sheet of only 10 was always higher...

[Michael Kadillak]

It's not really anything to do with the dollar or silver prices. It's to do with Kodak's pricing strategy.

8x10 has always been quit a bit more expensive per sheet when bought in 10 sht boxes as opposed to 50 sht boxes.

Kodak decided to do away with 50s ht boxes - and, in the process, done away with the cheaper 50 sht pricing.

So they took the 10sht price, added a bit more (a sort of "normal" price increase such as we have seen with lford etc) et voila - the cost per sheet of any 8x10 b&w film from them has jumped significantly (because 50sht boxes are no longer available) - but as far as Kodak is concerned, it's just a "normal", smallish price increase - because the price per sheet of only 10 was always higher...

I consider the ability to acquire Kodak film at literaly whatever the price is to be an answer to a prayer. The quality control is still the best in the business and I am floating on cloud nine every time I get to load holders. About five years ago many were telling me that we would not have any Kodak film to put in my holders at this point. Not only do we have it BUT it has been re-formulated to be even BETTER. I actually hustled a few new customers this year just so I could buy it till the cows come home. Everything costs more these days from auto fuel to metals to food. We just need to deal with it, buy lesser quality at a cheaper price or change to a smaller format.

I like things just like they are thank you.....

Cheers!

[sanking]

To put things in perspective, I just priced today 20X24" Ilford FP4+ in 25 sheet boxes.

Cost is $610, or about $25 a sheet. Just a few years ago I was able to buy this film for about $5 per sheet.


Sandy King

[Frank Petronio]

When you look at the massive scale of the reorganization that Kodak was forced to do, that they are still making large format film products is quite remarkable. At least in the USA Kodak sells the widest range of film-related products, as opposed to our friends at Fuji who only choose to sell a limited range of the highest volume, most profitable products (ie cherry picking the best sellers, which cuts into the full range supplier's profits and hastens both companies' exit from film manufacturing.)

I tried Ilford for a year but four 50-sheet boxes of HP-5 with quality control issues nipped that in the bud.

All film and photo industry marketing sucks John. They just don't get it.

[dsphotog]

My method is bring MORE CAMERAS!!!
I shoot with 120 (pentax 67II), 4x5, 5x7, or 8x10- depending on what subject is most-as Elaine on Seinfeld might say "film-worthy".
Really though, Kodak has stopped making b&w paper, film in general can't be too far behind, I would like to see 8x10 & 5x7 film in 100, or at least 50 sheet boxes.
Lf people are committed enough to buy larger volume than 10 sheets.
Seems to me Kodak could pay for all that r&d faster by selling bigger boxes!

David Silva

Real cameras are measured in inches...
Not pixels!

[Greg Lockrey]

I see a lot of you all getting into alternative type processes anyway so how expensive is it to coat your own glass negatives?

[Jason Miguel]

For me, switching to wet plate has been worth while. I was a devoted 8x10, TMY-400 user. However, since coating my first plate about 5 month ago I have not touched film. Start up coast was about a little over $200.00. The nice thing is, I can get 12 sheets, 10x12, single strength glass for $30.00, but un-like any film out there, If I mess up a shot, I can just clean up the glass plate and try again. If only we could do that with conventional film. I have reused a sheet as many as three times to good effect. I Can’t complain about that.

[cyrus]

For me, switching to wet plate has been worth while. I was a devoted 8x10, TMY-400 user. However, since coating my first plate about 5 month ago I have not touched film. Start up coast was about a little over $200.00. The nice thing is, I can get 12 sheets, 10x12, single strength glass for $30.00, but un-like any film out there, If I mess up a shot, I can just clean up the glass plate and try again. If only we could do that with conventional film. I have reused a sheet as many as three times to good effect. I Can’t complain about that.

There's a lot to be said for learning how to coat your own glass . . . I know that I've been stocking up on plateholders for my 4x5 and 8x10, and I even bought a Rollei with a plateholder back and some plateholders to go with it, so I've go the formats covered..