kodak films

[sgelb]

I love to use kodak. but it seems they are signalling they will stop making film soon(5 years?). smaller batches and higher prices seem to be a sign, seems like some MBA inside kodak wants to kill it altogether.

also they keep killing emulsions, TP, EPR, EPP are all no more production. I bet you EPR will become very valuable in the future, once it becomes scarce, people will pay a premium for it, just like Tech pan which now goes for 3-4x its original price. E6 seems to have a life of 40-100 years if stored properly. I MUCH prefer it to velvia, I think the color rendition is much better IMHO.

[Frank Bagbey]

Giving up photofinishing signals Kodak's intentions. The only Kodak film left on my shelves is going into the bargain box first thing Monday morning. %#&@ Kodak!!!!

[Gordon Moat]

Market capitalization for Kodak depends upon revenues, of which film is still a huge part. There is also the factor that film is the highest profit product that Kodak produces, measured on a percentage basis. Kodak risks a great deal financially giving up entirely on film production, equivalent to shedding over 20% of revenues, and there best profit ratio product. If they did, there stock price would evaporate quickly.

Unless Kodak can come up with another product line to generate over $1B annual sales, then they need to stick with film. Ask yourself what product that they do not currently produce could possibly generate that revenue, and could enjoy a high profit ratio.

Another factor is Fujifilm, who would greatly like to see Kodak leave the film market entirely. Like Kodak, Fujifilm enjoys a high profit from film production, despite that it is a small part of their overall business.

http://www.reuters.com/finance/stock...?symbol=4901.T

I am certainly glad neither of you is running Kodak or Fujifilm. It is not possible to simply dump an entire product line without consequences. Figures from PhotoKina and other industry sources indicate nearly $3B annual film revenues, and most of that goes to Kodak. Do you seriously think companies are going to dump profitable and mature products that generate that much revenue?

Ciao!

Gordon Moat Photography

[aphexafx]

I do not believe Fujifilm is interested in seeing Kodak leave the film market. Kodak IS film to many people. If Kodak leaves film, there will be fanfare the general public, along with many early professionals, will assume that film is over and the market for film with crash. Fujifilm will not benefit from this scenario, professionals non-withstanding. My opinion.

[Kent10D]

What is it with all these prophesies of doom lately?

Kodak has phased out some emulsion types, but they've also introduced a few new ones very recently and are clearly committed to keeping film manufacturing going at some level. These doom-and-gloom Chicken Little declarations based on nothing but hearsay and paranoid speculation do nothing to help the cause.

If you're worried about it, go out and buy/shoot LOTS of film! Please!

[Gordon Moat]

http://www.fujifilmholdings.com/en/i...cts/index.html

Just thought I would add this in, since Fujifilm just reported earnings. Colour film sales overall in 2008 works out to around $851 Million dollars. If you consider that Fujifilm sell far less colour film than Kodak, you can probably guess at Kodak sales. Does anyone seriously think a company would leave that much cash sitting on the table?

[Gary L. Quay]

I'm sure this has been said before, but buying Kodak's film will keep it in the market.

[Eric Leppanen]

http://www.fujifilmholdings.com/en/i...cts/index.html

Just thought I would add this in, since Fujifilm just reported earnings. Colour film sales overall in 2008 works out to around $851 Million dollars. If you consider that Fujifilm sell far less colour film than Kodak, you can probably guess at Kodak sales. Does anyone seriously think a company would leave that much cash sitting on the table?

True, although Fuji's year-to-year film sales from 2005 to 2008 have declined in a virtually linear fashion, and if present trends continue Fuji's film sales will reach zero within four years. Of course most of us expect this decline to slow or stabilize well short of that (part of the 2008 decline was doubtless caused by a souring world economy rather than a declining film market share).

At Kodak, motion picture film is a significant part of their film business. This is still significant resistance within major Hollywood productions and elsewhere to digital motion picture capture, but the process of converting commercial movie theaters to digital projection has already begun, and eventually projection duplicate film demand will take a big hit. So we clearly are going to be living in an environment of declining film demand for the foreseeable future. This is not gloom-and-doom, just being realistic. But I agree that color film is a very high profit margin business and all the current players will stay in the market until the bitter end. And Kodak's recent behavior (introducing a number of new or revised emulsions over the last several years) plus their amortization assumptions on some of their production equipment (if I understand this correctly) indicates that they expect film to remain in production for at least another ten years.

[Bruce Watson]

I love to use kodak. But it seems they are signaling they will stop making film soon(5 years?). Smaller batches and higher prices seem to be a sign; seems like some MBA inside kodak wants to kill it altogether.

The only thing random speculation like this does is damage film. All film.

If Kodak wanted to get out of film they would. Nothing is stopping them. But they are doing just the opposite. They are continuing R&D, and they are introducing new films. The new Portra films. TMY-2, etc. An MBA wouldn't do this unless they thought they would make their money back in film sales. Clearly Kodak is NOT leaving the film business!

When was the last time Fuji introduced a new film -- and I don't count reintroducing the old Velvia 50. How old is Acros?

And Ilford -- what's their commitment to advancing the state of the art? HP5+?

So stop this crap about Kodak leaving the film biz already.

[Gene McCluney]

also they keep killing emulsions, TP, EPR, EPP are all no more production.

Where do you find the info that EPP is no longer in production? I use this all the time in 4x5 for my studio product photos. Last I ordered was a month ago, though. If EPP is discontinued, I will have to switch to Fuji. Maybe EPP was discontinued in roll and 35mm?..but not 4x5. 4x5 EPP is practically an industry standard transparency film.