Kodak announces discontinuation of some chemicals

[William McEwen]

(Forgive me if this has been posted before.)

Kodak is no longer manufacturing some of its E-6 and black and white chemicals. Some of the discontinuation is only of certain package sizes; other products (like Microdol-X) are going away completely.

Here is a link to Kodak's two-page chart:
http://www.dr5.com/B_W%20and%20E_6%2...N110209_AO.pdf

A warning -- the document is marked "For Direct Dealer Use Only." I won't tell anyone if you won't.

[Mark Sawyer]

Yow.

Thanks for posting. It won't hit me, at least this time around, but I can see some people being unhappy about it...

[bob carnie]

This is a big one as far as I am concerned..
We have been replacing to mix our own for the last couple of years,
We have switched to Harmon where we can , now we have to intensify the switch.

Harmon just announced a new photographic paper *wet* that I can use in my Lambda. It is a warmtone version of the only paper I can use with my digital printer.
Best news I have had this year.
Waiting for beta samples to test.. I love Ilford Warmtone.

[ic-racer]

Kodak has not been doing anything to get my business. I guess they want me to use Ilford

[Paul Kierstead]

Have you people even looked at the list? The huge majority is just a removal of some sizes, very likely unpopular sizes. Kodak has an insanely broad variety of sizes and varieties of chems and trimming the line is a sensible thing to do. It'll still be a lot broader then most other manufacturers.

[bob carnie]

Paul

In the Black and White section, a lot of what is being discontinued is what I use on a daily basis.
so I am still concerned

[Renato Tonelli]

I do use Microdol-X from time to time; I may have to look into alternatives when my (ample) supply runs out. If Im not mistaken, Ilford's Perceptol is similar to Microdol-X.

[William McEwen]

Have you people even looked at the list? The huge majority is just a removal of some sizes, very likely unpopular sizes. Kodak has an insanely broad variety of sizes and varieties of chems and trimming the line is a sensible thing to do. It'll still be a lot broader than most other manufacturers.

Absolutely. Most of everything is still there; only less popular package sizes are going away. Nothing, absolutely nothing that I use is gone.

The left side of the chart shows what is going away. The right side has a suggested alternative that is NOT going away.

[Eric Brody]

Like some others, I initially misread the list, not realizing that those on the right side are alternatives. Personally, since all I do in the darkroom now is develop film, there are no items whose discontinuation will affect me. All I use is these days are Xtol, stop and fixer, all of which are available. None of the E-6 chemistry is really gone, just size changes. Who makes 10 gallons of D-76 anyway? I've never wanted to make 50 L of Xtol. Those who use sepia toner, microdol-x and selectol-soft seem to be out of luck, but I assume these products are low volume and are no longer in sufficient demand.

The announcement could have been worded better but, I'm not a "direct dealer."

[ic-racer]

Have you people even looked at the list? The huge majority is just a removal of some sizes, very likely unpopular sizes. Kodak has an insanely broad variety of sizes and varieties of chems and trimming the line is a sensible thing to do. It'll still be a lot broader then most other manufacturers.

That is what I thought at first (then deleted my post) but on careful look, there is stuff on that list with no substitute. In fact, on the way home from work I remembered seeing a gallon of Glacial Acetic acid at the local shop. I stopped and bought it because that is on the list and two years ago I could not find any company that packages Glacial Acetic acid for consumer sales locally besides Kodak.