Following Ilford's Lead, KODAK Response

[Tin Can]

Maybe kodak sells NOS and doesn't make any new film...

The End Is Near

perhaps

[Fred L]

I don't shoot much 8x10 any more but for me, it costs what it costs and while the price is dear, I'll keep buying Kodak film. While Ilford is selling due to their pricing (in part), I wonder if they're making much money at all, or just getting by (re:sheet films).

[docw]

It cannot be a coincidence that KODAK just fired an email to me with their story, right after we all started praising ILFORD's video, posted today in the other thread above.



We Took You To The Moon by KODAK

I believe there is a coincidence here. It is the 50th anniversary of the moon landing, almost to the day. I don't think Kodak whipped this up at the last minute as a response to Ilford. Don't look for a conspiracy here!

[Tin Can]

I believe all conspiracies

😎

[Drew Wiley]

Everything is a conspiracy. They always told us the moon is made of green cheese. But with all those holes n craters, it has to be Swiss cheese instead.

[Michael Kadillak]

Lots of bold assumptions / conclusions of business models from people that have not been in any of these companies boardrooms. Same diatribes from 10 years ago. There is an old business / commodity trading axiom that makes sense in this application.

Forget what you believe and believe what you see.

Buy a large chest freezer and hedge your commitment to film. Stock up and make photographs. Repeat the cycle as often as possible.

[Drew Wiley]

Having personally met and discussed details with quite a few manufacturing CEO's, I know first hand that there is no need for conspiracies when greed combined with sheer incompetence lies behind numerous modern corporate failures. Same category of facts as 10 or 20 years ago. My freezer is decently stocked up due to exactly that kind of apprehension. My plan is to slowly empty it until at last there's room for me in it, preferably embalmed in amidol.

[MAubrey]

Fuji discontinued all Acros, later they are to manufacture it again... Instead promoting film usage they spend money in closing and re-opening product lines.

Fuji discontinued the original Acros because some of the materials used in its production were difficult to obtain. So they had to reformulate it in order to rerelease it. They're not closing and opening product lines randomly; there are other forces at work here,.

Ilford had to do the same with their Harman Direct Positive Paper. It was gone from the market for a few years before they were able to restart it again.

[Pere Casals]

Forget what you believe and believe what you see.

Michael, what I see is what everybody may notice. Ilford has a pricing policy that is mostly based in the film surface you buy, (so probably based on ex-factory cost), while Kodak/Fuji were punishing LF photographers with x2 "per surface" overprice for the LF products compared to rolls.

Recently Kodak has modified their pricing policy (in the US at least) for BW film and they charge only a 50% more for LF, well... this is a better situation.

In the color negative LF segment they have no competition and Portra 160 in sheets is still x2 more expensive than in 120 rolls ($15.5 a 8x10" sheet vs $7 a 120 roll).


Those are the facts, what we see.

[Bob Salomon]

Michael, what I see is what everybody may notice. Ilford has a pricing policy that is mostly based in the film surface you buy, (so probably based on ex-factory cost), while Kodak/Fuji were punishing LF photographers with x2 "per surface" overprice for the LF products compared to rolls.

Recently Kodak has modified their pricing policy (in the US at least) for BW film and they charge only a 50% more for LF, well... this is a better situation.

In the color negative LF segment they have no competition and Portra 160 in sheets is still x2 more expensive than in 120 rolls ($15.5 a 8x10" sheet vs $7 a 120 roll).


Those are the facts, what we see.

The fact is that Ilford or Kodak or Fuji, or any other company, bases their prices based on what gives them an acceptable return on investment. Not what it costs per linear surface area.

Raw material costs, tools, R&D, insurance, labor, property, taxes, utilities, environmental costs, inventory, sales force, tech costs, shows, displays, POS costs, profit, legal, accounting, marketing, advertising, conventions, sales meetings, training, office costs, etc, etc, etc..