An idea for Kodak....back to its roots...

[Ray Morgenweck]

Given the trendy interest in Film by a new generation, how about a Modern reboot of the 1888 camera. A preloaded box camera with 100 images. “You push the button we do the rest”......so after you shoot all the images, drop the camera in the mail back to Kodak. They develop the film, and email you back scans. Merit?

 

[Kodachromeguy]

Disposable cameras are like this, but they have fewer exposures in them. In the past, the bodies were reused with new film loaded.

 

[Cholentpot]

Disposable cameras are like this, but they have fewer exposures in them. In the past, the bodies were reused with new film loaded.

Re-release the original brownie with 100 round exposures. Development included.

 

[MattKing]

This would be fun, but the current relatively high cost of shipping would probably doom it to failure.
I just wish Canada Post could be persuaded to bring back the favourable rate for shipping films for processing. As it is, we have to pay parcel rates, because films are thicker than envelopes.

 

[Ko.Fe.]

Why is it in the Industry News. Post here if it will happen.
But most likely it never will. Interest among young ones is grossly overestimated at forums. I see what it is in real in Toronto. Fourth largest city in NA. Just one spot left where you could see not just one person buying, developing film.
Any way, young ones are taken with Instax.

 

[BrianShaw]

How about a digital incarnation. After 100 exposures it wirelessly transmits to Kodak for printing and delivery via Uber/Lyft. For an upcharge, drone delivery. For an even bigger upcharge, wireless delivery to personal printing device. But no negs and no digital files!

 

[Cholentpot]

Why is it in the Industry News. Post here if it will happen.
But most likely it never will. Interest among young ones is grossly overestimated at forums. I see what it is in real in Toronto. Fourth largest city in NA. Just one spot left where you could see not just one person buying, developing film.
Any way, young ones are taken with Instax.

I was just there. I even did a paid shoot in Alex Muir's garden. Lot's o' film shooters takin' them there film photos of the fancy leaves.

 

[Ko.Fe.]

I was just there. I even did a paid shoot in Alex Muir's garden. Lot's o' film shooters takin' them there film photos of the fancy leaves.

"Just where" was yesterday. Halloween with rain and big branches falling wind.
I didn't even bother to use film. Way too dark.

I'm in Toronto every day, Monday to Friday. I see very few with film cameras on the streets and only once in a while. Digital is totally dominant. The Henry's store in downtown crapped out, I used to buy film supplies from them. Now it is just Downtown Camera and dusty corner at the back of the Aden camera (they have film supplies covered in tacky dust, but I have seen one person buying C-41 film). Once you go from to Toronto to nearby suburbs, where my house is, film is next to none. Burlington camera is the last store were film is dominant from cameras to enlargers, but I never seen it crowded.

 

[Cholentpot]

"Just where" was yesterday. Halloween with rain and big branches falling wind.
I didn't even bother to use film. Way too dark.

I'm in Toronto every day, Monday to Friday. I see very few with film cameras on the streets and only once in a while. Digital is totally dominant. The Henry's store in downtown crapped out, I used to buy film supplies from them. Now it is just Downtown Camera and dusty corner at the back of the Aden camera (they have film supplies covered in tacky dust, but I have seen one person buying C-41 film). Once you go from to Toronto to nearby suburbs, where my house is, film is next to none. Burlington camera is the last store were film is dominant from cameras to enlargers, but I never seen it crowded.

Two weeks ago.

Issue is this, if anyone thinks we're going back to the old days of football field size emulsions being rolled out daily you're looking at it the wrong way. Fountain pens are still being sold, why? Because they adapted to a smaller market. Film is doing the same thing. The industry and market will adapt. It'll be a small but robust playing field in the future. B&W film will never go away, color might though.

 

[Agulliver]

As AgX has said, the "film revival" or at least film usage varies geographically. Most days I venture into central London I see people with film cameras. Around my town of Luton I know my local camera shop is doing well and I do see people around the town (which isn't very photogenic) shooting film.. Possibly students...the university still does film but a local college is giving up their film darkroom.

I visited Oxford a year ago and exchanged knowing winks with a young woman who can have been no older than 21 who had a Hasselblad over her shoulder accompanying the Instax around her neck....she was admiring my Kiev 6....When I talk to staff at my local camera shop they do tell me that it's people under 30 who are coming in, asking to buy film cameras and film for the first time, while others have dusted off a parent's old camera and want a battery and film to try it.....most do come back for more - hence they ran out of Color Plus and 400H film this summer. When I visited Cardiff a few months ago I was the oldest person in the camera shop there...the kind of place that prides itself on offering "every film on sale", a great range of used film cameras and no fewer than four "Bargain buckets". At 46 I was quite easily the oldest person in that shop including the staff - with whom I had a knowledgeable and lengthy conversation about TLRs and 6x6 folding cameras.

Whether Kodak offering something like OP suggests would be good, is debatable. I like that Ilford offer their B&W "single use" camera with processing if you want it. Kodak could certainly facilitate processing of a single use camera system , and increasing the number of exposures might be useful but difficult. Has anyone ever marketed a medium format single use camera? That might be different, and interesting....might get young people into 120 film. I've helped three people in their 30s get into medium format by lending them a box camera already loaded, then they move onto a TLR or 6x6 of some description once they have some confidence loading the film.

 

[cmacd123]

I like that Ilford offer their B&W "single use" camera with processing if you want it. Kodak could certainly facilitate processing of a single use camera system , and increasing the number of exposures might be useful but difficult. Has anyone ever marketed a medium format single use camera?

the announced "Harman" camera is a step in the direction for item 1. a re-loadable analogue of a single use camera.

I recall when I was Very young, there were lots of Imported plastic cameras like the Anny and the Dianna. that did take pictures on 620 or 120 film (although 4.5 by 4.5 with fuzzy edges) I wonder if Hanking Wong might be persuaded to make an Ansco something or other to take 120. (A Halana, would do but the Ansco trademark they also own might be more salable.)

 

[removed account4]

Hi Ray !
I've been saying the same exact thing for about 15 years, would be great, wouldn't it ?
The problem is they dismantled their processing division. BUT still, it sounds like a great thing for
New Kodak™ you know someone who will sell the cameras and film and process/print the 100 image rolls..
Too bad people don't have the patience to wait a month or 2 to get the images and camera mailed back to them.

Issue is this, if anyone thinks we're going back to the old days of football field size emulsions being rolled out daily you're looking at it the wrong way.

There is this guy in New Hampshire coating and selling Dry Plates like it is 1883. I think sometime, no clue when, he will be reinventing ortho roll film, so it is almost a matter of time before someone buys a bunch of Morrocan Leather, buys 1000 glass flits from Anchor Optical, makes balsa wood/bass wood roll cameras and fits them with JLane Ortho Roll Film
and sells the film and camera and processing altogether like it was 1886. Football grain doesn't really matter when the images are contact printed and scans are sent along with the prints, you know sized to 2x2 72dpi . Its not that far from reality, and just gimmicky enough that everyone and their cousin will be interested. I have a high wheel ( penny farthing ). a bowler hat and live by candlelight.

 

[Cholentpot]

Hi Ray !
I've been saying the same exact thing for about 15 years, would be great, wouldn't it ?
The problem is they dismantled their processing division. BUT still, it sounds like a great thing for
New Kodak™ you know someone who will sell the cameras and film and process/print the 100 image rolls..
Too bad people don't have the patience to wait a month or 2 to get the images and camera mailed back to them.



There is this guy in New Hampshire coating and selling Dry Plates like it is 1883. I think sometime, no clue when, he will be reinventing ortho roll film, so it is almost a matter of time before someone buys a bunch of Morrocan Leather, buys 1000 glass flits from Anchor Optical, makes balsa wood/bass wood roll cameras and fits them with JLane Ortho Roll Film
and sells the film and camera and processing altogether like it was 1886. Football grain doesn't really matter when the images are contact printed and scans are sent along with the prints, you know sized to 2x2 72dpi . Its not that far from reality, and just gimmicky enough that everyone and their cousin will be interested. I have a high wheel ( penny farthing ). a bowler hat and live by candlelight.

As AgX has said, the "film revival" or at least film usage varies geographically. Most days I venture into central London I see people with film cameras. Around my town of Luton I know my local camera shop is doing well and I do see people around the town (which isn't very photogenic) shooting film.. Possibly students...the university still does film but a local college is giving up their film darkroom.

I visited Oxford a year ago and exchanged knowing winks with a young woman who can have been no older than 21 who had a Hasselblad over her shoulder accompanying the Instax around her neck....she was admiring my Kiev 6....When I talk to staff at my local camera shop they do tell me that it's people under 30 who are coming in, asking to buy film cameras and film for the first time, while others have dusted off a parent's old camera and want a battery and film to try it.....most do come back for more - hence they ran out of Color Plus and 400H film this summer. When I visited Cardiff a few months ago I was the oldest person in the camera shop there...the kind of place that prides itself on offering "every film on sale", a great range of used film cameras and no fewer than four "Bargain buckets". At 46 I was quite easily the oldest person in that shop including the staff - with whom I had a knowledgeable and lengthy conversation about TLRs and 6x6 folding cameras.

Whether Kodak offering something like OP suggests would be good, is debatable. I like that Ilford offer their B&W "single use" camera with processing if you want it. Kodak could certainly facilitate processing of a single use camera system , and increasing the number of exposures might be useful but difficult. Has anyone ever marketed a medium format single use camera? That might be different, and interesting....might get young people into 120 film. I've helped three people in their 30s get into medium format by lending them a box camera already loaded, then they move onto a TLR or 6x6 of some description once they have some confidence loading the film.

I'm in my mid 30's. I'll tell you how it is with them youngsters.

They're not old enough to remember the inconvenience of film. Older folk will stop me and ask why I'm limiting myself to 12/24/36 shots, or stuck with one speed when I have the world at my fingertips with a digital camera. To me it's simple, I shoot film because there's a digital alternative. I don't need film. I've not felt locked in to the idea that I'm stuck with this one format and can't wait to break out of it. Had I been a photographer 15 years ago I might have these views and be a stanch digital guy. But I didn't take serious photos so I never had negative views of film. Same can be said for these 20 something year olds. They were never locked into the system. For them taking a photo has always been instant, their phones can take photos in any situation and do a decent job of it too. While I had to use a disposable as a teen to get what they do with a cell phone.

Just my .02

 

[removed account4]

I'll tell you how it is with them youngsters.

They're not old enough to remember the inconvenience of film.

IDK plenty of "oldsters" are impatient, and they are old enough to remember the inconvenence of film
i'm not that old, but then again don't really see much of it as an inconvenience but i can see where you are coming from. (i pull a winograd and sometimes develop film once every 5 or 6 months). maybe i have been inoculated with silver halide so i don't mind the wait ? one of my fondest memories is photographing my kids with their friends when they were 5 and under and after i snapped the roller blind shutter in the graflex D they came up to me and asked to see the snapshot. my kids laughed and said "its in the box" ... immediate is good, but i think sometimes its over rated.

 

[AndyH]

Like so much in our world, it is the era of craftsmanship and hand-made things that the younger generation seem to yearn for.

Even a cursory glance at YouTube will show the preponderance of millennials interested in analog photography, and local camera clubs, shows, and shops will confirm that. if there is sufficient demand for films, development, and gear renewals, it will come from them, maybe not as a mass industry, but rather as an artisanal specialty.

i'm okay with that - the kids are a'right.

Andy

 

[AgX]

the announced "Harman" camera is a step in the direction for item 1. a re-loadable analogue of a single use camera.

Such type of camera is ubiquitous at fleamarkets and thrift stores over here. The only advantage of such Harman camera would be to get such off the shelf from a camera store.
Where camera stores still exist...

 

[Cholentpot]

IDK plenty of "oldsters" are impatient, and they are old enough to remember the inconvenence of film
i'm not that old, but then again don't really see much of it as an inconvenience but i can see where you are coming from. (i pull a winograd and sometimes develop film once every 5 or 6 months). maybe i have been inoculated with silver halide so i don't mind the wait ? one of my fondest memories is photographing my kids with their friends when they were 5 and under and after i snapped the roller blind shutter in the graflex D they came up to me and asked to see the snapshot. my kids laughed and said "its in the box" ... immediate is good, but i think sometimes its over rated.

I carry an Instax for the stubborn kids on the job. Some adults too come to think of it...

Like so much in our world, it is the era of craftsmanship and hand-made things that the younger generation seem to yearn for.

Even a cursory glance at YouTube will show the preponderance of millennials interested in analog photography, and local camera clubs, shows, and shops will confirm that. if there is sufficient demand for films, development, and gear renewals, it will come from them, maybe not as a mass industry, but rather as an artisanal specialty.

i'm okay with that - the kids are a'right.

Andy

My younger siblings asked me for film cameras this summer. I gave them a pair of ME Supers and some HP5+. Took them a few months to get through a few rolls. I think it was more of a fashion accessory but they did shoot the rolls in the end.

 

[Helios 1984]

This would be fun, but the current relatively high cost of shipping would probably doom it to failure.
I just wish Canada Post could be persuaded to bring back the favourable rate for shipping films for processing. As it is, we have to pay parcel rates, because films are thicker than envelopes.

Post Canada has been a torn in the side of Canadian small sellers for years.

 

[cmacd123]

Such type of camera is ubiquitous at fleamarkets and thrift stores over here. The only advantage of such Harman camera would be to get such off the shelf from a camera store.
Where camera stores still exist...

it, (and it is a big if) the distributors were to push it into places like Bookstores - even toy stores like Toys r Us canada. they could introduce the concept. It is not much different than https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1442699-REG/ansco_35200_easy_vision_35mm_film.html in capabilities. I would imagine ( have not seen one yet.) But as a "kit" it might inspire some young folks to try it.

 

[dutchsteammachine]

Only if Kodak collaborates with labs local to that area, are you sure it is a good idea to take processing opportunities away from the few labs that still stand? i am sure they don't have a high profit margin...

As for seeing film shooters, I have seen those over the past 3 years at big cities and parks. All young people (Myself included)

At Berlin I spoke with a waiter who loved my Canonet 28 and he suggested I visit a nearby film and camera store. I was a bit disappointed they mostly sold crappy lomo film and plastic camera's but its a start and better than nothing. Imo plastic lomo gear is massively overpriced.

I am sure most people buy film online now(Again, like me), physical stores just cant compete and film gets out of date eventually. Not just related to the sale of camera's and film...

 

[George Mann]

I think that the best non-disposable product would be a 35mm instamatic, conveniently sold in b&m stores, and preloaded with ColorPlus.

 

[AgX]

... conveniently sold in b&m stores, and preloaded with ColorPlus.

Over here those stores would be the stores of the big drugstore chains, located even in most small towns. The price difference between a preloaded reusable and a single-use basic camera with flash should be negligable. That these stores not already offer such, means that they do not see a market for such.
A more sophisticated camera then would fall out of the their consumable range and thus need a different outlet.

 

[cmacd123]

. That these stores not already offer such, means that they do not see a market for such.

one long gone photo chain in Canada, {Direct Film} actually DID offer a "re-loadable disposable" style camera back in the 1980s. Came with a roll of Chinese C-41 film in it. think I still have mine tucked away somewhere.

anyone wanting to offer such a unit could likely get a private branded Halana/Ansco Camera made up.

 

[Agulliver]

Part of the problem is that what might work in the UK, clearly wouldn't work in the USA or possibly other areas. The gaps in the market and even the way films are used seems to vary a lot geographically. Single use film cameras still have a niche here in the UK, I see the Ilford B&W ones quite frequently in shops (especially Boots) and colour ones occasionally. There are no simple reusable 135 cameras in the chain stores any more. I do see a few NOS and second hand in camera shops but nothing in B&M, Boots, Argos, supermarkets etc. If people who are unfamiliar with film wish to start using it, and I certainly see that, then we do need some simple but effective cameras for them to begin on. And maybe, just maybe...something with a retro "instamatic" look would be seen as cool as well as being quite practical if it took 135 film and had a flash.

 

[AgX]

Part of the problem is that what might work in the UK, clearly wouldn't work in the USA or possibly other areas. The gaps in the market and even the way films are used seems to vary a lot geographically. Single use film cameras still have a niche here in the UK, I see the Ilford B&W ones quite frequently in shops (especially Boots [drugstore chain]) and colour ones occasionally.

Good point. I for instance never saw a b&w single-use camera at a drugstore-chain store, only the colour versions.