Sigh. Lee and Paramount have good points, but they will not play out in reality. How do I know this? Economics is my business. Some things we need to hoard. I have 175' of nitrogen packed Pan-X in the freezer. Efke 25 is close, but no cigar in the shadow to midrange. Every time I order from B&H, I get another box of Azo. No one else makes a product like it. Same deal for Tech Pan. Did you like Super XX? Go for the Bergger BPF200. J&C 200 comes out of the same plant. A little economic difficulties there. We can hoard everything like Tri-X and Plus-X until we are like Michael & Paula with a walk-in freezer, and it will not deter what Kodak will do in the next year or so. They dont care about bread and butter film. A Kodak moment is now shared by the stockholders in a digital revolution.
Ilford may be a little shaky coming out of reorganization. That is even more the reason that we need to lay down our yellow fetish and jump on what will very soon be the largest producer in the world of BW films. Do you really think that Fuji will be pumping out BW in five years? The reality is that we need to begin fully supporting companies that in the very near future will be our main outlets for BW film and papers. Chemistry we can make. This means making the jump to Ilford for FP4 instead of Plus-X, and any other product they make that has a comparable result. It will not hasten what Kodak does, and even in an Alice in Wonderland twist if it did, so what? They fully intend on leaving us. As to the Chinese production boosting the price of film, go back to Econ 101 and pay attention to how they flood the market with goods. Keep an eye on Lucky Film boys. It's a mover for the consumer segment.
Three cheers for Ilford, Efke, Foma, Forte and all the photo paper manufacturing companies. We must support them now, or they may not be there for us when we need them. That is supply and demand.