Calumet photo vanishes in the US

Ken Nadvornick · Mar 13, 2014

Guess that explains the $5.00 sale on Fred Picker video DVDs.

And the complete shutting down of the Fidelity/Regal/Lisco film holder business they owned.

Ken

Oren Grad · Mar 13, 2014

TheFlyingCamera said:
Surely they will re-open (temporarily) if for no other reason than to liquidate existing stock.

It may be that there's little or no stock left - the bankruptcy filing lists assets as "$0-$50,000".

miha · Mar 13, 2014

Ken Nadvornick said:
And the complete shutting down of the Fidelity/Regal/Lisco film holder business they owned.

Ken

What!?? This calls for red alert!!

bdial · Mar 13, 2014

Ken Nadvornick said:
Guess that explains the $5.00 sale on Fred Picker video DVDs...
Ken

Also perhaps explains why when I was doing my order for the dvd and looking around for other stuff, just about everything said "out of stock, taking orders".

One of the items I ordered was a drop-ship from Smith Victor which has not arrived, and now I know why Calumet's customer service hasn't responded to my queries.

Sad news all around

Curt · Mar 13, 2014

Ken Nadvornick said:
Guess that explains the $5.00 sale on Fred Picker video DVDs.

And the complete shutting down of the Fidelity/Regal/Lisco film holder business they owned.

Ken

Ken, what was the state of the film holder businesses? Were holders being made up until recently? I thought they were long out of production.

fotch · Mar 13, 2014

I just purchased a DVD at a bargain price. First order with them in years.

ntenny · Mar 13, 2014

Ken Nadvornick said:
And the complete shutting down of the Fidelity/Regal/Lisco film holder business they owned.

Wait, what? Does anyone else make film holders, or are they now old-stock-only?

-NT

Trail Images · Mar 13, 2014

Calumet are one of the supporting partners for APUG. I hope this doesn't cause severe problems here as well.

Link at the bottom of the APUG site does not connect to Calumet anywhere right now.....
If there still in business other then USA, then hopefully they will continue to support this site going forward. But, I'm sure that is the last thought on the company's priority list right now.

miha · Mar 13, 2014

ntenny said:
Wait, what? Does anyone else make film holders, or are they now old-stock-only?

-NT

Toyo makes holders too.

MDR · Mar 13, 2014

My first LF camera was a Calumet still use a Cambo. It seems that Calumet US had the same problem as Kodak a CEO who was surrounded by sycophants and had no knowledge of the photo industry. I can only say poor employees and suppliers what a disgusting way to treat people.

Trail Images · Mar 13, 2014

It seems that Calumet US had the same problem as Kodak a CEO who was surrounded by sycophants and had no knowledge of the photo industry

Kodak has now got a new CEO announced yesterday. Hope the best for Kodak and all their folks going forward. It might just be what they all needed.

pbromaghin · Mar 13, 2014

Chapter 7 means it is really the end - liquidation, not re-organization.

But the Tribune article says "In its Chapter 7 filing, it listed between $50 million and $100 million in assets and $10 million to $50 million in liabilities."

Whaaaaaat?

Oren Grad · Mar 13, 2014

Curt said:
Ken, what was the state of the film holder businesses? Were holders being made up until recently? I thought they were long out of production.

This is correct. The manufacture of Fidelity holders was shut down long ago - any sales of "new" holders have been NOS for a long time now.

Oren Grad · Mar 13, 2014

pbromaghin said:
Chapter 7 means it is really the end - liquidation, not re-organization.

But the Tribune article says "In its Chapter 7 filing, it listed between $50 million and $100 million in assets and $10 million to $50 million in liabilities."

Whaaaaaat?

The actual filing says $0-$50,000:

http://www.photobusinessforum.com/images/calumetphoto_case_14-08908.pdf

Ektagraphic · Mar 13, 2014

I was just about to take a trip there to pick up some film. Bummer. I liked Calumet.

vpwphoto · Mar 13, 2014

Wow... I've had an account there for years. Call before 2pm and I usually had stuff the next day here 100 miles south of the store (which I never visited)

Pre-digital I spent $200-$600 a month with them, past few years $800 a year if that?

Ken Nadvornick · Mar 13, 2014

Curt said:
Ken, what was the state of the film holder businesses? Were holders being made up until recently? I thought they were long out of production.

No, not being manufactured recently as far as I know.

I called Calumet last year when I was looking to buy a new set of 8x10s. Worked my way up through several customer support people over the course of about an hour. The final supervisor person told me that the film holder business had been purchased from a one-man operation. When that person retired, it was sold to Calumet. Sounded similar to Fred Picker.

At that time they had already stopped all manufacturing for all three consolidated lines. Any of you who hang out on eBay might have noticed a jump in the asking prices for near-mint 8x10 holders. That's why. I now have 17 very good ones, having filled out my set from auctions before the prices rose too much.

Some may also remember not too long ago that Calumet was advertising new Fidelity 4x5 holders right here on APUG for half-price. Last month I checked and their eBay outlet was still listing individual ones, as well as a huge lot of something like 1,600. (Perhaps a business opportunity for someone now??)

I was also told that the most recent manufacturing occurred a while back when the price of used online 5x7 holders jumped. At one point they were auctioning for USD $100-$150 each. Calumet cranked up a production run and began offering new ones for around USD $60 each, as I recall. They were supplied in the old 13x18-cm packaging boxes with hand-lettered tape that said 5x7 covering it. That tamed the used market. I had already filled out my 5x7s as well from an APUG seller and now have 15 nice ones.

Toyo does continue to manufacture 8x10s. Don't know about other formats. But their holders were already considered a little higher quality than Fidelity. And last time I looked that meant they were retailing for around USD $200 each. That hurts...

Ken

benjiboy · Mar 13, 2014

I'm afraid it's true http://petapixel.com/2014/03/13/calumetphoto-us-declared-bankruptcy-gave-employees-zero-notice/

Thomas Bertilsson · Mar 13, 2014

vpwphoto said:
Wow... I've had an account there for years. Call before 2pm and I usually had stuff the next day here 100 miles south of the store (which I never visited)

Pre-digital I spent $200-$600 a month with them, past few years $800 a year if that?

I wonder how tough it was for a lot of these stores when digital started coming on strong. For the longest time people (especially pros like you) had so many recurring costs in materials that had to be purchased to make photographs. Then today most of those recurring costs have disappeared with the exception of inkjet paper and ink (if prints are made at all), maybe presentation materials - I mean beyond the camera and lighting gadgets that both film and digital have in common.

Must have been tough to just watch that whole stream of revenue vanish, even though they probably liked the initial commercial boom when everybody switched to digital.

Like Eric Rose I hope the employees come out of this OK.

Mainecoonmaniac · Mar 13, 2014

As for me, I made purchases once in a while for years. What made them less attractive is when they opened some stores in California which required their mail order stores to charge sales taxes and shipping. I didn't want to pay for both. If I wanted to save shipping, I'd pay the sales tax at a local store.

pbromaghin · Mar 13, 2014

Oren Grad said:
The actual filing says $0-$50,000:

http://www.photobusinessforum.com/images/calumetphoto_case_14-08908.pdf

Wow.

vpwphoto · Mar 13, 2014

They used to make/market the "Turbo Filter" and "Hosemaster" that were real-world/real time photoshop filters.
TB... tough for me to I used to mark up film and processing... I miss that revenue.

I was talking to them a couple months back about about an upgrade to my Leaf Aptus... good plain talking no BS operation.

Ken Nadvornick · Mar 13, 2014

MattKing said:
Calumet are one of the supporting partners for APUG. I hope this doesn't cause severe problems here as well.

Maybe someone should ask if Kodak Alaris would be interested?

(I'm only half-kidding. If they are serious about selling film, it might not be such a bad idea. They could have a presence here, but without all of the emotion that goes with posting.)

:w00t:

Ken

ntenny · Mar 13, 2014

miha said:
Toyo makes holders too.

That's something. One manufacturer isn't exactly good, but it's better than it would be if it were worse than it is.

And I see in other posts that the "new" Calumet-made holders were actually NOS, so this isn't as big a change as it sounds like. Still, you gotta think the market is ready for some 3D-printed film holders, don't you?

This situation sucks. I'm rather blindsided by it as I thought Calumet had a stable business in medium-agnostic things like lighting and filters, but it sounds like they had management problems that snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

-NT

vdonovan · Mar 13, 2014

It's not surprising to me. The Calumet in San Francisco was a shadow of whatever its former self may have been. Poor selection and TERRIBLE customer service. It had been that way for years. Interestingly, a locally-owned camera store (Looking Glass Photo, in Berkeley) recently expanded and is doing better than ever. They realized that the only thing they can offer that can't be bought more cheaply online is customer service, so they re-organized their business around that concept.

Calumet photo vanishes in the US

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