Film at Kodak, consumer division.

SchwinnParamount · Jun 15, 2010

I searched for "Film" in the Kodak consumer products web page. Skunked.

Wait, isn't Kodak that company that made ALL of its profits over the last 80 years from film? That Kodak?

faustotesta · Jun 15, 2010

Must have been a temporary fault. I just tried now and it works. ( http://www.kodak.com/eknec/PageQuerier.jhtml?pq-path=164/7010/6994&pq-locale=en_US)

Ian Grant · Jun 15, 2010

SchwinnParamount said:
I searched for "Film" in the Kodak consumer products web page. Skunked.

Wait, isn't Kodak that company that made ALL of its profits over the last 80 years from film? That Kodak?

What happened to the other 40 odd years of Kodak's profits ?

A glitch I think . . . . .

Ian
(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

M.A.Longmore · Jun 15, 2010

Hi Schwinn,

use the " All Kodak Products & Service " drop down menu.
And select the Pro Photographers / Lab category.
Should be so much easier.
I guess we were expecting to much ?

lxdude · Jun 15, 2010

The Kodak site is not what I would call user friendly. It took a while to find their pro films the first time I tried.

MattKing · Jun 15, 2010

My father is a retired Kodak employee.

He received a letter advising him of the special benefits available to retirees on the Kodak website store.

Unfortunately, there is only one film related product there - single use cameras.

Now where is he going to put that in his Retina IIIc?

AgX · Jun 15, 2010

The way they hide their films on their website is a shame.

But nevertheless their cine section (once you found it) is a delight. So there is light and shadow...

MikeSeb · Jun 15, 2010

Schwinn, is there some point to this thread?

nickrapak · Jun 15, 2010

If you look at the screencap, it shows that you were searching the store. The store doesn't sell film; only single-use cameras.

MattKing · Jun 15, 2010

nickrapak said:
If you look at the screencap, it shows that you were searching the store. The store doesn't sell film; only single-use cameras.

"The store doesn't sell film"

Q.E.D.

Photo Engineer · Jun 15, 2010

Kodak never sold film directly, ever! It was all sold through distributors.

So, you have to look up the products themselves. All films today are listed as professional products IIRC.

But, they do have one store in Rochester on Ridge Road. It is open to anyone, but some purchases can only be made using a Kodak ID card (Current or Retired). This is a different matter however and a special case.

PE

lxdude · Jun 15, 2010

Photo Engineer said:
All films today are listed as professional products IIRC.

PE

Nope. Under the Kodak Store button they show "Film and Processing", which goes to a "Consumer Film" page. That shows Ultramax, Gold, and BW400CN under print film. It also shows APS film, and under slide film, the Elitechromes and Kodachrome (that hurts). No mention of the other film products.
It's necessary to go to All Kodak Products and Services up at the right, then down to Pro Photographer/Lab then navigate from there to get to all the other B+W films and the rest of the C-41 and E-6 films.

Photo Engineer · Jun 15, 2010

I guess I just automatically go here: http://www.kodak.com/global/en/professional/products/films/filmsIndex.jhtml?pq-path=13319

Try it, you will like it!

Maybe that is why I don't go the other route.

PE

lxdude · Jun 15, 2010

I will. I've got it bookmarked now.

MattKing · Jun 16, 2010

Photo Engineer said:
Kodak never sold film directly, ever! It was all sold through distributors.

...
PE

PE:

Agreed, but as far as I am aware, they also never sent letters to employees, retired or otherwise, encouraging them to buy products of any type, from a website or otherwise.

Ian Grant · Jun 16, 2010

Photo Engineer said:
Kodak never sold film directly, ever! It was all sold through distributors.
PE

Actually that's not the case at all, well in the UK & Ireland anyway, Kodak had their own trade outlets selling direct to the photographic profession and they also sold an extremely wide range of non Kodak items. Ademco Dry mounting Presses, Thornton Pickard & Dallmeyer (Packard) shutters to name a few, but essentially they sold everything a photographer could possibly need. It's a fascinating catalogue.

In adverts Kodak list their own retail outlets in many UK cities, including 4 in London, and Birmingham, Newcastle, Glasgow and Dublin and with separate wholesale outlets in those cities and also Leeds & Manchester.

I've attached their terms & conditions that came with a 1940 Kodak Catalogue I bought in April.

Ian

Photo Engineer · Jun 16, 2010

I'll expand and clarify my original statement.

Kodak had distribution sites in the US as well, but only sold to professional studios and to photofinishers. I used to shop there with my boss when I worked in the photofinishing lab while I was going to college. The consent decree in the 50s put an end to Kodak sales to any private individual or photofinishing lab in the US. Those stores closed. Distributorships were set up via wholesalers.

Sales to the general public were nonexistent except in the very early days of Kodak when they had Kodak stores selling "Kodaks". This was short lived, probably lasting into the '20s or perhaps they closed sooner.

PE

Ian Grant · Jun 16, 2010

Ron, did the US Kodak trade stores sell non Kodak products like in the UK ? The interesting thing about my 1940's Kodak catalogue is the items made in the UK under license from US manufacturers, Dallmeyer making Packard shutters, also sold as Studio shutters fitted to lens panels for Kodak LF cameras, Wray making Grafmatic backs etc.

Ian

Photo Engineer · Jun 16, 2010

The store I visited only sold professional products, and those only to bona fide professionals. Usually, they were known customers from that area. They sold professional cameras (LF) with Kodak names on them, but I am pretty sure that they sold Speed Graphic equipment as well. I have 2 of them that my Uncle said were bought at the Pittsburgh store on Saw Mill Run Blvd which I have visited several times. This would have been in the 30s or 40s.

As I wrote this, I wondered if I had seen some Leedall equipment there as well as Calumet. These would have been SS sinks, basket processors and other item. The Nitrogen burst equipment was all EK stuff. This was in the 50s.

IDK about the stores in the 20s. I'm not THAT old.

PE

Ian Grant · Jun 16, 2010

Kodak Ltd (UK) were distributors (and importers) for other company's up until at least the 1950's. The 1940 Catalogue lists the full range of Graflex cameras with a choice of lenses from 3 different UK manufacturers, but then Graflex had been owned by Kodak at one time.

Kodak was sole distributor for Ross lenses in Australia & New Zealand, Singapore etc, before WWII and I'd guess other items from other companies as well, much the same as Ilford now distribute Paterson products outside the UK.

Ian

Ray Rogers · Jun 16, 2010

Photo Engineer said:
I'll expand and clarify my original statement.

The consent decree in the 50s put an end to Kodak sales to any private individual or photofinishing lab in the US. Those stores closed. Distributorships were set up via wholesalers.

Sales to the general public were nonexistent except in the very early days of Kodak...
PE

What was the "...consent decree in the 50s" ?

Too young to remember all but those 'itsy bitsy teeny weeny yellow poka dots....'

Photo Engineer · Jun 16, 2010

Kodak operated under different rules in each country based on local laws. In the US, they could operate Kodak stores for anyone in the beginning, then were restricted to just professionals and photofinishers and then no one but wholesalers.

The consent decree stated roughly that Kodak could no longer sell film in the USA with processing price included, and that they must make color processes available to others. Thus Kodachrome was sold as just "film", and we had C22, E1, Type R and Type C in the mid 50s. All R&D on the processes and films was undertaken by EK, but by law, any other company could use the processes and so Fuji, Agfa and Konishiroku came out with compatible films and papers and used the Kodak chemistry. This saved them a lot of money.

In the 60s and 70s, similar lawsuits prevented Kodak from making further changes to E6, C41 and Ektaprint C.

Oh, and a further clarification. Kodak did not sell film to customers in their earliest stores. They sold or "rented" cameras already filled with film. They returned negatives, prints and a camera refilled with film. The cameras were called Kodaks and through this usage Kodak almost lost their trademark name.

PE

pentaxuser · Jun 16, 2010

Ron I have also bookmarked the sire you quote and thanks but I have to say that trying to get to good info on Kodak by googling Kodak in the U.K. is impossible. If you were thinking of trying analogue and wanted to consider Kodak, you'd quickly give up. There is nowhere near the info that is to be easily found on the Ilford site. Pity.

pentaxuser

Photo Engineer · Jun 16, 2010

Well, Kodak includes data on sensitometry, spectral sensitivity, grain, sharpness, process information, some formulas, and lots of other things. What do you want more than this? Post your wants / needs.

PE

bblhed · Jun 16, 2010

Yup, it's annoying, I live a few hours from Rochester, I wonder if I went there if I could buy film, probably not. In your browsing of the site you will notice that they still list BW400CN in 120 format as a product, they no longer are making that film, if you have it freeze it, if you see it buy it, if you have some and don't want it I do. I am a die hard Kodak film fan, but it looks like I will have to switch to either Ilford or Fuji at some point. Honestly, my money is on Ilford.

Film at Kodak, consumer division.

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