Film from Italy -- Ferrania starting production 2014

Chris Livsey · Oct 27, 2014

Perhaps Kodak Alaris could show some commitment themselves?

The splash banners on their current web page are for:

Kodak connect app for Kiosk
An app for Facebook photos
How to remotely manager your Kodak scanners

Main banner was Enterprise Document capture for critical data and applications (whatever that means)

http://www.kodakalaris.com/ek/GB/en/Kodak_Alaris.htm

Do they sell film? Do they promote film?
I want to care but they don't seem to want to engage.

Roger Cole · Oct 27, 2014

TheToadMen said:
Hi Roger,
Fuji has more types of 120 roll film, like PRO160NS (very good portrait film) and Superia 400 X-TRA (perfect for pinhole).
See: http://www.macodirect.de/medium-format-films-c-746_748_757.html
Bert from Holland

Pro 160NS is a good film, but neither of these seem to be available in 120 (or sheets, which 160NS used to be available in) in North America.

Xmas · Oct 27, 2014

Photo Engineer said:
Thanks for your kind comment Noel.

Yes, price is a problem. Maybe ALARIS can do something about that to be more competitive. But OTOH, milking a profit making product may be going on and that is bad.

PE

In my brick shop Fuji colour and 'rebadged' Fuji colour is substatically cheaper than Kodak. KA are only competative with Ilford mono on some lines, Foma a lot cheaper.

KA may appreciate that Fuji are about to make an announcement?

Xmas · Oct 27, 2014

Roger Cole said:
Pro 160NS is a good film, but neither of these seem to be available in 120 (or sheets, which 160NS used to be available in) in North America.

Id use shipper eg can't find source for CD4 in UK gotta buy from Ge.

ME Super · Oct 27, 2014

We've reached 126 pages in this thread, 126 was the film format that the Kodak Instamatic cameras took to give us those lovely square small format pictures, and Ferrania has spoken about reviving film formats such as 126!

kraker · Oct 27, 2014

ME Super said:
We've reached 126 pages in this thread, 126 was the film format that the Kodak Instamatic cameras took to give us those lovely square small format pictures, and Ferrania has spoken about reviving film formats such as 126!

Yes, and there's only one page 8, a single 8, so who knows, maybe they'll bring back single 8 as well.

(Should we go on until we have 220 pages?)

Xmas · Oct 27, 2014

Naaa 620 or bust

Truzi · Oct 27, 2014

You know, you can set how many posts to display per page. With my settings, this is only page 32.

Photo Engineer · Oct 27, 2014

RattyMouse said:
Absolutely agree with you here PE. One of the major problems Alaris has with their near total silence is that they give the strong perception that they are milking film for all it is worth, refusing to put any money back into this product line in order to insure a long future (the next 100 years).

You have to admit, if Alaris internally declared to themselves that they wanted no part of film long term, there would not be a much different look to them as they appear to us today. They'd simply sell film until the spreadsheets told them to shut it down.

Perhaps it is Kodak itself that is "milking" in sales to Alaris? Ever think of that?

PE

Ken Nadvornick · Oct 27, 2014

Chris Livsey said:
Perhaps Kodak Alaris could show some commitment themselves?

[...]

Do they sell film? Do they promote film?
I want to care but they don't seem to want to engage.

Perhaps something like Dead Link Removed?

Or maybe like (there was a url link here which no longer exists)?

Creating and maintaining an ongoing dialog with one's customer base explicitly speaks volumes about one's commitment to those customers, and implicitly to the future of film. So does total silence.

Ken

Xmas · Oct 27, 2014

Hi Ron

When EK and KA signed up for the exit from chapter 11 KA should have had a sell price agreement either

- same as big studios to 2015
- or linked to US inflation
- or linked to the cine price to independent customers

The last would have seen KA with a 15% hike Jan14.

If you put your ex-Kodak head back on and you were to transfer to KAs staff you would have wanted weasel words galore?

It is the studios contract expiry date that concerns me.

Bluntly if either EK or Fuji stops the other will indeed be able to buggy whip the 'mug punters', no translation to USA English possible.

Noel

flavio81 · Oct 27, 2014

Xmas said:
Naaa 620 or bust

How about 818 then? Too obscure?

Well, this is page #127 of the thread. So let's glorify superslides, the Baby Rolleiflex, the Primoflex Jr, and the Yashica 44LM. F
FFFD Forumers for a four by four day!

Now, back on topic...

Any news from our italian friends Marco Pagni and Nicola Baldini?

flavio81 · Oct 27, 2014

Xmas said:
KA may appreciate that Fuji are about to make an announcement?

Announcement? Would you please give us more information? (or the relevant thread link?)

If Fuji discontinues Neopan Acros 100, i'll be gloomy and more verbose on this than the frequent Kodachrome mourning on APUG...

Xmas · Oct 27, 2014

flavio81 said:
Announcement? Would you please give us more information? (or the relevant thread link?)

If Fuji discontinues Neopan Acros 100, i'll be gloomy and more verbose on this than the frequent Kodachrome mourning on APUG...

Sorry the people most likely to know what Fuji or KA are planning are KA or Fuji respectively.

True story I was having an Indian meal with a chum from a direct competator when we were regaled with loud company confidential information from next cubical.

For a long time we both listened intently trying to identify which company was being discussed.

Until I wrote on servitte it's #/():;& ie the company I worked for.

Fuji and KA headquarters are on same site complex in UK... and I don't work for either or a sub.

Ricardo Miranda · Oct 27, 2014

flavio81 said:
Any news from our italian friends Marco Pagni and Nicola Baldini?

Talking about 127, did you know Ferrania has the machines to produce it?
They have already been approach by 2 companies interested in the production of 127.
Wait a day or so as the KS campaign is about to end for more news.

TheToadMen · Oct 27, 2014

flavio81 said:
How about 818 then? Too obscure?

Well, this is page #127 of the thread. So let's glorify superslides, the Baby Rolleiflex, the Primoflex Jr, and the Yashica 44LM. F
FFFD Forumers for a four by four day!

If we're counting, I would prefer 1824! That is 18x24 cm sheet film for my old russian FKD plate camera....

Bert from Holland
http://thetoadmen.blogspot.nl

Roger Cole · Oct 27, 2014

Obsolete film types would be nice but let's focus on getting some film made in sizes that will sell the best first, huh? That's 35mm by a huge margin in still film. 120 next, then 4x5 sheets. 620 is the same as 120 except for the spools so I don't see an urgency there (and I do have one 620 camera.) You can re-roll it yourself or pay a premium for other current production films already re-spooled so it's available now, just more expensive. Of obsolete sizes I'd prefer 127 first, but again let's hope for some 35mm and then 120 before we get ahead of ourselves.

flavio81 · Oct 27, 2014

Roger Cole said:
Obsolete film types would be nice but let's focus on getting some film made in sizes that will sell the best first, huh? That's 35mm by a huge margin in still film. 120 next, then 4x5 sheets. 620 is the same as 120 except for the spools so I don't see an urgency there (and I do have one 620 camera.) You can re-roll it yourself or pay a premium for other current production films already re-spooled so it's available now, just more expensive. Of obsolete sizes I'd prefer 127 first, but again let's hope for some 35mm and then 120 before we get ahead of ourselves.

Don't forget 220!! We need more 220!

Nzoomed · Oct 27, 2014

Roger Cole said:
Obsolete film types would be nice but let's focus on getting some film made in sizes that will sell the best first, huh? That's 35mm by a huge margin in still film. 120 next, then 4x5 sheets. 620 is the same as 120 except for the spools so I don't see an urgency there (and I do have one 620 camera.) You can re-roll it yourself or pay a premium for other current production films already re-spooled so it's available now, just more expensive. Of obsolete sizes I'd prefer 127 first, but again let's hope for some 35mm and then 120 before we get ahead of ourselves.

Its not really too much of an issue for me what formats they have, ive only got a box brownie which shoots 620, thats easy enough to trim the plastic spools down with nail clippers. I dont get what the point was in making 120 film with a slightly wider spool than 620 film! lol
Anyway, film ferrania have made the point that they want to introduce other formats and claim they have possibly the only 127 packaging machine left, although im sure ive seen somewhere a place selling 127 B/W film, so IDK, but they will obviously conduct a survey when the time arrives to find out what formats are in the highest demand, its safe to say they will introduce 126 film again.

RattyMouse · Oct 27, 2014

KA mentioned film at one time on their 1000 word blog. If you check that you'll see that there were maybe 4 posts on the topic of film since last May. FOUR!

A real shame.

Chris Livsey said:
Perhaps Kodak Alaris could show some commitment themselves?

The splash banners on their current web page are for:

Kodak connect app for Kiosk

An app for Facebook photos

How to remotely manager your Kodak scanners

Main banner was Enterprise Document capture for critical data and applications (whatever that means)

http://www.kodakalaris.com/ek/GB/en/Kodak_Alaris.htm

Do they sell film? Do they promote film?
I want to care but they don't seem to want to engage.

RattyMouse · Oct 27, 2014

Photo Engineer said:
Perhaps it is Kodak itself that is "milking" in sales to Alaris? Ever think of that?

PE

No, but let me think of it now. What does this or could this mean in the real world?

Eastman Kodak is almost certainly milking film in that there is zero R & D going on to make new films. That would be expected. To milk to Alaris one would think that this means that they are limiting production for some reason, to control costs. Perhaps film is not profitable at all anymore with these new low volumes.

If that's the case then it would be foolish for Alaris to market film. There would be no reason since sales could not increase as they are on a limited supply from EK.

If KA could get all the film that they wanted, then they should try to increase sales by talking to their customer base.

Again, total silence and uncertainity does nothing but hurt their customer base.

Photo Engineer · Oct 27, 2014

Your second and third paragraphs are remarkably descriptive of the current situation. Right?

flavio81 · Oct 27, 2014

RattyMouse said:
Eastman Kodak is almost certainly milking film in that there is zero R & D going on to make new films.

But, note that there is no strong reason to invest in more R&D when they currently have the most advanced C41 and B&W films on the market.

Xmas · Oct 27, 2014

RattyMouse said:
No, but let me think of it now. What does this or could this mean in the real world?

Eastman Kodak is almost certainly milking film in that there is zero R & D going on to make new films. That would be expected. To milk to Alaris one would think that this means that they are limiting production for some reason, to control costs. Perhaps film is not profitable at all anymore with these new low volumes.

If that's the case then it would be foolish for Alaris to market film. There would be no reason since sales could not increase as they are on a limited supply from EK.

If KA could get all the film that they wanted, then they should try to increase sales by talking to their customer base.

Again, total silence and uncertainity does nothing but hurt their customer base.

KA could market trix bulk at same price as HP5+ bulk otherwise there is no point in speaking to me cause Im not buying.
Ok im buying Kentmere bulk so they are stuck.
But this is deja vu all over again as they let Fuji into their markets by being greedy 75-85.
And they realised this then as well.
Same old horses same old glue

flavio81 · Oct 27, 2014

Xmas said:
KA could market trix bulk at same price as HP5+

Trix at the same price as HP5+?

I'd prefer HP5+, thanks.

Film from Italy -- Ferrania starting production 2014

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