...Kodak was the intergalactic powerhouse but they had their lousy products as well. Tmax 100 was extremely criticized. Even today, it’s such a hardmfilm to master...
Criticism and being "hard to master" are utterly unrelated to manufacturing quality. TMX is not now and never has been "lousy." Like all films, one must understand its characteristics and use it appropriately. The ability to achieve various curve shapes by using different developers with TMX is a particular strength. Lower acutance than alternative emulsions is a weakness. None of that has anything to do with quality.
...Tmax 400 was a major failure, it had to be redesigned completely. Maaaajor failure...
TMY was not a failure in any way. It didn't "have to be" redesigned, and TMY-2 exhibited small improvements in many areas, but retained the rising curve of TMY that caused users (who didn't possess sufficient printing skill and/or appropriate papers) to complain about the film.
...And the backing paper problem, what was so hard for them to get right? What a nightmare...
We're back to the bane of modern corporate culture, namely, outsourcing. Loss of control and reduction in number of suppliers leads to difficult, sometimes intractable problems. It's not easy and takes time to get things right. Only a top manufacturer like Kodak would forego sales for an extended period while investigating and rectifying a supplier issue.
...They didn’t manufacture tmax 100 for over a year because of that problem...
That is incorrect. Both 35mm and 4x5 TMX have been in continuous production and readily available at retail since 1986. Only 120 TMX was off the market while Kodak dealt with its backing paper issue.
...To be honest, Fuji is the best of the best. They are what kodak should have been. They made all the right moves, all the time. Even their backing paper is so perfect, so thin...
If one is a user of transparency films, perhaps Fujifilm manufactures something of interest. My taste runs to the colors (gamut and saturation) of Astia, not Velveeta. Discontinuing Astia wasn't a "right move" for me. In black and white, the base of 120 Acros was so thin and soft as to be almost impossible when loading on reels. Inversion processing of Acros always resulted in airbells, irrespective of prewash / no prewash, agitation regime or any other processing variation attempted. Only 4x5 Acros in a Jobo Expert drum was viable / free of white airbell circles on the negatives. Perhaps Acros II will be different. I'll reserve judgement until it's available in 4x5 and I try some.
...Fuji is the best of the best. They are what kodak should have been. They made all the right moves, all the time...and their films: people still mourn their bw 1600 and 400 films...
Yeah, great moves, eh, discontinuing Neopan 400 and 1600.
...As for foma and Ilford, they understood that classics should never be touched...
In Foma's case, it's so small it probably can't afford to perform the R&D to create modern products. HARMAN might have more resources, but its bean counters are smart enough to pencil out the ROI on new product development. That's where its "understanding" lies.