I'm betting they will continue to par back their film line up. But, like I said before, I don't see them wanting to get out of film. I think they're just looking at the long term viability, and being proactive in their decisions to make sure their film side stays profitable. And I totally understand why they discontinued Velvia 50 in sheet film. It's a great looking film, but it's pretty slow. And large format cameras usually use really small apertures, which makes slow films more difficult to use. Especially in landscape photography, where subtle breezes can blur objects in the foreground. And with the high color saturation, landscape photography is where Velvia 50 really shines. But it had to compete with Velvia 100, which is a pretty similar looking film and twice as fast. So they were kind of competing with themselves by offering two similar films in the same small market.
However, with Kodak back in the E-6 market, and Fuji scaling back, Kodak will have more room to compete and remain viable. This means that if Ektachrome in 135 film is a big success for them, as it should be, they will likely consider introducing a 120 and perhaps 4x5 version of it. So while Velvia 50 may be gone from 4x5, it might just provide the window for Ektachrome. Unfortunately, if Ektachrome does come out in 4x5, I wouldn't be surprised to see Provia in 4x5 disappear, as they're kind of similar. We'll see. There's always the possibility that Ektachrome re-energizes the slide film market and you see a sudden explosion of slide film shooters. There are a lot of advantages to slide film, especially in a world where most people digitally scan negatives anyway. Finer grain, not having to remove that yellow color mask, beautiful colors right off the bat... All that's really missing is some better consumer scanners capable of capturing all of that shadow detail without blowing out the highlights.
However, with Kodak back in the E-6 market, and Fuji scaling back, Kodak will have more room to compete and remain viable. This means that if Ektachrome in 135 film is a big success for them, as it should be, they will likely consider introducing a 120 and perhaps 4x5 version of it. So while Velvia 50 may be gone from 4x5, it might just provide the window for Ektachrome. Unfortunately, if Ektachrome does come out in 4x5, I wouldn't be surprised to see Provia in 4x5 disappear, as they're kind of similar. We'll see. There's always the possibility that Ektachrome re-energizes the slide film market and you see a sudden explosion of slide film shooters. There are a lot of advantages to slide film, especially in a world where most people digitally scan negatives anyway. Finer grain, not having to remove that yellow color mask, beautiful colors right off the bat... All that's really missing is some better consumer scanners capable of capturing all of that shadow detail without blowing out the highlights.