Kodak Alaris discontinues BW400CN film

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RattyMouse

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I can just remember the time when Kodak here in the UK supplied lectures for photo societies, both recorded and live talks, as well as masses of general and technical literature and a postal query service, all for free. Also supporting local societies by paid advertising in exhibition programmes and printed meeting lists.

My Dad was the secretary of the local photo club for many years, and quite a lot of the weekly meetings were based on content and lectures supplied by Kodak, Ilford, Agfa, Johnsons, and the other big makers of materials and equipment.

Back home I have in my library a dozen or so technical books written by Kodak, all about various aspects of photography. Those were great books, written extremely well that just got me to buy more and more film to try out the ideas in them.

Does Kodak Alaris publish and books on film? Are these old books even in print anymore.

Doubtful, in both cases.
 
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Ricardo Miranda
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but it is not a Lomo one.

Noel,
I think you mean there that your Lubitel isn't made by or for the Lomography Society. It is made by the Leningrad Optical Mechanical Association (LOMO). They were once called GOMZ, the makers of a very innovative camera, the Sport.
At times it is a bit confusing as the Lomography Society takes its name from one factory.
 

PKM-25

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Does Kodak Alaris publish and books on film?

Not intended as a return serve or a jab but more of an honest question: In respect to your question above, does Ilford do that either?

The number one inspiration for me to use films as a kid was great work by great photographers, not pubs or ads by companies who of course want to sell their products. It just so happens this is what young people turning to film say as well, like the 23 year old woman who sold me some new trail running shoes a few days ago...
 
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removed account4

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why would alaris rewrite the books that are already written ? :blink:

selling technical books has nothing to do with selling film,
but fortunately these books exist ( still ) at public libraries, yard sales on on google books
and magazines like darkroom technique still float around in the used marketplace
to clear up the billions and billions of posts of misinformation / disinformation posted on the internet
over the past 25 years by armchair experts who just regurgitate nonsense
and have an expert way of posturing themselves so they sound like unbelievable experts
when they actually have no credentials and have no idea what they are talking about ... and are just a lot of hot air. :munch:
 

darkosaric

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to clear up the billions and billions of posts of misinformation / disinformation posted on the internet
over the past 25 years by armchair experts who just regurgitate nonsense
and have an expert way of posturing themselves so they sound like unbelievable experts
when they actually have no credentials and have no idea what they are talking about ... and are just a lot of hot air. :munch:

http://xkcd.com/386/

:wink:
 

TimFox

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selling technical books has nothing to do with selling film,

Yes, selling technical books is a well-known marketing process to sell the goods.
Look at all the technical books sold by well-known semiconductor companies (Analog Devices, Texas Instruments, etc.) that feature their products along with very useful technical information on how to use them.

Or, this bad example:
http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/circuit_diagram.png
 
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Xmas

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Not intended as a return serve or a jab but more of an honest question: In respect to your question above, does Ilford do that either?

The number one inspiration for me to use films as a kid was great work by great photographers, not pubs or ads by companies who of course want to sell their products. It just so happens this is what young people turning to film say as well, like the 23 year old woman who sold me some new trail running shoes a few days ago...
eg
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilford_Manual_of_Photography
 

Xmas

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Noel,
I think you mean there that your Lubitel isn't made by or for the Lomography Society. It is made by the Leningrad Optical Mechanical Association (LOMO). They were once called GOMZ, the makers of a very innovative camera, the Sport.
At times it is a bit confusing as the Lomography Society takes its name from one factory.

HiRicardo

Well the current Lomography model is at least one model later than mine causes it will take 35mm as well as 120.

Noel
 
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Ricardo Miranda
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HiRicardo

Well the current Lomography model is at least one model later than mine causes it will take 35mm as well as 120.

Noel

Yeap! :smile:
 

Prof_Pixel

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Back home I have in my library a dozen or so technical books written by Kodak, all about various aspects of photography. Those were great books, written extremely well that just got me to buy more and more film to try out the ideas in them.

Does Kodak Alaris publish and books on film? Are these old books even in print anymore.

Doubtful, in both cases.


A lot of the Kodak publications are available online. Start with http://www.kodak.com/global/en/prof...s/filmDatabankIndex.jhtml?pq-path=13700/14472

If that link doesn't work Google for Kodak Technical Publications
 

Sirius Glass

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I strongly disagree with the term 'always'! That may have become true in the late '90s when Kodak replaced its TSRs (Technical Sales Representatives) with 'order takers', but before that, the TSRs were very customer aligned and active in keeping their customers informed. During my 10 years with the Professional Photography Division ('83 - '93) I worked closely with many of the TSRs and made many presentations to trade shows, photographic associations (like the PPA), camera clubs, universities and labs.

Ok, I will amend that to "since Kodak stopped advertizing during the summer and winter Olympics". Mea culpa.
 

MattKing

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Kodak Alaris is responsible for maintaining the extensive web based technical resources that were formerly created and maintained by Eastman Kodak and its international subsidiaries.

I know this because the resources disappeared briefly when the takeover of the still film business by KA occurred, but then those resources re-appeared under Kodak Alaris' name.

I stumbled on the disappearance of the resources by sheer coincidence, commented on it here on APUG, and a post from Kodak Alaris' PR people responded that the resources would be back soon - which they were.
 

Ektagraphic

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Kodak Alaris is responsible for maintaining the extensive web based technical resources that were formerly created and maintained by Eastman Kodak and its international subsidiaries.

I figured that, but it seems odd to me because if you go to www.kodakalaris.com and click on the pages for professional film, it brings you to links on www.kodak.com.....
 

RattyMouse

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I figured that, but it seems odd to me because if you go to www.kodakalaris.com and click on the pages for professional film, it brings you to links on www.kodak.com.....

Yes, all the tech publications Prof. Pixel linked above are branded Kodak, not Kodak Alaris.

Really, Alaris is just the selling arm of Eastman Kodak. Kodak Alaris is not going to design a new film, modify a current film, or manufacture any film.

All film technology resides with Eastman Kodak.
 

Xmas

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Yes, all the tech publications Prof. Pixel linked above are branded Kodak, not Kodak Alaris.

Really, Alaris is just the selling arm of Eastman Kodak. Kodak Alaris is not going to design a new film, modify a current film, or manufacture any film.

All film technology resides with Eastman Kodak.

They changed the badges of some staff who then had nothing better to do than change web page links on the same servers... Rather than logging on to APUG.

But KA also own ex-EK UK real estate and maybe the servers are in UK, think the KA factories make photo 'paper's? Still mischievous moving links our expression is 'rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic' cynical maybe.
 

MattKing

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Kodak Alaris has about 5000 employees - most are former employees of the various international Kodaks.

They have employees all around the world - wherever it makes sense to have a local presence, rather than just a distributor.

With respect to the photographic portion of their business, they manufacture Kodak colour paper for the photofinishing industry - that is likely their largest business. The manufacturing facilities include the ones in the UK that they own and ones in the US and China that they lease - those leases were transferred over from Eastman Kodak. I don't know how much production is actually taking place at each location.

The manufacturing facilities in the UK traditionally included a viable R & D component.

They market Kodak branded photo-chemistry - both colour and black and white.

They also market Kodak still films.

Eastman Kodak manufactures still films for Kodak Alaris.

Tetenal is the most likely manufacturer of the photographic chemistry.

Except with respect to the colour photographic paper, Kodak Alaris is much like companies like Apple, in that their photographic products are manufactured for them, not by them.
 

Xmas

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The manufacturing facilities in the UK traditionally included a viable R & D component.

I had thought they sold off the UK film coating building but I was corrected by someone who said it was still intact. They stopped coating in 2005.

It would be well expensive to restart even if the machinery were still there. I still think it is now little houses Harrow real estate is like Manhattan...

Most of staff/workers in the build were terminated.
 

RattyMouse

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Kodak Alaris has about 5000 employees - most are former employees of the various international Kodaks.

What percent of those have technical knowledge of film at the highest level? Could they design a new film if the Kodak Alaris marketing group requested one? Or would that have to go to Eastman?

They have employees all around the world - wherever it makes sense to have a local presence, rather than just a distributor.

With respect to the photographic portion of their business, they manufacture Kodak colour paper for the photofinishing industry - that is likely their largest business. The manufacturing facilities include the ones in the UK that they own and ones in the US and China that they lease - those leases were transferred over from Eastman Kodak. I don't know how much production is actually taking place at each location.

Any idea where there plant is in China?

The manufacturing facilities in the UK traditionally included a viable R & D component.

As mentioned by another poster, that R & D group was terminated in 2005. All that knowledge walked out the door, and is now lost.

They market Kodak branded photo-chemistry - both colour and black and white.

Could Kodak Alaris bring to market a new developer (like Eastman did with XTOL)? Do they have that knowledge or is that again still with Eastman?



They also market Kodak still films.

Eastman Kodak manufactures still films for Kodak Alaris.

Tetenal is the most likely manufacturer of the photographic chemistry.

Except with respect to the colour photographic paper, Kodak Alaris is much like companies like Apple, in that their photographic products are manufactured for them, not by them.

Apple has *all* the design knowledge in house. They dont rely on a parent company for their technical knowledge. Kodak Alaris is also single sourced for their film. Every company that I have ever worked for has moved heaven and earth to prevent being single sourced to ANY supplier. That is a business disaster waiting to happen. As such, KA does not control their film stocks, Eastman does.
 

cmacd123

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Kodak Alaris owns the right to sell Film and other imaging products with the various Kodak Names. As such they are proably in the same position as Simon Galleys folks, who have the right to use the Ilford Name but only have a licence to use it,

Alaris has the film that they sell made by Eastman Kodak. I was led to believe that they took over the Finishing for Still film, which is of course still done in the same plants by the same people, just as employees of Alaris rather than the New Eastman Kodak.

According to the Online site tools run by a firm by the name of netcraft.com, http://www.kodakalaris.com/ is actually still run on a server controled by Eastman Kodak in the USA . The server apparently uses a ASP based content system known as EKTron, which sould like the sort of name that Kodak of old would have developed in house, so I would suspect it may be a while before Alaris is in a position to build their own web server.

As I always say, we will have to see what develops.
 

Jaf-Photo

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I can just remember the time when Kodak here in the UK supplied lectures for photo societies, both recorded and live talks, as well as masses of general and technical literature and a postal query service, all for free. Also supporting local societies by paid advertising in exhibition programmes and printed meeting lists.

My Dad was the secretary of the local photo club for many years, and quite a lot of the weekly meetings were based on content and lectures supplied by Kodak, Ilford, Agfa, Johnsons, and the other big makers of materials and equipment.

This is an excellent point.

Life teaches you to listen to what people say but judge them by their actions.

EK and KA have been acting like film photography is an embarrassment to their new "digital" image.

Interaction with their customer base is crucial to any company. But KA is currently refusing to interact with film photographers.

Many people don't realise that film photography still exists. Nevertheless people instinctively drawn to images shot on film.

Information from KA would do a world of difference.
 
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