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Kodak Discusses Film

bvy said:
I also like hearing that their film business is once again turning a profit.
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Presumably he is referring to the movie film business. The consumer film business got spun off in the bankruptcy.

One thing I have to give Kodak (and its successors) credit for: despite everything the company went through, they never let the quality of the product slip.
 
Nice and encouraging interview. I agree with bvy the most reassuring part is that film is making a profit. It's also nice to see that Kodak has a nice position in the market with the other endeavours.
Last, it's nice to see that they hire part of the "technological park", I think that might favour the birth of some new film venture which would find, in the Kodak park, the necessary infrastructure and support to pursue some niche photography products.

And, by the way, this is nice to read because it means the Ferrania initiative is well-timed.
 
Moopheus said:
Presumably he is referring to the movie film business. The consumer film business got spun off in the bankruptcy.
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What are the terms exactly?
Do you mean that Portra and Ektar are not, at the moment, manufactured by Kodak, but by some entity having bought the Kodak brand?

[Presumably, if the film business got spun off in the bankruptcy, it must have been profitable itself].
 

That's simply not true. Kodak 120 film has had unprecedented levels of quality problems as well as supply issues.
 
RattyMouse said:
That's simply not true. Kodak 120 film has had unprecedented levels of quality problems as well as supply issues.
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I think you're both right. T-Max 100 is suffering from backing paper issues, but the response I got from Kodak suggests that they're very serious about correcting it. No more of it is being made and shipped until the problem is resolved. Hence the outage in most places since spring.
 
Just bring back one of the slide films they recently discontinued... I would be happy!
 

TMAX 400 & One of the color films had the problem too. Yes they are trying to fix the issue, but it's clearly not correct to say that Kodak has been running smoothly without any issues since the bankruptcy.
 
I don't see Kodak's 400 speed "Max" film listed at Alaris. Who makes that film? Is it just old stock?
 
Wolfeye said:
I don't see Kodak's 400 speed "Max" film listed at Alaris. Who makes that film? Is it just old stock?
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T-Max 400 is included in the list of available films.

Diapositivo said:
Do you mean that Portra and Ektar are not, at the moment, manufactured by Kodak, but by some entity having bought the Kodak brand?

[Presumably, if the film business got spun off in the bankruptcy, it must have been profitable itself].
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Kodak Alaris was created to transfer assets to the employee's pension fund. It's a separately managed company now. How profitable it is is not publicly known, I'd guess.
 
Moopheus said:
T-Max 400 is included in the list of available films.



Kodak Alaris was created to transfer assets to the employee's pension fund. It's a separately managed company now. How profitable it is is not publicly known, I'd guess.
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Kodak still makes the film, Kodak Alaris sells it:
"While the companies are independent, they are also intertwined. The film sold by Kodak Alaris is made by Kodak under a supply agreement, and it's made at the same Rochester facility where Kodak manufactures its motion picture film."

http://www.rochestercitynewspaper.com/rochester/the-future-of-film/Content?oid=2495566
 
Interesting interview. Thanks for posting it, Ratty.
 
That makes interesting reading indeed. What is not mentioned however is future plans saying if they are to resume pro-active manufacturing and selling of paper, film(s), and research into other new analogue materials
 
"
Does Kodakit change that model?

Our model at Kodakit is very simple. We will connect photographers to events. You press the button. It shows what (the photographers are) really good at or what they like to do, whether its weddings or food events. Standard contract, you pay upfront, you don’t have to negotiate, the photographer doesn’t have to go through all billing processes and marketing, and most importantly, you own your pictures at the end."

I'm surprised this quote hasn't generated much comment. This is a very consumer-friendly idea, but a major change in business model for professional photographers.
 
I got bit by some bad TMAX 100 120 film and just yesterday i received a 5 roll pack of TRI-X from Kodak free of charge. They said it will be a couple of months before they are shipping TMAX again. I am pretty happy with that support and will order some more Tmax when it is available. .
 
Initially I thought this was some kind of joke.
Now, it seems to be an idea "taken" from Ilford and given it a money twist.
 
Wallendo said:
"
I'm surprised this quote hasn't generated much comment. This is a very consumer-friendly idea, but a major change in business model for professional photographers.
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Professional photographers, for what I know, give the option to transfer the copyright to the client, at a price. The price is the missing point here.

For what I know also in the film world of yore a professional photographer might have given the negatives to the client, but again, at a price.

Basically you shoot a marriage and you know that half the proceeds, or more, will not come from the couple but from the additional pictures which will be requested by the friends and parents. The client couple can buy the copyright, or the negatives, from the photographer, but they would have to pay twice. The normal logic is that those friends/parents who want pictures will contact the photographer and will pay for them. The other option has always been on the table as far as I know, but not for free.

In the digital world this is actually the most sensible solution, as the pictures you give around are easily reproducible and most people would be content with digital images of the marriage to be seen on a monitor. So the photographer might prefer to be paid for the job rather than for the final product. For what I know, this is basically the prevalent model nowadays for marriages. The photographer gives the images in digital format and that's it.

In Italy (and I suppose elsewhere) ceremony photographers have to endure the competitions of the so-called scattini, people who arrive at the beginning of the ceremony, take pictures of people outside the building, rush to the lab, print the images, and then sell them at the end of the ceremony to the same people. The official photographer cannot prevent this from happening and as you understand that subtracts a lot of potential after-marriage sales. That, again, encourages the official photographer to rely on the "job", the day pay, rather than the prints he can sell to friends and parents.
 
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Nowadays the young folks getting married want their event pictures edited and posted on the web within a few days. If prints are being sold, they're
usually going to be inkjets right on site, during the reception itself before people leave - otherwise, forget it. Nobody seems to care about quality,
regardless. No albums either. Those who work in film instead, or still offer it as an option, therefore need a different business strategy, like maybe
offering strictly black and white darkroom prints, or some other high quality option they can appropriately charge for, rather than groveling with every other bottom-feeder that thinks their a pro because they own a cell phone with a lens on it. I rarely do personal or wedding photography, and
only for people who demand my own product rather than a generic offering. And what I do is charge per print, just like anything else I drymount and
put in a frame. Top dollar, no compromises, whether color or b&w.
 
My son married in 2008 and engaged a company to take the pictures and they rattled loads off using Canon Digital cameras and massive zoom telephotos and posted them on the web. To be honest most of them were total crap! Never did they once attempt to create some kind of rapport with the bride and groom or the guests or attempt to get in among them, but relied upon the zoom telephoto lenses to do the work for them, from a distance.. There were heads cut in two people, caught at the worst possible moment and the posed photographs were a total shambles with no one taking control.

To get my own private shots I took the couple to one side and posed them away from the guests, near a pond with a bridge over it with with Water Lillys and flowers below. Then they cottoned on what I had done so they copied me. I suppose should have been flattered, but actually quite disgusted with them, posing as professional wedding photographers and seemingly knew nothing about the trade then charging my son 'top dollar' for what was a shoddy bit of work!.

It seems that if anyone who can switch on a camera now and point it roughly where the subject is, fire the shutter, they automatically get a prize winning shot. Not so!
 
I don't mean TMAX. I mean the color negative 400 speed "Max" film.
 

I would expect, if I had to pay "top Euro", the photographer to show to me his previous work and to convince me that it's worth the money. If it is a classical film & print work, well yes definitely he has to show me his prints. If it's a digital work, I want to see it either printed or on a large high-quality monitor and I want to dig into it, so as to be sure it is printable work (technically speaking) besides being a professional work, aesthetically speaking.

Next time your son marries, suggest him to check the photographer's previous work first

By the way, for those of you who like printing, I think marriage photographers are available to give you the negatives, just expect to pay double or something more than double, and then you will have years of instant backlog darkroom work
 
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