Paul - Film can also do things digital can't. Some filmmakers apparently want a more authentic vintage look rather than the faux version. Car mfg? My Toyoto truck was made an hour away in what was at first a Ford plant; then after Numi (Toyta), it became the primary Tesla plant. Quite a few "foreign" cars are/were actually made in the US or nearby. One of the positive aspects of subcontracting a lot of auto components to northern Mexico is that, by giving well paid legit opportunities there, a lot of stress was relieved from the border. That factor seems to have been lost sight of.
I've tested Delta 100 as a substitute for TMax. The grain is somewhere between TMX100 and TMY400 in size. And you have to cut the speed down to 50 if you want Delta to approximate the long scale of TMX, way down into the shadows. It has more of a toe to it. And the spectral sensitivity is a little different, along with the filter factors, esp green filters. I'd far rather use TMX in high contrast situations; but I do have a Plan B if necessary.
Sears Slowbuck went the way of Monkey Ward. Toward the end, their desperate proposed merger with KMart was described as a sack race with two drunks in the same sack. Lack of motivation is an understatement.
Kodak didn't underestimate the impact of digital. They got in too soon. They outright bankrupted one of the biggest labs in this area. The equipment per se was excellent for its time, but they promoted it with long installment payment plans combined with mandatory expensive service contracts. After a few years, there was serious competition from less costly, yet more efficient, digital equipment makers. At that point, Kodak turned their back on their customers - they demanded continuing payments, but outright dropped their own maintenance obligation, rendering much of that gear useless. Word got around awfully fast among the photo lab trade, and nobody trusted them after that. Some of their Creo scanners are still in use.
