Kodak EPY and EPP officially discontinued

p4tw · Nov 22, 2009

http://www.kodak.com/global/en/prof...ssionalFilmEPY.jhtml?pq-path=13319/1229/13393

http://www.kodak.com/global/en/prof...ssionalFilmEPP.jhtml?pq-path=13319/1229/13392

perkeleellinen · Nov 22, 2009

Fuji discontinued their T64 earlier this year. This announcement means no tungsten films will now be made.

railwayman3 · Nov 22, 2009

You just have time to forgive Kodak for each discontinuance, then back they come with the next one.... :rolleyes:

ajuk · Nov 22, 2009

I would have thought that there would have been a significant increase in Kodak's Tungsten film after the Fuji's Discontinuation.

nickstreme · Nov 22, 2009

What does this mean for the Super 8 stock?

B&Wpositive · Nov 22, 2009

perkeleellinen said:
Fuji discontinued their T64 earlier this year. This announcement means no tungsten films will now be made.

Has Fuji truly discontinued T64 and is simply selling stock? We heard this about 2 years ago, but official verification seemed to be lacking at the time.

AgX · Nov 22, 2009

nickstreme said:
What does this mean for the Super 8 stock?

Not quite an answer: but all CR cine films are still listed in 8, 16 and 35mm without comment.

p4tw · Nov 22, 2009

Unfortunately it becomes more and more uninteresting for me to work only analog (color), if more and more films become unavailable. Esp. discontinuance of now all tungsten films is hard. I could find alternatives for kodachrome although it's hard. But there will be no replacement for the tungsten films.

mikebarger · Nov 22, 2009

"I would have thought that there would have been a significant increase in Kodak's Tungsten film after the Fuji's Discontinuation."

Guess that shows how little Fuji must have been selling.

Mike

chriscrawfordphoto · Nov 22, 2009

Tungsten films were mostly used by commercial photographers. These people, long before digital came out, had switched to using strobes instead of tungsten lights; digital just put the last nail in the coffin for tungsten film.

perkeleellinen · Nov 22, 2009

B&Wpositive said:
Has Fuji truly discontinued T64 and is simply selling stock? We heard this about 2 years ago, but official verification seemed to be lacking at the time.

At the time of Fuji's announcement earlier this year I wrote to Fuji UK and asked if the rumours were true and if the discontinuation was global. The reply:

Hi Steven and thank you for your enquiry.

The announcement you read in BJP is correct. This is a global
discontinuation due to very low sales volume.

2F/2F · Nov 22, 2009

EPP is my favorite Ektachrome....my favorite transparency film after Fuji 64 Tungsten. Why am I so out of line from what the mainstream is buying? Ridiculous.

Photo Engineer · Nov 22, 2009

IMHO, EPP was the best E6 film to cross process. I will miss it.

PE

railwayman3 · Nov 22, 2009

Thinking about this a bit...it seems rather like digital, where the manufacturers try to kid us that last year's model is now obsolete and we must rush out right now and buy this year's latest "improved" version. Whereas the fact is that last year's model still works as well as ever and, if it did what we wanted then, it will do so now.

It seems that Kodak (and Fuji) bring out new films which show little or no practical improvement on the old, which have served everyone prefectly well for some years....is this just a marketing gimmick, and, if so, it can't be working well if it just upsets existing users.

I happened, yesterday, to be checking some slides taken in 1988 and 1990 on Ektachrome 64Pro...they look like the day they were taken, and the color and definition is as good as one could want, comparable with any current E6 film.
Yet how many "different" and "improved" Kodak E6 films have been on the market in the 20+ years between?

Not knocking Kodak, just my thoughts, rightly or wrongly.

erikg · Nov 22, 2009

So Kodak has just 3 E6 films in the line now? Wow. I used tungsten films for gallery installations, architectural shoots, theatre. The color film world is getting very small and rather boring. Time to get familiar with filters again.

Photo Engineer · Nov 22, 2009

Knowing a tiny bit of the sales situation, the sales of these two films were in the toilet. Same with Fuji.

So, if people liked them so much, why not buy them? Because they liked the newer films which are better for grain and speed.

PE

railwayman3 · Nov 22, 2009

Photo Engineer said:
Knowing a tiny bit of the sales situation, the sales of these two films were in the toilet. Same with Fuji.

So, if people liked them so much, why not buy them? Because they liked the newer films which are better for grain and speed.

PE

But I did buy EPP for many years, until Kodak in their infinite wisdom decided to make it almost impossible to get in the UK.

And my point was that, for all practical purposes (not just test charts), are the newer films so much better? Or is it just a tweak and a new name for marketing purposes? As I said, like the latest digital camera?

I know it's not a direct comparison, but Ilford seem to market their B&W film range successfully, unchanged, for year-after-year. When I buy a roll of FP4 or HP5, I know that I can rely on it being the same as the last one, even if that were five years ago.

I reiterate that I'm not knocking Kodak, or anyone, maybe I'm just too cynical?

Photo Engineer · Nov 22, 2009

Well, Railway, if you are the only customer, why keep selling you 1 roll / month? IDK, but sales were dismal from what I hear. So, why coat 5000 ft of film for 1 or 10 or even 100 customers when you need 30,000 or so? IDK. It is competing with yourself if you sell many films that are comparable. I think that the new films in E6 are quite good and embody a better speed/grain/sharpness position. If you disagree, then you appear to be in the minority as the newer films sell better apparently.

PE

railwayman3 · Nov 22, 2009

I can't argue with that logic, PE, no-one can be expected to produce and sell a product at a loss.

I just fear for the day when Kodak discontinue the last E6 film using the same reasoning.

As I said, it just seems that, at the moment, as we forgive Kodak each discontinuance, back they come with the next one. And I say that with concern rather than anger.

On a more general comment on availability, I was in two different large supermarkets over the weekend. One had no analogue photo products, not even disposable cameras. The other had no cameras, just a half-hearted display (tucked away near the floor below batteries) of three packs of own-brand (Japan, so presumably Fuji) 35mm and four packs of Fuji APS, all with expiry dates in early
2010. And these are the two main supermarkets covering an area of about 40,000 people.

mikebarger · Nov 22, 2009

They carry so little because they sell so little. Shelf space is very competitive.

Mike

Alex Bishop-Thorpe · Nov 22, 2009

nickstreme said:
What does this mean for the Super 8 stock?

This is my worry too. I never shot it in 35mm, but I shoot a lot of it in Super-8.

nickrapak · Nov 22, 2009

I honestly think one of, if not the major problem with EPP was the cost. I really like EPP, but I am not about to pay $13 a roll when I could get E100G for half that. And, since EPP was no Kodachrome, people are not willing to pay that.

railwayman3 · Nov 22, 2009

mikebarger said:
They carry so little because they sell so little. Shelf space is very competitive.

Mike

Yes, I know. I'm expecting next time I'm in the store there will be none, So, AFAIK there is now nowhere in a town of 40,000 where I can buy any analogue supplies over the counter, not even a disposable camera.

So the last few family/holiday picture-takers who aren't already using digital are not going to go to the trouble of mail order or travelling to a specialist shop just to find a film. Then Kodak will say that sales are too dismal to justify coating color negative film either..........

erikg · Nov 22, 2009

We'll have to keep an eye on the motion picture industry. When that market is gone it is hard to see how we will still have any color materials to choose from.

DanielStone · Nov 22, 2009

this sucks..

albeit, for the growing amount of architecture I've started shooting over the last few months, I've been using Provia and E100G, sometimes Astia, with CC filters, NOT having tungten film to fall back on is a tough thing to hear...

this sucks, officially. hopefully its because EK is coming out with something new :rolleyes:

Kodak EPY and EPP officially discontinued

Privacy & Transparency

Privacy & Transparency