"None of the other existing companies are doing original research except Kodak and Fuji, they are merely reviving old product lines."
I wish Kodak would. Original research is not what I want. I don't need new T Max or better color neg film. Films were good enough 15 years ago to do everything I will ever want to do.
Oh, but I want it. I need TMY-2, it's arguably the best B&W film ever made. With 5x4, I need the speed, and I love that it's sharper and less grainy than the Tri-X I was using. But in particular I love the tonality. It feels more linear; it feels like it's translating the colors of the scene into the correct gray tones more than any other film to me.
The old films were
not good enough for me. It's the new films that do what I want them to do.
What I want is the stuff they got rid of; especially 320T, Plus-X sheets, and Pan-X. Fuji too. ...
I wonder if any of the big manufacturers will ever dare to be different again.
It would be nice if they could do both -- keep the old and create the new. But we can't expect them to keep unprofitable products on the market. If enough people had been buying Plus-X sheets it would have been profitable and they would still be available.
My point is that the large range of products that made Kodak very unique and more interesting than some other companies have been discontinued.
True enough. But the thing that continues to make Kodak unique and interesting is their continued R&D and the new products they bring to market. Without Kodak, the entire film market stagnates, then dies.
For example, without Kodak pushing the new motion picture emulsions, the change over to digital projection would occur sooner. Kodak keeps raising the bar, and digital projection continues to have problem catching up. And when digital projection finally catches up to the point where it's nearly as cost effective as film for the same quality level, all of us film users are in trouble. Motion picture film is what's keeping the coating plants running from what I can tell.
So I'm all for Kodak pushing and therefore defining the state of the art. And I'm happy to have the technology applied to make vastly improved TMY-2 and the amazing new Portra films.
Also, I think you probably know that I am not trying to make a factual analysis of Kodak. I am just voicing my frustrations with a brand whose [discontinued] products I love[d], with humor intended.
I hope you don't take this personally. I just get frustrated when film people bash Kodak when to me it looks as if Kodak is the only company left trying to push film forward and thus keep it alive. Kodak seems to be a perfect example of: "No good deed goes unpunished."
