Kodak @ Photokina

RattyMouse · Sep 23, 2012

I dont know if this has been mentioned already, but Thom Hogan wrote up a summary of his trip to Photokina and did a bit on the state of film. He wrote that at Kodak's booth, there was no sign at all of any film products, only printers. That really boils my blood because there should be a firm presence of film at the photographic industries largest biannual event. How can anyone not think film is dead if the largest maker of film wont show otherwise?

Thankfully, Fujifilm represented film at their booths so film at least had some presence.

A lot of people rip Fujifilm whenever they drop a film due to poor sales and seemingly cut Kodak (the company, not Perez) every break possible when they fail.

I know who I am supporting going forward.

zsas · Sep 23, 2012

Not true!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4g4YPZowPs&feature=relmfu

And see here:
(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

zsas · Sep 23, 2012

Third item as proof, a tweet from a Kodak PR rep during Photokina...

http://twitter.com/kodakCB/status/248435576750108672

RattyMouse · Sep 23, 2012

OK, well that's good to see. Normally Thom is spot on so I'm not sure what happened to him there.

Prof_Pixel · Sep 23, 2012

See the Kodak Professional Facebook page for all the Photokina activities. https://www.facebook.com/kodakprofessional

RattyMouse · Sep 23, 2012

Ha ha!! You guys are funny, posting all the sites that are banned here in China. I cant get on Facebook, Twitter, or Youtube. All banned.

zsas · Sep 23, 2012

Haaaaa! Well here is the tweet I mentioned above....

georg16nik · Sep 24, 2012

RattyMouse said:
OK, well that's good to see. Normally Thom is spot on so I'm not sure what happened to him there.

He gets paid to lie. Spot on lies, dig-it-all style.

Felinik · Sep 24, 2012

RattyMouse said:
Ha ha!! You guys are funny, posting all the sites that are banned here in China. I cant get on Facebook, Twitter, or Youtube. All banned.

Proxy?

PKM-25 · Sep 24, 2012

georg16nik said:
He gets paid to lie. Spot on lies, dig-it-all style.

I think there are more people than we realize who are Internet celebs that get paid to steer people away from film....there is a lot of digital corruption out there now days, just look at how bad dpreview is!

Ian Grant · Sep 24, 2012

PKM-25 said:
I think there are more people than we realize who are Internet celebs that get paid to steer people away from film....there is a lot of digital corruption out there now days, just look at how bad dpreview is!

It's also the magazines who totally disregard film. One edition of the best selling UK photomagazine (at the time) had an issue dedicated to B&W, there was no mention of film what so ever and that was 5 or 6 years ago. This was despite the fact that some of their advertisers sold film.

Ian

j.c.denton · Sep 24, 2012

I would not call Thoms point of view a lie. I visited Photokina on Wednesday and concentrated on the analogue stuff. Believe me, it wasn't easy to find and most of the time, it was either absent or anything but easy to spot, with exception to the companies solely concentrating on film, of course. I cannot comment on the possibility to talk about films at the Fujifilm booth, but the only thing about film I could find was a poster which listed all films and their sizes available and the two 6x7 rangefinders Fujifilm offers. Considering the size of the Fujifilm booth, that was quite a disappointment.

Granted, at the Kodak booth, they had film. But I had to get past several printer stations which were placed like roadblocks, at least that was my impression. And at first, I only saw the amateur film at the wall. Only after looking around, I spotted Ektar, Portra and the b&w stuff on the counter. But I wouldn't call that display prominent.

On the positive side, I had several very positive experiences which made that visit the most valuable one for years. The Pentax guys in the medium format area were very kind and there was a lot to try out. DHW showcased the new Rollei hy6 and albeit I could only put my hands on it equipped with the digital back, they were very kind and informative. At the Plustek booth, a technician from Silverfast demonstrated the new Plustek OpticFilm 120 medium format scanner and I was very impresssed by the knowledge of that guy which covered not only this specific scanner in detail but other scanners as well and film in general.

When looking back, I should have taken the chance to demand more film stuff whenever I had the impression that the company puts it in second place.

Christian

Henning Serger · Sep 25, 2012

RattyMouse said:
I dont know if this has been mentioned already, but Thom Hogan wrote up a summary of his trip to Photokina and did a bit on the state of film. He wrote that at Kodak's booth, there was no sign at all of any film products, only printers.

Sorry to say, but then this man is obviously blind......
I've been at Photokina and Kodak had a film counter at their booth. Not as big as in the last years, but they had one.
I've had a very interesting and long talk there with the responsible manager for film.
And some pretty good news, not only from Kodak, but also from lots of other manufacturers
I'll give you further details in a separate, more detailed report about the Photokina in the next days.
Stay tuned .

Best regards,
Henning

EdSawyer · Sep 25, 2012

"At the Plustek booth, a technician from Silverfast demonstrated the new Plustek OpticFilm 120 medium format scanner and I was very impresssed by the knowledge of that guy which covered not only this specific scanner in detail but other scanners as well and film in general."

Any more info on this? That scanner is supposed to be coming out soon, and sounds like a pretty nice product, from the specs online, etc.

j.c.denton · Sep 26, 2012

The main driver/interface seems to be set, they are only fine tuning it now. The Mac driver seems to have a problem with blocking up shadows, which is not happening on Windows, thats one of the things they are working on right now. I've been there on Wednesday (2nd day), and they where hoping to get an updated driver even until the end of photokina, so its final spurt right now. All in all, they confirmed what has been said about the scanner before and stated that Plustek did a good job on the hardware. The person I talked to had made a scan personally that resolved 5100dpi on the USAF target with beta drivers, so the optical 5300dpi resolution advertised is pretty honest. Concerning d-range, they confirmed the official statement of 4.01, but I forget to ask whether that could be achieved solely by multi-exposure or single scan as well. It surely looks like a great device - I am saving up for it!

Christian

Henning Serger · Sep 26, 2012

Henning Serger said:
Sorry to say, but then this man is obviously blind......
I've been at Photokina and Kodak had a film counter at their booth. Not as big as in the last years, but they had one.
I've had a very interesting and long talk there with the responsible manager for film.
And some pretty good news, not only from Kodak, but also from lots of other manufacturers

The Kodak booth:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4g4YPZowPs&feature=relmfu

Best regards,
Henning

ic-racer · Sep 27, 2012

RattyMouse said:
I dont know if this has been mentioned already, but Thom Hogan wrote up a summary of his trip to

Who?

I googled his name and the first sentence on his webpage is: start your online shopping by clicking on the logo to the right for either of my recommended vendors.

I'd say he is not likely a reliable source of any information.

Flux · Sep 27, 2012

Henning Serger said:
The Kodak booth:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4g4YPZowPs&feature=relmfu

When you look how few views the videos from Kodak have, one can guess how low the interest in this company is.

AgX · Sep 27, 2012

Henning Serger said:
I've been at Photokina and Kodak had a film counter at their booth. Not as big as in the last years, but they had one.

Even that film counter at last Photokina was hidden at the backside of the huge stand, one had to search for it. The positive thing then: they sent a (the only?) really informed person to care for film.

Henning Serger · Sep 27, 2012

Flux said:
When you look how few views the videos from Kodak have, one can guess how low the interest in this company is.

The interest for Kodak film (and film in general) at Photokina was quite good, lots of film photographers there.
More details in my Photokina report in the next days.

Best regards,
Henning

Henning Serger · Sep 27, 2012

AgX said:
Even that film counter at last Photokina was hidden at the backside of the huge stand, one had to search for it. The positive thing then: they sent a (the only?) really informed person to care for film.

Hidden? It was in the front of the booth, very near where all the visitors from the other hall came in. I did not need to search for it. I found it immediately.

Best regards,
Henning

AgX · Sep 27, 2012

I referred to the 2010 Photokina. There was the open part of the stand with all the hazzle and there was the backside secluded from the rest of the stand.
At least I had to search for it. And I knew Kodak had films in their portfolio...

iulian · Sep 27, 2012

I'm pretty sure everyone at Photokina knows what Kodak makes...

Kodak @ Photokina

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