Kodak Reintroduces Ektachrome.

[AgX]

The wait must be killing some guys who were fans of Ektachrome.

Maybe meanwhile the waiting it will be Kodak to bite the dust... Though competitor Agfa showed that one can live quite comfortably at low stock rate level.

 

[removed account4]

can't imagine who is going to buy all that film, there probably arnt 28,000 film users wordwide LOL

 

[Cholentpot]

can't imagine who is going to buy all that film, there probably arnt 28,000 film users wordwide LOL

It'll get snapped up in a second. There are at least 1,000 hipsters that will see Kodak and buy a few rolls. Include a bunch of folks out in Japan who'll jump on a chance to buy a brick and it will sell out.

 

[SilverShutter]

can't imagine who is going to buy all that film, there probably arnt 28,000 film users wordwide LOL

You are seriously underestimating the ammount of people that shoot film. Not everyone is as deep in it as many of the users in this forum, but the ammount of results you can see just in Instagram for example looking for 35mm is inmense. Although it is true that most people would shoot consumer films like Gold, or Superia, and not proffesional films, like Ektachrome, but still if the product is easily available, it will fly off the shelves in the first batch.

 

[AgX]

Throughout Germany E-6 film is easily available even in small places. But sales are declining.
So, this is not a matter of availability.

 

[Wayne]

can't imagine who is going to buy all that film, there probably arnt 28,000 film users wordwide LOL

There used to be an internet forum devoted to analog photography. It started in the early 2000s when digital was starting to overtake the market. This forum was called APUG, which stood for Analog Photography User's Group, and it had nearly 100,000 members the last time I checked before the site transformed into a different forum. True story.

 

[AgX]

We both know how little meaningful this "member" number is.

More important are sales numbers and even those have no information on future sales that would be important industrial investment.

What remains are reasoned assumptions. I was close with mine in the past, to the benefit of us all, but there is no guarantee that I shall be again...

 

[BrianShaw]

I’m still waiting for any hint about price. If it’s too expensive I’ll be a -1 on this novelty film.

 

[AgX]

Here the AgfaPhoto CT Precisa costs 8€, the Fuji films between 13€ and 17€.

(When the AgfaPhoto one had been introduced it was at 3.50€ !)

I do not see why I should pay for a new Ektachrome more than for those Fujifilms.

 

[Cholentpot]

You are seriously underestimating the ammount of people that shoot film. Not everyone is as deep in it as many of the users in this forum, but the ammount of results you can see just in Instagram for example looking for 35mm is inmense. Although it is true that most people would shoot consumer films like Gold, or Superia, and not proffesional films, like Ektachrome, but still if the product is easily available, it will fly off the shelves in the first batch.

Ya see, what a lot of people don't realize is that these companies sold billions of rolls a year. So when they complain that sales are dead that mean that they are only selling millions of rolls a year. For a small company selling a million of anything is amazing but for these huge companies selling a few million rolls of film is terrible. The market for 35mm is still huge compared to other hobbies. Does the hotrod community sell a million of any part? Model airplanes still sell millions of kits? How many HAM kits still fly off the shelves?

Issue is that Kodak/Fuji etc could not turn ship and face the new market that while it is smaller is still lucrative. 30,000 rolls will be gone before you can blink.

 

[MattKing]

Ya see, what a lot of people don't realize is that these companies sold billions of rolls a year. So when they complain that sales are dead that mean that they are only selling millions of rolls a year. For a small company selling a million of anything is amazing but for these huge companies selling a few million rolls of film is terrible.

I don't know that the big companies ever sold "billions" of rolls every year, but they certainly sold a lot.
The real issue is whether the size of the market is sufficient to support sufficient economies of scale to permit selling enough colour film to allow for a selling price that will attract enough interest from enough customers.

 

[richyd]

Re pricing.
Some years ago when I started in medium format, E100G was always much more expensive than Fuji 100F so it wasn't until shortly before they discontinued that I first tried a roll and wish I had before but even then I don't think it justified the price differential, at least half as much, although at that time I had the impression Kodak were trying to price themselves out of the market. If it is priced par with Fuji I will definitely buy in preference, I still have rolls of 100G frozen for special projects.

 

[Chris Livsey]

I don't know that the big companies ever sold "billions" of rolls every year, but they certainly sold a lot.

They sold, as they do now but obviously much less, extraordinary amounts to the movie industry:
At its peak, film distribution used around 13 billion feet of film a year http://www.filmjournal.com/content/thanks-memories-its-end-era-35mm-film-declines

On rolls of film: “The film market peaked in 2003 with 960 million rolls of film, today it represents roughly 2% of that,” says Manny Almeida, president of Fujifilm’s imaging division in North America. (January 2017)
http://time.com/4649188/film-photography-industry-comeback/
So strictly you are correct, not "billions" of rolls but it would have been had the movie stock been packed down

That 2% is still 19 plus million rolls

At the risk of moderation can I quote these figures for comparison? (February 2016)

• 2.5 trillion photos will be shared or stored online in 2016 globally
• 90 per cent of this year’s photos will be taken using a smartphone
• This year’s photo sharing and storage will amount to 3.5 billion gigabytes of data

https://www2.deloitte.com/uk/en/pag...int-5-million-photos-shared-every-minute.html

 

[AgX]

I don't know that the big companies ever sold "billions" of rolls every year, but they certainly sold a lot.

One of Agfa's machines alone could crank out nearly a billion type 135s per year.

 

[Cholentpot]

They sold, as they do now but obviously much less, extraordinary amounts to the movie industry:
At its peak, film distribution used around 13 billion feet of film a year http://www.filmjournal.com/content/thanks-memories-its-end-era-35mm-film-declines

On rolls of film: “The film market peaked in 2003 with 960 million rolls of film, today it represents roughly 2% of that,” says Manny Almeida, president of Fujifilm’s imaging division in North America. (January 2017)
http://time.com/4649188/film-photography-industry-comeback/
So strictly you are correct, not "billions" of rolls but it would have been had the movie stock been packed down

That 2% is still 19 plus million rolls

Point still stands though I'm technically wrong. 20 million rolls of film is a significant amount. Is this only Fuji you're talking about or is this estimated worldwide?

 

[Chris Livsey]

Point still stands though I'm technically wrong. 20 million rolls of film is a significant amount. Is this only Fuji you're talking about or is this estimated worldwide?

The link given would read this is total market, and I agree 20 million cannot be insignificant, certainly Kodak see an Ektachrome market to drag the thread kicking and screaming back on topic.

I would also assume that is sales of "new" film not including the other 20 million rolls of expired film that seems to be purchased every year

 

[Cholentpot]

The link given would read this is total market, and I agree 20 million cannot be insignificant, certainly Kodak see an Ektachrome market to drag the thread kicking and screaming back on topic.

I would also assume that is sales of "new" film not including the other 20 million rolls of expired film that seems to be purchased every year

Well Walmart, Walgreens, and CVS gotta count for something huge in the market. They always have some Fuji stocked. I'd think that the chains would be the major purchaser of film these days. That and the one use camera market. Otherwise it would be the online retailers and such. I can think of one roll in the past year that I bought from a shop, I got a roll of Portra 400 from a small place and had it run through a lab. Otherwise everything has either been expired junk or found online and then developed myself.

 

[perkeleellinen]

The wait must be killing some guys who were fans of Ektachrome and I bet a few people will get emotional when they see the first pictures posted up from the new stock.

I'm looking forward to loading Super 8 again and projecting it!

 

[BMbikerider]

can't imagine who is going to buy all that film, there probably arnt 28,000 film users wordwide LOL

Out of a total population of ......what?.....Around 6 billion, give or take, you could just be wrong.

Sadly though, as much as I liked transparencies, I don't think I will be joining those who buy it on a regular basis. I get enough satisfaction from the colour and B&W, negative/positive process in the darkroom and as I said before processing E6 is a mechanical process and I find that quite boring. (I also don't trust outside labs to do my work for me).

 

[Peter Schrager]

can't imagine who is going to buy all that film, there probably arnt 28,000 film users wordwide LOL

i wouldn't bet on that....

 

[destroya]

it all depends on the price. if it comes at $20 us a roll i'll still shoot fuji. if its the same price as fuji ill shoot some of both. if its less ill shoot a lot more kodak than fuji. but my guess is its priced, again a guess, about 25% more expensive than provia and velvia

 

[RattyMouse]

can't imagine who is going to buy all that film, there probably arnt 28,000 film users wordwide LOL

You got a source for your "fact"? I doubt it.

 

[Roger Cole]

Re pricing.
Some years ago when I started in medium format, E100G was always much more expensive than Fuji 100F so it wasn't until shortly before they discontinued that I first tried a roll and wish I had before but even then I don't think it justified the price differential, at least half as much, although at that time I had the impression Kodak were trying to price themselves out of the market. If it is priced par with Fuji I will definitely buy in preference, I still have rolls of 100G frozen for special projects.

Huh, I don't recall paying anymore, or at least not a memorable amount more (might have been a buck difference or whatever) for E100G vs Provia 100F.

If it's competitive with 100F I'll buy and shoot it. Say, within $3 a roll - I'd pay up to that much more for it IF it has the color palette and, even more importantly, slightly lower apparent contrast that E100G had compared to Provia 100F.

I really only ever bought E6 in 35mm though, other than a few rolls of 120 I got in a bulk purchase from someone cleaning out their film fridge. So the price difference may have been greater in 120 and I didn't notice.

 

[Roger Cole]

it all depends on the price. if it comes at $20 us a roll i'll still shoot fuji. if its the same price as fuji ill shoot some of both. if its less ill shoot a lot more kodak than fuji. but my guess is its priced, again a guess, about 25% more expensive than provia and velvia

If it's not more than 20% more expensive than Fuji I'll shoot exclusively Ektachrome (except for the Provia 400X I still have frozen.)

Provia 100F is ok but I prefer Ektachrome enough to pay more for it. I never got along with Velvia at all. I've shot some, but don't think I ever got a result I liked from it. YMMV of course.

 

[richyd]

Huh, I don't recall paying anymore, or at least not a memorable amount more (might have been a buck difference or whatever) for E100G vs Provia 100F.

This was in the UK where we have the privilege of paying more for most photographic equipment than in US or mainland Europe, especially Kodak, even Ilford is cheaper abroad and don't even mention large format.