Kodak Reintroduces Ektachrome.

[RattyMouse]

No idea where they got that from, other than their overheated imagination connecting what Adox & Ferrania have been doing & misreading what Kodak had said. For what it's worth, that minimum coating will net approx 35000 135/36 films, but it'll be less because it's being split with the S8 50ft loads. A number of Ilford's products are made in similarly small quantities quite successfully, some at fairly lengthy intervals.

35,000 rolls seems like a doable amount. A shame Fuji could not keep Acros alive or at the very least make one more master roll and TELL people this is it.

 

[Lachlan Young]

35,000 rolls seems like a doable amount. A shame Fuji could not keep Acros alive or at the very least make one more master roll and TELL people this is it.

Fuji can be a pretty opaque organisation - and doing an annual coating run with pre-orders +10% would probably have not been beyond them. Their whole product range would have benefited from an aggressive standardisation, rather than piecemeal cuts.

Regarding the Kodak smaller coater, I could be wrong, but I do recall something to the effect of a smaller coater being tried, but it was going to need a lot of work to bring the coating up to B38 standard. I also suspect that the bottleneck that Ferrania's coater is causing may have had an influence - especially as Carestream & Alaris had apparently been approached about doing a big batch of P30 on the machine in Colorado.

 

[RattyMouse]

Fuji can be a pretty opaque organisation - and doing an annual coating run with pre-orders +10% would probably have not been beyond them. Their whole product range would have benefited from an aggressive standardisation, rather than piecemeal cuts.

Fuji has no visionary with a passion to keep film alive. It's just business to them so if it doesnt make money, they dont care. I am certain that a creative person or persons could have done much, much more to keep their films alive. They simply do not care.

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

It's quite sad that Fuji was not able (or did not care) to keep ONE B/W film alive.

 

[RattyMouse]

It's quite sad that Fuji was not able (or did not care) to keep ONE B/W film alive.

I always thought Acros would die at some point, but I incorrectly assumed it would be the last one standing before it fell. Plus, I thought I'd have a good 6 months to stock up after the discontinuation announcement was made. Boy was I wrong. I didnt have even 6 days to stock up!!

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

I was just lucky that my wife was in Japan at the right time!

 

[Theo Sulphate]

Not only did Fuji kill their packfilm, they made the announcement long after they'd halted production and had the production machines scrapped. So, after the announcement, when a group of people approached Fuji to acquire the packfilm process, it was too late.

Fuji doesn't have anyone at the top who truly loves film. I'm surprised it's still a part of their name. Maybe they should change it to Fujipixels.

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

Fujinstax

 

[Wallendo]

It's quite sad that Fuji was not able (or did not care) to keep ONE B/W film alive.

When Fuji discontinued Acros 400, it appeared likely to me that Acros wasn't long for this world (It reminded me of Kodak's stepwise discontinuation of its EliteChrome line). Keeping up the equipment to manufacture one production run once every few years likely is not a good return on investment. The only current manufacturer producing just one B&W film is Ferrania, and that is an entirely different situation. Even smaller players like Foma produce multiple different films.

Some consolidation in Fuji's lineup makes sense as at one time they were producing a great number of consumer C-41 films, many just for Japan only. Hopefully there is enough of a market on consumer C-41 to keep the coaters running so that they will be available to make Velvia and Provia.

I will continue to buy Velvia 50 as long as it is available. I will try out the new EktaChrome when it is available. I also hope to one day receive my Kickstarter rewards from Ferrania.

 

[mshchem]

That is the approx 1 mile minimum coating length. Same as Ilford or pretty much any similar coating technology setup (even Adox & Ferrania) - you scale by width, not length of coating. Kodak used to coat 5-6x that amount as a normal batch. This is the scaled down coating amount

This is a very important point. If Kodak has scaled down to an Ilford scale line, that bodes well for the long term.

 

[Sirius Glass]

I do know that we get all the pharmaceuticals floating down river from Detroit here. It's present in the Lake water. And after the lead in the pipes and paint, arsenic in the ground, asbestos in the walls, and about a thousand other things, I'm not too worried about some fixer ending up in a garbage truck. The leaking tranny on the truck that's dripping into the direct storm drain makes up for all the years of flushing stupid stuff down the P.S. toilets.

+1

Let's also not mention the food industry. I work occasionally in very large commercial processing plants. Even for seemingly benign stuff there is a massive amount of chemistry that goes back into the environment. My washing machine detergent that gets used at least once a day is worse than the C-41. My sisters hair dye has the same stuff as the blix, every time you flush you're dumping another load of toxic gifts back into the environment.

Do all of you recycle all your film chips and leaders?

+1

Borax, bleach, washing soda, stain remover, tide pods. Remember the kid who chewed one of those and inhaled the fumes? I've inhaled C-41 fumes many a time and I've not needed to go to emergency room because the lining on my trachea burned away.

+1

 

[Sirius Glass]

Health warnings (for ingestion) published by P & G for Tide Detergent: May cause transient gastrointestinal irritation. Recommended Treatment: Drink a glass of water.

Health warnings (for ingestion) published by Kodak for HC-110: CAN CAUSE KIDNEY DAMAGE, MAY CAUSE LIVER DAMAGE, MAY CAUSE BLOOD DISORDERS. Recommended treatment: Call a physician or poison control centre immediately..

I know which one is safer to ingest.

That is good to know. I will not drink HC-110.

 

[Cholentpot]

That is good to know. I will not drink HC-110.

Some people just gotta be right.

Anyhoo,

Does anyone think that Kodak will resurrect the 'Development included in purchase' from back in the day? I would happily buy Ektachrome if it included a little envelope to send back and get developed and mounted.

 

[Photo Engineer]

Regarding Tide and HC110, in the quantities dumped, Tide probably is worse to the environment than HC110, but the reverse may be true for their effect on humans. The effect of Tide will probably be longer lasting in the environment than HC110, as the latter contains chemicals that decompose rapidly.

PE

 

[RattyMouse]

Regarding Tide and HC110, in the quantities dumped, Tide probably is worse to the environment than HC110, but the reverse may be true for their effect on humans. The effect of Tide will probably be longer lasting in the environment than HC110, as the latter contains chemicals that decompose rapidly.

PE

Yes, HC-110 decomposes quite a lot. My HC-110 bottle is full of disgusting sludge. Bright orange, with chunks all throughout the fluid. It's very expired, but still works perfectly. I developed 2 roll of Acros this morning.

 

[railwayman3]

Does anyone think that Kodak will resurrect the 'Development included in purchase' from back in the day? I would happily buy Ektachrome if it included a little envelope to send back and get developed and mounted.

It would seem to be a sensible approach to overcome the scarcity of E6 labs and maintain QC of the processing. And maybe enthusiastic users would accept the slight delay in getting results?

 

[markjwyatt]

I just saw EK's/KA's announcement referenced in post #1362. I'd say this is pretty good news for Ektachrome, though I'm surprised that they're planning on using their wide coater in Bldg 38. I was thinking they'd bought a new coater whose max width was narrower...

I do not know about slide coating as much, but for curtain coating (often uses a slide die, but "drops" the curtain with solution fed edge guides a significant distance to form a "heel" at the substrate) there are edge effects. The edge guides help manage the edge effects. I suspect with slide coating and the higher viscosity emulsions used for film (based on some of the limited YouTube scenes I have viewed), the edge effects could be substantial, and there may be a lot of edge waste. I suspect there are no edge guides with the slide coating of emulsion as the "curtain" is very short if even present (I could not see on any video). So narrow width could effectiveley mean really narrow width.

 

[Cholentpot]

It would seem to be a sensible approach to overcome the scarcity of E6 labs and maintain QC of the processing. And maybe enthusiastic users would accept the slight delay in getting results?

If they could keep it a tidy package and the price point of the whole thing in a decent ball park a few weeks wouldn't hurt me. I don't develop the day I shoot anyhow, if I want instant I have other cameras.

 

[RattyMouse]

If they could keep it a tidy package and the price point of the whole thing in a decent ball park a few weeks wouldn't hurt me. I don't develop the day I shoot anyhow, if I want instant I have other cameras.

It seems a bad idea to place the future of E6 developing in the hands of a company that is teetering towards a second bankruptcy.

 

[Cholentpot]

It seems a bad idea to place the future of E6 developing in the hands of a company that is teetering towards a second bankruptcy.

Or what? My local processor who's E-6 lab shed a part and they won't fix it? The place down the block that will only do E-6 if they get 10 rolls because getting the chems up to temp is a hassle? Hoping that Tetinal keeps making kits and crossing my fingers that my $15 roll of film comes out ok because I'm not sure if my thermometer is calibrated?

I'll stick with your hated Kodak.

 

[lantau]

It was mentioned by someone from Kodak in a podcast. Apparently a misinformed Kodak person.

The podcast made no such claim. The down scaling was in the production of the emulsion. So they wouldn't have to coat ten miles.

Otherwise they mentioned using their narrow development coater for, well, development.

And of course they mentioned a wide coating event being due, which happened.

 

[RattyMouse]

I'll stick with your hated Kodak.

Spare us your nonsense. This has nothing to do with economics, not hatred.

 

[RattyMouse]

The podcast made no such claim. The down scaling was in the production of the emulsion. So they wouldn't have to coat ten miles.

Otherwise they mentioned using their narrow development coater for, well, development.

And of course they mentioned a wide coating event being due, which happened.

Then it was a follow up mistake because somewhere it was mentioned, and it caught on, that Kodak has down scaled their *production*.

 

[MattKing]

Prepaid mailers won't work be ideal in Canada - Canada Post no longer offers a special rate for films, and instead charges parcel rates for film, and parcel rates are much higher here than in the US.

 

[cmacd123]

Kodak was forced to stop offering prepaid processing in the states by the Anti-trust folks. Kodachrome was almost always sold with processing everywhere else in the world. I agree with Matts pint, it would cost 10 bucks to mail in one roll of film, and of course the price of processing would have to include a recovery for what it would cost to return the slides.

Unless they can get the old dealer yellow bag drop off and pick up service back up and running -- ( in the 1970s you could drop off your Kodachrome at a camera counter or camera shop and Kodak would pick up the days orders in a yellow zip up bag, and the dealer would get the finished orders (3 day service) in the replacement bag that was dropped off at the same time.) Can't see the volume to make that run any cheaper than the Post office.