Kodak will no longer produce any colour reversal still films

zsas · Mar 1, 2012

Brian C. Miller said:
Eh, what? Kodak is coating everything on just one machine. Color sells lots more than black & white. If Kodak stops making color, then it will also be shutting down everything for good. Goodbye, and thanks for all the fish. A smattering of cross-processing Lomographers is not enough to prop up a major manufacturing plant.

Is that true? I thought PE indicated there is more than 1 coating machine. I don't believe it is fair for one to theorize it is all or nothing at this point...
(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

ADOX scaled down from massive to lean...don't give up hope:

"ADOX Fotowerke GmbH is working under low automatisation with a large degreee of manual work.
This enables us to be very flexible and manufacture many different types of films and papers without much overhead and fixed costs. Our workflow today is not far away form the original ADOX Dr. C. Schleussner Fotowerke which also used similar machines in their times, but we are now much smaller.
Even after the "digital revolution" ADOX still stands strong for a comprehensive range of classic photographic products."

Aristophanes · Mar 1, 2012

John Shriver said:
C-41 is safe until the movie industry goes 100% digital. Then Kodak won't have enough volume for their very sophisticated color film factory. Until then, C-41 film is a profitable business for them. Maybe not 80% profit margins anymore, but still profitable.

100% digital?

You think market capitulation happens at 100%?

It's probably far less than that. These factories don't keep the lights on for one customer.

ME Super · Mar 1, 2012

IIRC, I read somewhere on APUG (I think it was one of PE's posts) that the movie industry is archiving to film, not digital. The projection might go digital but the archives will likely be on film. Seems film is more stable than optical disks or hard drives.

tomalophicon · Mar 1, 2012

I just bought 60 rolls of Fuji negative film.

Poisson Du Jour · Mar 1, 2012

Reading the moving shadows yonder, I've plundered a heap on Fuji films today, and also seen the Kodak bulletin "Product Discontinuance Notice" at my pro lab, a major consumer/pro retailer and another suburban retailer. Both retailers though had huge stocks of Kodak E6 films, but the Fuji stock was much bigger in both places.

Brian C. Miller · Mar 2, 2012

zsas said:
Is that true? I thought PE indicated there is more than 1 coating machine. I don't believe it is fair for one to theorize it is all or nothing at this point...
(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

In another post IIRC he said one in production and another of the same size in mothballs. From 24/7 to 8/5. Anyways, we have lost all Kodak chrome, and production for that has halted. IDK how many master rolls there may be, but the fat lady has sung for chrome. The volume has to be massive, not missing.

Somebody on another forum dug up a post of a fellow being amazed at his first color Polaroid shot. That's another one of how Kodak missed the obvious. They should have had an 8x10 chrome with a really strong magnifying glass at each print kiosk, with a sign reading, "Film has all the detail. Ready?" Let people see and be awed by the film. It would have been so cheap to do it. Ah, well.

Maybe ADOX will do that.

Ektagraphic · Mar 2, 2012

Will the Portra and Ektar have the same longevity that the latest Ektachrome was said to have?

ooze · Mar 2, 2012

"It's a time machine..."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suRDUFpsHus

OzJohn · Mar 2, 2012

This thread sounds like the death of Kodachrome all over again. I'm just pleased that Kodak don't have any more bloody slide films to axe. How many of you guys wailing about the loss of that much loved domestic entertainment - the slide show LOL - actually own a slide projector and if you do when did you last use it? While it was always a joy to see large format trannies on a light box, slides lined up on one rates for me as about as exciting as watching a black & white print come up under red light. This might be heresy in the eyes of many but I'll take a dry to dry roller machine any day thanks and I've always preferred a colour print to a tiny bit of dyed film that I have to shine light through to see the image. I will miss colour neg when it finally goes but I won't be hoarding it or participating in any internet wakes in its memory. OzJohn

DWThomas · Mar 2, 2012

jeff.blackwell said:
Dave -
I don't know who you use for E6 processing, but I've been satisfied with Colourworks in Wilmington.

Thanks Jeff. That's a bit of a haul from here, but especially if they can work by mail, I can give them a try next time I shoot some E6 material.

Poisson Du Jour · Mar 2, 2012

OzJohn said:
This thread sounds like the death of Kodachrome all over again. I'm just pleased that Kodak don't have any more bloody slide films to axe. How many of you guys wailing about the loss of that much loved domestic entertainment - the slide show LOL - actually own a slide projector and if you do when did you last use it? While it was always a joy to see large format trannies on a light box, slides lined up on one rates for me as about as exciting as watching a black & white print come up under red light. This might be heresy in the eyes of many but I'll take a dry to dry roller machine any day thanks and I've always preferred a colour print to a tiny bit of dyed film that I have to shine light through to see the image. I will miss colour neg when it finally goes but I won't be hoarding it or participating in any internet wakes in its memory. OzJohn

LOL! You clearly haven't had long professional practice printing reversals-to-chrome for exhibition. . And I've never owned a slide projector: I printed direct to Ilfochrome, a process that cost an arm and a leg repeatedly year in year out until the loss of Ilfochrome in March 2010 (from the Australian market). And that stuff sold well. I don't see anything of C-41 to get my heart racing: portraits yes, but definitely not landscapes.

Are you actually a dedicated analogue photographer to poke a barb at those who create their B&W works in their darkroom, or are you a digital man here to spoil the party? You won't miss colour negative film. Digital will be your fillip.

Roger Cole · Mar 2, 2012

I own a slide projector. I lasted used it last month. And seeing a print come up under the safelight IS still a thrill. I saw it the first time in the mid 70s when I was in grade school and ordered one of those "develop your own film" kits of the time that had a little plastic fixed size enlarger. It was magical then and that still hasn't changed.

LunoLuno · Mar 2, 2012

From the discontiuance notice released yesterday,

.....This does not affect KODAK PROFESSIONAL Color Negative Films or KODAK PROFESSIONAL Black and White Films which remain a viable part of the KODAK PROFESSIONAL Film portfolio......

I would never believe what Kodak says from now on, never!!! Only a month or so ago, they said they would continue engaging films, and made an annoucment to us users not to worry about Kodak's films future, at least for a while. And then, they axed all their slides. I'm not saying that they should keep all their slides, but they should keep at least one of them, just for a little longer. It's a total disgrace! No one would surprise even if they axed all their Color Negatives or B&W next month!

fotch · Mar 2, 2012

LunoLuno said:
..... I'm not saying that they should keep all their slides, but they should keep at least one of them, just for a little longer. ....

They estimated supplies at 9 months. Enough time to make a human being. Get busy, with using slide film, whatever. :munch:

Poisson Du Jour · Mar 2, 2012

LunoLuno said:
From the discontiuance notice released yesterday,

.....This does not affect KODAK PROFESSIONAL Color Negative Films or KODAK PROFESSIONAL Black and White Films which remain a viable part of the KODAK PROFESSIONAL Film portfolio......

I would never believe what Kodak says from now on, never!!! Only a month or so ago, they said they would continue engaging films, and made an annoucment to us users not to worry about Kodak's films future, at least for a while. And then, they axed all their slides. I'm not saying that they should keep all their slides, but they should keep at least one of them, just for a little longer. It's a total disgrace! No one would surprise even if they axed all their Color Negatives or B&W next month!

Your observations are valid and timely. Many of us have tracked back through several announcements by the Big K spin doctors and now observe they are doing the very opposite.

MDR · Mar 2, 2012

As sorry as I am to see Kodak stopping the production of Reversal film for Still photography, I am with the costumer is partially to blame camp. I still have some hope for Kodak reversal films. The last of the Kodak color reversal films for motion picture use is still in production (KODAK EKTACHROME 100D 5285/7285) in all formats except for 65mm and uses E6 chemicals. And I am sure that some enterprising company will buy a lot of this stock to repackage it as slide film. So not all is lost.

Dominik

Lionel1972 · Mar 2, 2012

I do hope someone does this in the near future so we have another source for E6 film in case Fuji fails us.
I don't think the blame should be put on the customers. When GM sells decrease they don't blame the customers for not buying as much cars as before, they just do their best to convince the customers to buy their cars. Isn't it what advertisment and marketing all about? Feh!

MDR said:
As sorry as I am to see Kodak stopping the production of Reversal film for Still photography, I am with the costumer is partially to blame camp. I still have some hope for Kodak reversal films. The last of the Kodak color reversal films for motion picture use is still in production (KODAK EKTACHROME 100D 5285/7285) in all formats except for 65mm and uses E6 chemicals. And I am sure that some enterprising company will buy a lot of this stock to repackage it as slide film. So not all is lost.

Dominik

MDR · Mar 2, 2012

It's of course not the individual costumers fault but if there is not market and Kodak can't even sell enough slide film to get rid of their master role, then they are loosing a lot of money because of the lack of costumers. The Slide film market went mostly digital (costumers to blame in this case Kodak did have a selection of several slide films). I personally pretty much only use slide film when shooting in color and I prefer the look of slide film to negative film and digital. Reversal film isn't a hybrid process like today's color print processing I get my picture with all it's faults and mistakes and that's the way I like it.

Dominik

Lionel1972 · Mar 2, 2012

Was there a market for Lomography stores when they started it? Marketing and hype is everything.

MDR · Mar 2, 2012

Lionel you're right Kodak f***ed up in the marketing department, but if I use and love a product I don't jump to the newer model in a second. Kodak Film and itsS costumers were living in a symbiosis for a long time, digital killed that symbiosis and in the movie market Fuji and digital.
Kodak is to blame for their stupid choices and bad pr, but the costumers these days seem to be as loyal as a butterfly they fly from product to product always looking for the cheapest and fastest not always the best or even beautiful. It has to be glitzy, it has to hyped and it has to turn of the costumers brain.

Dominik

Steve Roberts · Mar 2, 2012

ME Super said:
As for me, I still like projecting slides, and digital projection can't hold a candle to analog projection. ME Super

Totally agree. The option to shoot and project slides is for me one of the main reasons I like analogue photography. A pal and I sometimes have an evening of my slides and his projected digital images and I've never seen anything to make me want to abandon slides in favour of digital.

Steve

Roger Cole · Mar 2, 2012

LunoLuno said:
From the discontiuance notice released yesterday,

.....This does not affect KODAK PROFESSIONAL Color Negative Films or KODAK PROFESSIONAL Black and White Films which remain a viable part of the KODAK PROFESSIONAL Film portfolio......

I would never believe what Kodak says from now on, never!!! Only a month or so ago, they said they would continue engaging films, and made an annoucment to us users not to worry about Kodak's films future, at least for a while. And then, they axed all their slides. I'm not saying that they should keep all their slides, but they should keep at least one of them, just for a little longer. It's a total disgrace! No one would surprise even if they axed all their Color Negatives or B&W next month!

This makes no sense. They said they were going to keep making film, not all types of film that they currently make. They only made two slide films (or three if you count the amateur Elitechrome version of E100G) by then anyway and transparency film has represented a very small slice of their film sales for a long time now.

Not to say they haven't ever been misleading or couldn't but, but I see absolutely nothing about the E6 announcement that contradicts the announcement that they would continue to make film.

Steve Roberts · Mar 2, 2012

At what point did Elite Chrome 200 35mm disappear? I seem to have missed that. For me this is the most significant piece of bad news on the decline of analogue photography to date. By the time Kodachrome was chopped, the quality of the processing and turnaround time had become so bad that I'd long since stopped using it and wasn't bothered. However, I currently use Ektachrome / Elite Chrome and enjoy a very fast turnaround time and excellent results from The Darkroom and the loss is very disappointing.
I do still get a lot of mileage out of projecting slides, both at home and publically, so can only hope that Fuji hold on to slide film for a while at least. Failing that, I guess I'll just have to make the most of anything else that's on offer and/or get my black and and white reversal processing technique up to speed.
As of this announcement, Kodak sell nothing that I want or need.

Steve

MDR · Mar 2, 2012

Nothing is as powerful as word of mouth propaganda and in the last years we hear and see a lot of anti Kodak posts and Articles or I change to "insert company" because Kodak did this or did that posts. That's the costumers choice but Kodak still produces more products than most of it competitors and this sends the wrong signals all those Kodak is dead threads or badmouthing Kodak only increases the speed of Kodak's demise and guess what without Kodak you can turn to digital right away. We constantly bitch about the fact that Kodak isn't supporting it's costumers but I am sorry to say that it seems that the costumers don't support Kodak.

End of rant.

Dominik

vpwphoto · Mar 2, 2012

I photograph paintings and such for artists. Just used 3 rolls of chromes last week.
They (artists) still enjoy slides and transparencies for their personal catalogs etc.
(I have been using Fuji stock for a decade for this ).

Kodak will no longer produce any colour reversal still films

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