True, but that can be said of any manufacturer. The Kodak film of today may or may not bear a resemblance to the film the company made in the 1960s, but that does not mean it's not Kodak film. I believe what the poster was trying to say is that AgfaPhoto is simply a licensed name, with really no ties or connection to the original company. However, Agfa-Gevaert is the original company and they still make film, even if it is sold under other brand names.
Well, I turn my head 180° and look ahead. There is the future. You are right. You are right in appealling to stop beating dead horses and buy films instead. The only problem is that Apug with its 60,000 members is too small to make a significant impact.
The main issue at the industry now is productivity.
Doesn't mean that Kodak will disappear, they would simply hire out film and paper coating to others. Ilford has already said they will coat for hire and they have the machinery in place to do colour emulsions at their UK facility. It would be simple, Ilford coats the masters and ships them to Rochester where they cut them into portions, and freeze them. As they need finished film they thaw a portion and finish it. When they thaw the last portion, they ring up Moberly and get another master roll shipped over.
Master rolls are frozen in Europe, in exceptional cases.
Apart from PE's comments that master rolls are not frozen, I believe that Simon Galley has said on here that Ilford/Harman were not interested in coating colour emulsions.....not sure if that was for profitability or technical reasons?
Perhaps they would be interested in coating, cutting and finishing B&W films to other specs (as they do with their Kentmere films). But PE has said that a film product coated in one plant cannot be instantly or simply duplicated in another coating facility...I think I can recall that he once mentioned such issues with the "same" Kodak film coated in different Kodak factories?
Paul, even though analog MP is in a decline, the analog photo division at EK is not in a financial mess. In fact, they are still more or less, supporting the rest of EK for the time being. If they are spun off as a result of the bankruptcy then they would probably be on a par with Ilford or better.
As for Ilford coating color film or apper? They do not have the trained staff nor do they have any suitable equipment at their plant at this time (AFAIK). I do know that Simon Galley has been emphatic about the fact that Ilford will NOT do color.
PE
Paul;
You have missed one tiny point.
All of these analog negatives are now being printed onto the new Kodak archival print film for storage, or they are being printed as separation B&W negatives or positives for storage. Hollywood is realizing that digital copies deteriorate much faster than analog originals and the duplication and storage costs of digital are almost 10X higher than for analog.
PE
The problem with film, is that for about 50 years, they couldn't make it fast enough, so they developed larger and larger scale production facilities, when the market started to shrink, there was no way to shrink supply to meet the new levels of demand. For a while now, the only way to shrink supply has been to reduce the number of products and facilities. The largest user of film is still Hollywood, and print films are the ones most commonly used. This is changing though, and I would not be surprised to see at least one company close their coating facility in the next 3-4 years, if I were to guess, it will probably be the Kodak facility in Rochester. Because Ilford, A-G and Fuji will be enough to sustain the smaller market.
Go ahead and spin pipe dreams but you have to have a few million $$ to start up a color line.
PE
Sorry, Paul, that is not correct. Agfa-Gevaert in Antwerp, Belgium, is the third biggest film manufacturer worldwide, only Kodak and Fujifilm are bigger.
And as a normal consumer / photographer you can buy fresh film manufactured by them without problems. Several different BW and color film types are offered by Maco/Rollei-Film, and one film is also offered by Adox (CMS 20 II = Agfa HDP microfilm).
Their last production runs were at the end of 2009 (at least one of their biggest long term customers told me that).
Best regards,
Henning
Paul;
Film in master rolls is not frozen and does not keep forever! This just cannot be done. It is kept cold, for a limited time and then must be discarded.
PE
Paul;
You have missed one tiny point.
All of these analog negatives are now being printed onto the new Kodak archival print film for storage, or they are being printed as separation B&W negatives or positives for storage. Hollywood is realizing that digital copies deteriorate much faster than analog originals and the duplication and storage costs of digital are almost 10X higher than for analog.
PE
Paul;
You have missed one tiny point.
All of these analog negatives are now being printed onto the new Kodak archival print film for storage, or they are being printed as separation B&W negatives or positives for storage. Hollywood is realizing that digital copies deteriorate much faster than analog originals and the duplication and storage costs of digital are almost 10X higher than for analog.
PE
The cost of storing 4K digital masters on digital tape was ~ 1,100% higher than the cost of storing YCM film masters before the new Kodak archival print film came out....
.....
Show me ANY digital media that can be absolutely guaranteed to last at least 94 years!
The cost of storing 4K digital masters on digital tape was ~ 1,100% higher than the cost of storing YCM film masters before the new Kodak archival print film came out....
One of the problems with digital tape, is that it's tape, and tape is not designed for longer term storage, it's probably fine for financial records that need to be kept for a decade or so, but it's not designed for photographic storage, where an image could need to be stored for centuries. I have in my collection a photograph that is almost a century old, it was taken sometime between 1914 and 1918, I know this because it was taken during WW-I. it's a little faded, this is a scan I did a couple of years ago, other then some cropping it's pretty much as is, including the colour.:
Show me ANY digital media that can be absolutely guaranteed to last at least 94 years! We have movies on film from that era, where you could take the negatives out and run them through a modern film printer and have a copy in at least as good a condition as the photo above. We have no digital media to prove it will last as long. Yes that is a German uniform, and the subject is my grandfather. I plan on giving the print to my daughter (who just turned 1) when she is older, and yes I expect it to be in a similar condition.
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