The next Kodak film to die? Place bets now!

[BrianShaw]

1. Kodak folks read this site *daily* and are presenting these findings to the potential buyers of Kodak Film Marketing and Distribution.

So what? Don't you think they are smart enough to discern between idle speculation between a bunch of internet forum folks and a recommendation on how they should conduct their business?

 

[benjiboy]

So what? Don't you think they are smart enough to discern between idle speculation between a bunch of internet forum folks and a recommendation on how they should conduct their business?

One of the reasons they find themselves in their current predicament is they have failed big time to anticipate their consumers requirements and wishes, maybe they will start.

 

[Prof_Pixel]

1. Kodak folks read this site *daily* and are presenting these findings to the potential buyers of Kodak Film Marketing and Distribution.

Let's not get overly impressed with our importance here. The Kodak folks probably also read the cartoons daily as well.

 

[Prof_Pixel]

they have failed big time to anticipate their consumers requirements and wishes

I wish it was that simple.

 

[Thomas Bertilsson]

Kodak is a publicly owned company. However they operate their business, their responsibilities lie primarily with the shareholders, and decisions are made in accordance with that. You can argue that they might not have done a very good job of making those decisions, but that's the truth. Either there is enough profit in a product, or there isn't. If there isn't, it gets chopped.

Ilford is, as far as I understand, a privately owned venture. Their responsibilities are counted differently. Yes, they still have to make profit, but they have only themselves to be held accountable to. So it's OK for them to hold onto a low volume film, if they feel there are other reasons than profit to keep it. I don't know the numbers, but I'm sure Ilford make the bulk of their profit selling HP5+ and Delta 100, rather than SFX and Delta 3200 - but they still keep all those market lines, and my own wild guess is that they do it to have a complete market line, hopefully satisfying most of the darkroom photographers out there, instead of only those that bring the most profit. Looks good in the customers' eyes, you know.

 

[Roger Cole]

I doubt Kodak would put a lot of weight on the poll results, given that this forum has an unusual number of darkroom workers in it, and BW400CN is clearly not optimized for them.

I would expect to see the numbers for T-MAX 100 begin to improve a bit with the supplies of Plus-X drying up.

Why would people move from Plus-X to TMX? I liked Plus-X and used it, but I moved to FP4+. If I wanted a t-grain medium speed film I could have been using TMX all along. I wasn't, and when Plus-X went away I didn't. I suspect more people moved to FP4+ or perhaps Acros than to TMX.

 

[Newt_on_Swings]

I actually like TMX a bit more than delta and fp4+ and acros. I like TMY more than delta 400 as well.

TMX in 120 is quite amazing with such a clear base.

 

[henk@apug]

Tri-x will be discontinued tomorrow, but do not worry
the world ends on 21-12-2012

 

[Roger Cole]

I actually like TMX a bit more than delta and fp4+ and acros. I like TMY more than delta 400 as well.

TMX in 120 is quite amazing with such a clear base.

That's totally understandable, different strokes and all that.

And I understand TMX IS good for reversal processing, partly for that reason, and I think folks use it for contast masking too (not needed so much now that Ilfochrome is gone - but I think any black and white sheet film with a reasonable clear base could be used for that.)

 

[removed account4]

i absolutely love tmx and tmy, it has been almost the only sheet film i have exposed for about 15years.
it has a beautiful grainless look and feel to it when processed in a conventional developer
and beautiful grain and fog when processed in caffenol. next to neopan, its my favorite sheet to process in java...

 

[nickrapak]

My guess is that the next film to be discontinued will be the film that next needs a master roll to be coated. If you read the latest news on Kodak, they're running short on cash, and with the long payback period on a master roll, they might find it more economically feasible to discontinue the stock rather than keep it going.

 

[removed account4]

My guess is that the next film to be discontinued will be the film that next needs a master roll to be coated. If you read the latest news on Kodak, they're running short on cash, and with the long payback period on a master roll, they might find it more economically feasible to discontinue the stock rather than keep it going.

they would make a BOATLOAD of instant cash if they sold master rolls of film to someplace like photowarehouse
who has years and years of experience cutting and notching and repackaging film for specialty sheet film shooters.
they did this for years with "made in england" film ( olde ilford ) and there are enough people who shoot everything
from 2.5x.5 - 20x24 ( and larger ) and everything inbetween ... they could sell a master roll in a matter of months.
whenever there is a special order of film, people come out of the woodwork and buy a freezer full of it, or a handful of boxes.

i find it crazy that they don't do something like that, seeing people who shoot those sizes yearn for film to shoot
and often times wait and wait and wait for the special orders to come around ....

 

[Chazzy]

I'm one of those who resents this poll very much. I see no humor in it whatsoever.

 

[bascom49]

The only good thing about this post is that I got to show my wife that I'm not the only person on the planet that listens to Jim Carroll.

 

[munz6869]

I voted for TXP320 - because I love it and use it all the time... and historically, my personal patronage of any film seems to be its undoing (APX100, Plus-X, etc)... :-(

Marc!

 

[Gerald C Koch]

I voted for TXP320 - because I love it and use it all the time... and historically, my personal patronage of any film seems to be its undoing (APX100, Plus-X, etc)... :-(

Marc!

And all these years I thought it was just me. If I really liked something it was doomed to be discontinued.

 

[Benoît99]

The people who have expressed displeasure with this poll should take big breaths and remove those uncomfortable sticks from their ..... It's perfectly normal to speculate on what's next for an iconic company that facing total collapse.

We hear a lot about the importance of large companies that are "too big to fail." Kodak is a company that is too big NOT to fail--a ponderous Goliath that is rooted in its past and has not been able to adjust to change in an effective way. It's CEO, backed by an inept board of directors, seems determined to destroy what's left.

When you're on a one-way road to Hell, it doesn't matter much whether you're traveling in a hand basket or a bright yellow box. Sic transit gloria mundi.

 

[Ken Nadvornick]

But that's not the plan.

Yeah, I know, Steve. But I figure it's still worth hoping for. I mean, after all is said and done, how many of Kodak's (Perez's) plans have so far worked out as planned? Not too many, it would seem.

Ken

 

[coigach]

The people who have expressed displeasure with this poll should take big breaths and remove those uncomfortable sticks from their ..... It's perfectly normal to speculate on what's next for an iconic company that facing total collapse.

Er, given the fact that you've contributed little to APUG (25 posts?), I'd be careful about handing out rude advice

 

[removed account4]

The only good thing about this post is that I got to show my wife that I'm not the only person on the planet that listens to Jim Carroll.

yeah he was good, wasn't he?
i wish i saw him at the old living room or lupo's or the met
here in providence when he toured back in the day ...
i saw some of his contemporaries .. but not him ...

but now i will just hum the discontinuance soundtrack

with his driving beat, thinking ...

super xx was a friend of mine, and it DIED ...
tmz was a friend of mine, and it DIED ...
azo looked good with a bit of ami-dol, and it DIED ...
kodachrome was a friend of mine, and it DIED ...
verichromepan looked good in 127, and it DIED

..... and so on and so on and so on

oh well ...

 

[Stephen Frizza]

I was under the impression that no film is hugely popular in Australia! (or in most other places unfortunately)

Seriously, I suspect the reason is that most people voting in the poll are processing and printing their own work, frequently in formats larger than 135, and so the BW400CN is not much used or appreciated here.

well film certainly has been hit hard down here but i still process a few hundred rolls a week. nothing like the golden days of processing a few hundred rolls an hour.

 

[Slixtiesix]

I don´t think they would discontinue one of the New Portras anyway. That would be too sad. By the Way, Kodak stocks are down to 19ct now.

 

[rhmimac]

can't play this, they announced the dead of one of my favourites:
(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

leaves me with Delta3200 only. But after Neopan1600 died I couldn't shoot any 1600ISO film on auto DX code in my 3 Oly mju zooms. These little wonders cry for 1600 film... tears in my eyes... If superia1600 will be killed, there's nothing auto 1600 left, not?

 

[Roger Cole]

Aren't there stickers you can stick over film cartridges to fool the DX code reader?

 

[removed account4]

Aren't there stickers you can stick over film cartridges to fool the DX code reader?

yes, there are roger!

when a friend hiked the AT and brought a re-usable camera with him
we bulk loaded armloads of film, and scratched the dxread into the cartridges
it worked great ... lots of ways to trick the reader ...