Time to stock up on Kodak

brianmquinn · Oct 1, 2011

Time to buy more film OR maybe Kodak stock?
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Kodak-shares-plunge-as-apf-977189236.html?x=0

I'm going to place a larger order then normal. Even if they are not really that bad off another sale will not hurt their bottom line.

alanrockwood · Oct 1, 2011

By all indications Kodak is headed toward bankruptcy. If this is true then the last thing you would want to do would be to buy Kodak stock because in a bankruptcy the shareholders of common stock lose 100% of their investment. I'm not talking about 90% loss, or 99% loss, or 99.9% loss. I am talking about 100% loss of investment, regardless of what price you paid for the shares.

There have been a few exceptions to this general statement, but the exceptions are extremely rare, so rare that it makes absolutely no sense to assume that Kodak would be an exception.

I repeat, if Kodak is headed toward bankruptcy then you can expect to lose 100% of any investment you have or will make in buying shares of common stock.

On the other hand, if you think that Kodak MIGHT somehow avoid going into bankruptcy then it MIGHT be possible to make money buying shares and hoping for an increase in price, but the odds are not good. Frankly, you would probably do just as well financially and have more fun by taking the same money, going to Las Vegas, take in a few shows, and then blow the rest of the money on the gambling tables. You will at least have gotten some entertainment out of the deal.

kevs · Oct 1, 2011

Film is probably the better investment; if or when Ol' Yeller goes to the wall, you could buy a freezer-full, wait a couple of years then flog it on Flea-bay. Just to keep it from the hoarders, narmin?

The future's bright; the future's yellow. Or summink

film_man · Oct 2, 2011

Despite all the talk about film's demise and dwindling sales I thought the film division is not losing (that much?) money (particularly with their motion picture film stuff) so they should at least be ok with that or somebody more competent could buy that division and make something out of it. I mean if Ilford and Efke can survive selling the odd B&W roll out of the dozens of B&W film that exist, surely one of the only two colour film producers can survive.

ChristopherCoy · Oct 2, 2011

film_man said:
....surely one of the only two colour film producers can survive.

I was wondering why there were only two pages of color film in the Freestyle catalog, vs the 8 pages of B&W. Didn't realize there were only two producers of color film. I assume the other one is Fuji?

Ottrdaemmerung · Oct 2, 2011

Yep, ChristopherCoy. Kodak and Fuji make color; Ilford only makes B&W (and B&W chromogenic).

Jeff Kubach · Oct 2, 2011

I was planning to buy some Kodak film soon.

Jeff

AlbertZeroK · Oct 2, 2011

reguardless of what happens to kodak, the kodak name is VERY valuable - we'll just see Fuji rebranded film sold under the Kodak name, kinda like the poloroid name now.

Alan W · Oct 2, 2011

kevs said:
Film is probably the better investment; if or when Ol' Yeller goes to the wall, you could buy a freezer-full, wait a couple of years then flog it on Flea-bay. Just to keep it from the hoarders, narmin?

The future's bright; the future's yellow. Or summink

I've got people beating down my door for one of the few remaining rolls of HIE this side of the Mississippi and they couldn't sell enough of it to keep it in production!

Roger Cole · Oct 2, 2011

Alan W said:
I've got people beating down my door for one of the few remaining rolls of HIE this side of the Mississippi and they couldn't sell enough of it to keep it in production!

It was made primarily for the military for aerial reconnaissance. When digital imagers knocked that market completely dead there wasn't enough demand from hobbyists, no matter how much we want the stuff.

MaximusM3 · Oct 2, 2011

Alan W said:
I've got people beating down my door for one of the few remaining rolls of HIE this side of the Mississippi and they couldn't sell enough of it to keep it in production!

Supply and demand. There may be the same amount of people wanting HIE now, as there were when it was in production, but one thing is trying to sell a few rolls and another a few millions, with costly machines, packaging, etc, and keep the whole thing profitable. Kind of silly to keep production runs going, at Kodak's levels, to supply a few hundred amateurs around the world. Demand just wasn't there and that's an easy business decision. Same for Kodachrome. It was expensive, a pain in the ass to process and just wasn't worth it to them. Many miss it (and I do too) but they just weren't selling enough of it.

kevs · Oct 2, 2011

ChristopherCoy said:
I was wondering why there were only two pages of color film in the Freestyle catalog, vs the 8 pages of B&W. Didn't realize there were only two producers of color film. I assume the other one is Fuji?

Kodak, Fuji, Ferrania, Lucky and Agfa.

dreamingartemis · Oct 3, 2011

kevs said:
Kodak, Fuji, Ferrania, Lucky and Agfa.

Well that would indeed be very sad if Kodak went out of business. I kinda like their new portra and ektar line as well. But I guess this would be the other companies would have a better chance of surviving with better sale of their products. Luckily for black and white we still have ilford who seems to be doing well and infact is growing especially with the slow increasing interest in black and white.

So i guess there is a silver (no pun intended) lining in this news

lifted · Oct 3, 2011

That would really suck if Kodak went out of business, severely limit the colour films out there, and I'm really not fond of the Fuji films I've tried

dreamingartemis · Oct 3, 2011

lifted said:
That would really suck if Kodak went out of business, severely limit the colour films out there, and I'm really not fond of the Fuji films I've tried

Oddly that was my exact stand about kodak color film until recently when I started to use portra and ektar rather than the gold stuff I tried previously. But then Fuji is neither that good either with superia, everytime I shot with it, the negative didn't capture the color accurately. Or it could be that I just suck at shooting negative. Maybe I should just stick to either slide and b&w where I have no problem shooting.

hpulley · Oct 3, 2011

I think Ferrania is done, or are they still making Solaris 200?

madgardener · Oct 3, 2011

I remember as a kid, my mom buying only Kodak for her 126 instamatic, even though it was the most expensive. She felt that only Kodak film was worth purchasing. When I got my 126 instamatic in 1982, I followed her lead, of course that meant I could only get 12 exposure cartridges, it was all I could afford on my allowance.

Fast forward many years and now Kodak is on the verge of bankruptcy, what happened? What happened to Kodak just being considered "the best"? I know my mom wasn't the only one who felt that way. Remember the whole "We use Kodak paper, for a good look" campaign?

jp498 · Oct 3, 2011

Kodak still makes some superior films, at least the B&W stuff I use. They have excellent quality control, and the Tmax400 film I use is incredibly versatile beyond the way Kodak markets/documents it.

They don't market themselves as the best or most versatile for some reason.

While there was nothing bad about Kodak papers, I've always preferred the Ilford paper for b&w.

I was not sad to see them stop making paper, but I would be sad to see them stop making film. Hopefully a successor would maintain the same quality and loved products we have right now.

Thomas Bertilsson · Oct 3, 2011

I really hope they get some management into the company that can do something smart with the mess.

I love Kodak films, and their papers were awesome. To see TMY-2 and Tri-X disappear would be an incredibly sad day for film photography, but let's not throw in hope just yet. Keep using their film, order what you need to shoot as usual, and hope for the best. While everybody can see that change is inevitable at Kodak, nobody can say exactly what's going to happen, until it does happen.

Just ordered 20 rolls of Tri-X for the next couple of months.

- Thomas

ChristopherCoy · Oct 3, 2011

From the website. http://www.kodak.com/ek/US/en/Kodak_States_No_Intention_to_File_for_Bankruptcy.htm

guyjr · Oct 3, 2011

"Kodak remains focused on meeting its commitments to customers and suppliers, and on delivering on its strategy to become a profitable, sustainable digital company."

So I guess they're looking to spin off film then? Wouldn't be the worst thing in the world, although I don't see how Kodak will succeed without it. They've made countless bad decisions on their digital strategy that I'm amazed they are still in business today.

CGW · Oct 3, 2011

ChristopherCoy said:
From the website. http://www.kodak.com/ek/US/en/Kodak_States_No_Intention_to_File_for_Bankruptcy.htm

Old news is no news. Also hard to read a crystal ball that's covered with finger prints.

kevs · Oct 3, 2011

hpulley said:
I think Ferrania is done, or are they still making Solaris 200?

There's nothing on its website to suggest this, but the copyright notice is dated 2008. I read elsewhere it stopped making films in December 2008. So I don't know really. Sorry.

BrianL · Oct 3, 2011

Seems the industry started with b&w, added color and may end up back with only b&w.

brianmquinn · Oct 4, 2011

Ferrania is still making film but most of it is sold under store brand names.

Time to stock up on Kodak

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