When did Kodak start to discontinue it's films?

RGS122 · Dec 28, 2009

Did it start after 2000? I was wondering because I have Ektachrome 160T that was expired in 2005 and I have Elite Chrome 160T that was expired in 2003. They surely don't make these anymore and I was wondering when they started the cuts. Also what other types of film did they carried?

wiltw · Dec 28, 2009

Kodak has always been discontinuing films, as new technology in emulsions would outdate one emulsion and be replaced by another one.

If you are asking about films dropping in demand and being discontinued due to the advent of digital, that particular phenomenon probably came about when 35mm film could adequately be replaced by digital image quality for digital cameras to replace film cameras for most uses, at reasonable cost...about 6-7 years ago.

Tom Kershaw · Dec 28, 2009

wiltw said:
Kodak has always been discontinuing films, as new technology in emulsions would outdate one emulsion and be replaced by another one.

If you are asking about films dropping in demand and being discontinued due to the advent of digital, that particular phenomenon probably came about when 35mm film could adequately be replaced by digital image quality for digital cameras to replace film cameras for most uses, at reasonable cost...about 6-7 years ago.

Although with careful attention to detail one can get excellent quality from 35mm.

Photo Engineer · Dec 28, 2009

The biggest drop in sales of all analog products world-wide came in about 2005. This is when Ilford and Agfa underwent their problems, and Kodak discontinued the manufacture of all B&W papers. There was about a 35% drop in one single quarter alone.

PE

Ektagraphic · Dec 28, 2009

black and white currently seem to be doing pretty well from all I have gathered so I wonder if Kodak regrets giving up the black and white paper.....

Photo Engineer · Dec 28, 2009

Well, when I asked Antonio Perez face to face a similar question he replied "Ron, we were hemorrhaging out of the paper business and it just could not continue." At that time, there was no upswing visible that would sustain the large effort in making and coating paper. Film was strong, but paper was poor in sales.

Tom Kershaw · Dec 28, 2009

Ron,

Do you have any thoughts on the disconnect between Kodak film and paper sales?

Tom

Photo Engineer · Dec 28, 2009

Not a clue Tom and it seems that no one at Kodak does either. It is one of those imponderable events that confounds everyone. B&W film sales at EK remain strong from what I hear. B&W paper sales fell to abysmal levels. Maybe it was the huge product range? They did have trouble supporting all of those paper types.

PE

fotch · Dec 28, 2009

Maybe the shift to scanning rather than printing cause the drop in paper sales. At first glance, many may have thought it the way to go. Seems like the comment "returning to the darkroom" is becoming more common now a days.

Just a thought.

tim elder · Dec 28, 2009

I've only been printing for about a decade, but Kodak's black & white paper never seemed popular to me; almost everyone around me was always using Ilford or Agfa paper, even though I never got a real reason for people's dislike of it. I wasn't that surprised when they dropped it.

-Tim

SchwinnParamount · Dec 29, 2009

I don't understand the disconnect either. My favorite paper has been Polymax Fine Art and I've been buying old stock when I could get it. A decent alternative is the Ilford papers of course.

RGS122 · Dec 29, 2009

Thanks for answering my question, I was talking about the whole digital thing, it appears that 2004 was the year then. I wish that I got into film before 2004, but then I was only a teenager. Now I'm close to 20 and care about it now, to me it seems a little too late. But at least I get to shoot Kodachrome and get to shoot some of the old stock that is left.

MattKing · Dec 29, 2009

RGS122 said:
Thanks for answering my question, I was talking about the whole digital thing, it appears that 2004 was the year then. I wish that I got into film before 2004, but then I was only a teenager. Now I'm close to 20 and care about it now, to me it seems a little too late. But at least I get to shoot Kodachrome and get to shoot some of the old stock that is left.

It's not old stock.

Kodak still makes a wide variety of film. There are new films (Ektar 100), recently improved films (TMY-2), films that reflect continuing evolutionary improvements (the Portra series) and films that have been at least "tweaked" in recent years (Tri-X 400).

And they still sell a lot of film, although certainly not as much as in the past.

In case you haven't already gone there, here is a link to that part of Kodak's site that deals with their "Professional" films:

http://wwwcaen.kodak.com/global/en/professional/products/films/filmsIndex.jhtml?pq-path=13319

Matt

RGS122 · Dec 29, 2009

Ya I've been there, but I guess I should have been more specific, when I mean old stock, I mean the E-6 slide films they've discontinued. Such as Ektachrome in 100, 100 plus, 160T, 320T, and 400X. As for black and white, HIE and Technical Pan.

photomem · Dec 29, 2009

I have about 800 shts of a 1000 sheet supply of Kodak Polycontrast IV RC. I wish Kodak still made this paper. I think that I might start looking for old stock to freeze, I love it.

B&Wpositive · Dec 30, 2009

It began in the late 1990s. The loss of selections started to happen big-time in the early to mid 2000s. I think Verichrome Pan was one of the first classic, highly-sought after films to go after many years of stabilized availability, around 2002.

RGS122 · Jan 2, 2010

B&Wpositive said:
It began in the late 1990s. The loss of selections started to happen big-time in the early to mid 2000s. I think Verichrome Pan was one of the first classic, highly-sought after films to go after many years of stabilized availability, around 2002.

Thanks for the information.

PhotoBob · Jan 2, 2010

One Kodak paper I miss is the Elite Fine-Art.

Tom Kershaw · Jan 2, 2010

PhotoBob said:
One Kodak paper I miss is the Elite Fine-Art.

Wasn't Kodak Elite a graded cool tone paper?

Tom

Donmck · Jan 2, 2010

If I had to pick a milestone--

1999---Kodak discontinues 126 film

"Elvis has left the building"

http://bigcharts.marketwatch.com/quickchart/quickchart.asp?symb=ek&sid=0&o_symb=ek&freq=2&time=20

B&Wpositive · Jan 2, 2010

When I first got into photography in 1997, only the news agencies and papers with the biggest budgets were using digital. There were a huge number of films available. Kodak, Fujifilm, Agfa, Konica, and Scotch all made color film for the US market.

Fuji's product lineup honestly was not that much different than theirs today. They had a few more specialist products, such as duplicating film and interneg film, as well as a 1600 speed Provia, but other than these, it was very similar to today.

Kodak, on the other hand, sells a fraction of the types of color film they did 13 years ago.

This was Kodak's color film lineup around the middle of 1997:

Ektachrome slide film:

Ektachrome Elite II 50
Ektachrome Elite II 100
Ektachrome 160T
Ektachrome Elite II 200
Ektachrome Elite II 400

Pro Ektachrome slide film:

Ektachrome 64
Ektachrome 64T
Ektachrome 100
Ektachrome 100 Plus
Ektachrome Lumiere 100
Ektachrome E100s
Ektachrome E100sw
Ektachrome 160T
Ektachrome 200
EKtachrome 320T
Ektachrome 400x
Ektachrome P1600
Ektachrome Infrared

Kodachrome slide film:

Kodachrome 25
Kodachrome 64
Kodachrome 200

Pro Kodachrome slide film:

Kodachrome 25 Professional
Kodachrome 64 Professional
Kodachrome 200 Professional

Color negative film:

Ektar 25
Royal Gold 25
Pro 100
Ektapress 100
Pro 100T
Royal Gold 100
Gold 100
Vericolor 160
Ektacolor 160
Royal Gold 200
Gold 200
Pro 400 PMC
Pro 400 PPF
Royal Gold 400
Gold 400
Ektapress 640
Max 800
Royal Gold 1000
Pro 1000 PMZ
Ektapress 1600

There were other more obscure color films not mentioned also, such as VR 200, VR400, etc, etc...

And some films, such as Gold 1600, Lumiere 50, Ektachrome 64x, Kodachrome 40, etc. had existed during the earlier 1990s, but had been discontinued prior to 1997. I was very young at the time and didn't get to use many of the films listed in this post.

B&W was very similar to today, except that Technical Pan, Verichrome Pan, HIE, and and an orthochromatic film existed. (And TMY was on its first version). Even in 1997, your choices were basically Plus-X, Tri-X, 3 speeds of T-Max, or a chromogenic ISO 400 film.

Photo Engineer · Jan 2, 2010

You may want to include Fuji, Agfa and Ilford products. You may also want to include replacements.

PE

mopar_guy · Jan 2, 2010

When were Tri-X filmpacks discontinued? I have a Kodak Black and White Darkroom Dataguide from about 1990 and these are still listed as available. I was just wondering if anyone remembered.:confused:

RGS122 · Jan 3, 2010

Wow Thanks B&WPositive for the list of Kodak films from 97. I wish I had the chance to use Ektachrome 320T, Ektachrome 400x, Ektachrome P1600, Ektachrome Infrared, and Ektachrome Elite II 50. What exactly was Ektachrome Lumiere 100?

Ray Rogers · Jan 3, 2010

MattKing said:
...recently improved films (TMY-2)... and films that have been at least "tweaked" in recent years (Tri-X 400).

Tweaked?

When did Kodak start to discontinue it's films?

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