Who'd Like Kodak To Re-Introduce Portra 400UC/ 400UC Film?

DREW WILEY said:

How about the best of both worlds? - 5X7 Kodachrome again. Let see... say, twelve million dollars for the processing equipment and refreshed coating R&D, and a sales potential of maybe a dozen 10-sheet boxes the first year. That means they need to charge $100,000 per sheet just to break even.

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As we have previously mused, this is a pipe dream or a vanity project for someone who wins the lottery. I just checked. I didn't win Euromillions last night. Probably because I didn't enter. But it's that kind of wealth that would have to be put into Kodachrome....and with the assumption that it was a donation or a vanity project, not an investment. You ain't making money on it.

Resurrecting a long gone C41 film isn't easy either, but at least the processing infrastructure exists. The kicker there is whether the investment will be returned within a reasonable amount of time, should Kodak or Fuji do such a thing. Ektachrome and TMZ were successes for Kodak. Out there in the real world of non-Photrio members I doubt that UC is.

Agulliver said:

The kicker there is whether the investment will be returned within a reasonable amount of time, should Kodak or Fuji do such a thing.

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Given Fuji's consistent shuffling towards the exit of the C41 party, I suppose not.

koraks said:

Given Fuji's consistent shuffling towards the exit of the C41 party, I suppose not.

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I am not one of those who feels that Fuji are exiting the C41 market.

I do accept that Fuji's somewhat opaque press releases can be interpreted in more than one way, but the way I read the tea leaves is that they're trying to stay involved in a time when obtaining raw chemicals is *really* difficult and expensive. Plus I've been aware of these "Fuji is exiting the film market! It's obvious! They want to stop!" for at least a decade now and they're still producing the stuff. If they really are trying to exit the C41 party, they're not exactly very good at it....new shipment of Fuji C200 "made in Japan" hit my local camera shop this month.

I'm not talking about the latest press release. Just look at their involvement in C41 film over the past few years. They're down to one or two film stocks if you're optimistic, zero if you're not.

Anyway, let's get back on topic. I won't spoil the Kodak dream moment any longer

faberryman said:

My comment was intended to be satirical. It sounds like an old folks home around here when people start reminiscing about discontinued films. And comparing film freezer sizes? What are you guys compensating for?

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Eh? I knew it was satirical. Doesn't mean I won't respond. I often get people saying "it was a joke!" as if I didn't know that - I virtually always did. Responding with some serious thought is just how my mind works.

Who compared freezer sizes? I missed that - but I don't see anything wrong with it either. That's not "compensating" for anything.

The Kodak CN film choices that remain are versatile and their best ever. No need for pessimism. And as far as an alleged mismatch between those and the latest Fuji RA4 papers? - heck, it's tiny compared to how certain color photographers of the 70's and 80's made careers out of deliberately exploiting the color repro flaws of CN films. They jumped right in, while now everyone is terrified of even wiggling a little toe in RA4.
Yeah, it's not a good idea to have all your eggs in one basket. But for the foreseeable future it's trending that way - only one basket remaining for color paper (Fuji), and only one for a serious film selection (Kodak).

While their range is reduced from 25 years ago, necessarily so, Kodak do offer pretty much everything one could want in CN film....except Max 800 under their own name. But that's fine, I just buy the Lomography branded version. My main hope is that Kodak can get production sorted so that all the various films they make are usually availabe.