It's worth noting it's been about a decade since they abandoned B&W chemistry
development
after bringing out XTOL, but they're still milking the cash cow. I'd expect the
end of film
R&D to proceed similarly--as long as it produces an appropriate return on
equity they'll
continue to make film, there just won't be anything new. I'd bet on Tri-X
outliving
Portra--it's less "replacable" by digital.
If they kept producing something that just "broke even", they'd be diluting
their return on
equity, which would hurt their stock price--not gonna happen. And as long as
someone else
selling Kodachrome would cannibalize their E6 sales, they aren't going to sell
the rights.
It sucks, but business often does. It's the other edge of the sword that
brought us all
these great products in the first place.
If people buy enough to support a product, Kodak WILL keep making it--witness
Michael Smith
and Paula Chamlee's continuing efforts to keep Azo paper in production by
buying more than
they need and trying to promote it and sell it when others have mostly given
up. Azo
would've been gone years ago without Michael and Paula.
The alternative is to do what Ctein did with the 3d-matrix film--when the axe
is announced,
buy up a lifetime supply!
Laurie Solomon wrote:
> It would be nice if they would maintain a division that would produce and
> market not only certain mainstay film products but also certain specialty
> film products and chemistry - or at least license them out to other smaller
> companies that might rather than just discontinuing them. Reading between
> the lines of this article, it reads as if Kodak will be abandoning even
> their t-max, plus-x and tri-x films as well as their e-6 and c-41 films.
> Moreover, if they abandon them, they will be abandoning processing papers
> and chemistries as well. I think we might find Kodak going the road of RCA
> and become a subsidary of some other company or a conglomerate (RCA is a
> subsidary of Thompson Electronics these days and not an entity in their own
> right).
>
> filmscanners_owner@halftone.co.uk wrote:
> >> From: Laurie Solomon
> >>
> >> Actually and interestinglly, according to an article I read in a
> >> trade magazine here in the US (Professional Photographer, I
> >> believe), Kodak is abandoning its entire film and film related R & D
> >> operation over the next seven years. Its plan calls for it to go
> >> strictly into digital according to the article. I am not sure how
> >> much of this is fact, how much is speculation, and how much is the
> >> old "film is dead" and "we will have a paperless society" argument
> >> that some of the digital industry entrenched writers are inclined to
> >> make. However, I am inclined to believe that there is a large grain
> >> of truth in what the article suggests. Over the past decade, Kodak
> >> has ben turning to CEOs that lead high tech firms prior to being
> >> recruited to Kodak (H-P's former CEO comes to mind) and has dabbled
> >> in the digital arena while cutting back on the number of
> >> knowledgable film specialists in their employ.
> >
> > I wish they'd maintain a small division that continued to market and
> > process certain irreplaceable film products, like Kodachrome. It may
> > not make them much money, but I would think they'd be able to at
> > least break even.
> ---
> Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
> Checked by AVG anti-virus system ().
> Version: 6.0.558 / Virus Database: 350 - Release Date: 1/2/04
>
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Unsubscribe by mail to listserver@halftone.co.uk, with 'unsubscribe
filmscanners'
or 'unsubscribe filmscanners_digest' (as appropriate) in the message title or
body
