Kodak Files for Bankruptcy Protection 1/18/2012

[DREW WILEY]

Kodak's website is back up and you can read the latest announcement from yesterday. They have hard collateral in the form of property and facilities, though that is probably the last thing they'd wager. The lights and water are back on already etc. There's a whole legal infrastructure in place to keep the wheels greased during this kind of process. Might be spot shortages of this and that, but it's always been wise to keep a reserve of favorite film on hand. It will take a number of months to see how this really evolves. Things might turn out better or worse for us traditional film users. I've
seen chapter 11 situations rebound pretty good given a couple of years and a new set of eyes.

[Toffle]

Kodak's website is back up and you can read the latest announcement from yesterday. They have hard collateral in the form of property and facilities, though that is probably the last thing they'd wager. The lights and water are back on already etc. There's a whole legal infrastructure in place to keep the wheels greased during this kind of process. Might be spot shortages of this and that, but it's always been wise to keep a reserve of favorite film on hand. It will take a number of months to see how this really evolves. Things might turn out better or worse for us traditional film users. I've
seen chapter 11 situations rebound pretty good given a couple of years and a new set of eyes.

SHHHH, Drew!!!!!!!!! You'll wake the trolls. They're just napping; their happy dance over Kodak's impending doom musta tired them out.
(as for me, I'm hiding out in my darkroom... they'd never think to look for me there. :laugh:)

[PKM-25]

SHHHH, Drew!!!!!!!!! You'll wake the trolls. They're just napping; their happy dance over Kodak's impending doom musta tired them out.
(as for me, I'm hiding out in my darkroom... they'd never think to look for me there. :laugh:)

SuperBonusLOL...:w00t:

[c6h6o3]

Jim, did you ever figure out a way to get that (Canadian, I recall) Azo warm enough for your taste?

Sometimes. Don't ask me how. I never know why when I get good color. I just printed some negatives on the older, 1 minute Rochester grade 2 and they're perfect. But sometimes it's too cold. I've also had good luck with the Canadian Grade 3. I have gone to 4 ml KBr in the amidol which might be helping a lot. But this costs me a little dmax.

[Photo Engineer]

Here is a hint for you.

Batches of Azo emulsion could be controlled for contrast and speed by the use of Bromide and a dye. These also changed the tone slightly or perhaps allowed more manipulation of tone. In any event, this may be what you are seeing. A greater tolerance to tone manipulation.

Have fun. It is GWTW. Lodima may have replaced it but it is just not the same, and what will happen to toe rest of the Kodak products.

Did anyone take a look at the Kodak "plan"? Page 11 is quite interesting.

PE

[clayne]

The plan just looked like more of the same and pandering to the concept of "digital company" to me. I don't think that plan will last.

They need to jettison the profit losing consumer digital crap and focus on what they know and what works.

[Photo Engineer]

Well, their plan says (in part) that they will do to film what is needed to make digital profitable, and the plans for digital are more of the same. They are missing the boat here again and missing the point.

PE

[hoffy]

Putting film to the side for the minute, of late, what have Kodak done well?

[Ken Nadvornick]

Putting film to the side for the minute, of late, what have Kodak done well?

Portra? Everyone seems to love it...

Ken

[Sal Santamaura]

...Batches of Azo emulsion could be controlled for contrast and speed by the use of Bromide and a dye. These also changed the tone slightly or perhaps allowed more manipulation of tone. In any event, this may be what you are seeing. A greater tolerance to tone manipulation...Unlike Jim's color variability, my prints very consistently end up almost dead neutral after 4 minutes of toning in selenium 1+10. Also unlike Jim, I've so far been developing them in Neutol WA. I did try extra KBr in the Neutol WA, but found no difference (except needing more exposure) with anywhere from 30 ml to 210 ml of a 10% solution added to 1.6 liter of developer at 1:7 from concentrate.


...It is GWTW.It will take one heck of a wind to blow away my 6,000 8x10 sheet Azo doomsday stash. :)

[fotch]

[QUOTE=Sal Santamaura;...
It will take one heck of a wind to blow away my 6,000 8x10 sheet Azo doomsday stash. :)[/QUOTE]

Unbelievable. Well, I believe. Wow.

[Photo Engineer]

What I am saying is that Kodak did adjust Azo using several methods. Some combinations may have rendered batches more or less prone to tone changes. IDK! If you have one of those batches though and if you see tone variations depending on minor changes, this may be the source of it. OTOH, maybe I should just keep my mouth shut.

PE

[zsas]

Very interesting account of who the main creditors are....think this goes a long way towards making clear who has a stake in the processes:

"Iit took just three hours to decide who should make up the committee to represent creditors in its Chapter 11 bankruptcy process....,"
http://blogs.ft.com/fttechhub/2012/01/creditors’-lawyers-seek-their-dues-in-kodak-bankruptcy/#axzz1kXAQcA2J

[Sal Santamaura]

What I am saying is that Kodak did adjust Azo using several methods. Some combinations may have rendered batches more or less prone to tone changes. IDK! If you have one of those batches though and if you see tone variations depending on minor changes, this may be the source of it...Thanks; that finally got the message through my thick skull. :)


...OTOH, maybe I should just keep my mouth shut...No, please don't, ever! :D

[Photo Engineer]

I have posted a list of all of Kodak's main creditors. The PDF file of this data is earlier in this thread.

PE

[zsas]

Ahh thanks PE, missed it

[hoffy]

Portra? Everyone seems to love it...

Ken
I could of sworn I said 'leaving film to the side for a moment'......

I did a tour of a local professional photo finishing business last year. They showed us all their machines, including the Kodak LED optical printer, the smaller wet process machines and the Epson Inkjets that they use.

The owner of the business LOVED his Kodak LED machine (Pegasus....does that ring any bells with anyone). Well built, state of the art when he bought it (mid 90's from memory) and not much better available today. He loved the fact that he could have a Service contract with Kodak to fix the thing when it breaks.

Contrast that with the Epson Inkjet. From memory, he had installed a few since he bought his first one (this century at least). The thing was about 18 months old and pretty much ready for the scrap pile. He had told us that Epson simply didn't care. If it broke you had to pay big dollars to get it fixed. Epson were only ever interested in selling new printers and that was it. From memory, he even said "now If Kodak could sell me one of these....."

Now, I am a total outsider looking in and maybe the quintessential Monday morning expert, but considering the luke warm crap that Kodak have served up at a consumer level over the last 10ish years, would they not be better of forgetting this all together? Would they not be better off servicing at a commercial and totally professional level? This would then (the way I am thinking) still leave plenty of room for film, considering that there still seems to be plenty of love for it on movie sets.

Or am I totally bonkers?

[AlbertZeroK]

The owner of the business LOVED his Kodak LED machine (Pegasus....does that ring any bells with anyone). Well built, state of the art when he bought it (mid 90's from memory) and not much better available today. He loved the fact that he could have a Service contract with Kodak to fix the thing when it breaks.

Contrast that with the Epson Inkjet. From memory, he had installed a few since he bought his first one (this century at least). The thing was about 18 months old and pretty much ready for the scrap pile. He had told us that Epson simply didn't care. If it broke you had to pay big dollars to get it fixed. Epson were only ever interested in selling new printers and that was it. From memory, he even said "now If Kodak could sell me one of these....."

Epson offers service contracts too, but they are expensive. In fact, as of right now, if we were to invest in a large printer, I'd want one on a month to month lease - I've seen too many customers of mine with huge print setups (county governments) for both GIS (plotters) and normal printing - and I've seen almost every company have issues with getting both service out there and getting the service done right. I've even been party to an IBM technician without a clue (4 hours onsite and I fixed the issue in 5 minutes.)

The truth is, unless you have something like a month-to-month lease that you can easily tell someone to come get the machine cuz it's not working, there is little incentive for most of these companies to provide real service.

Heck, even technicians in school aren't being taught basic troubleshooting.

[michaelbsc]

Or am I totally bonkers?

You aren't bonkers, but that is exactly the same reasoning the big iron guys used to retreat into the server room and abandon the desktop.

See how well that worked? Only a microscopic niche company can survive on "the big ones" single focus. And there are lots of those small businesses around. But that's not Kodak. Were is DEC?

For all of Perez's mistakes, thinking he could save Kodak with only us, the hobby market, wasn't one of them. Ignoring us was stupid too. I'm not defending that. So I do think his consumer idea was good but incompetently executed. As someone else note, any of us here could have run Kodak into the ground.

[c6h6o3]

Unlike Jim's color variability, my prints very consistently end up almost dead neutral after 4 minutes of toning in selenium 1+10.

I'm toning at 1:64, just enough to get the green out. Also, I've always found Neutol to be colder than amidol anyway. The amidol I'm using is Chinese, btw, which might also be contributing. I only have half a 100 sheet box of precious 1 minute grade 2 left in 8x10. I have a 50 sheet box of 20x24 Rochester grade 2, which when cut down will yield 300 sheets of 8x10. After that's gone, who knows?

I've seen prints by Azo printers who've switched to Ilford Multigrade Warmtone developed in amidol and the results are breathtaking. I have a lot more of grade 3 than I do grade 2. So when my Azo grade 2 is gone I'll probably sell the grade 3 and move on, along with the rest of the world. I've already done this with film. I sold the TMY I had in the freezer and bought HP5+ with the money. Now I'm developing by inspection again.