Not according to the Press Releases, Fuji or users. The emulsions are obviously similar to Ilford branded products but are specific to Fuji so will show slightly different characteristics.
More a case of Fuji being smart, getting excellent films from the best possible source without committing to manufacturing B&W themselves in a diminishing market.
In the past few days Kodak has started the Always Digital ad campaign here in the Phenix area. From the 2 or 3 TV ads I've seen it looks like Great Yellow Father is targeting cell phone camera users. Kodak will even store images for you on line in case your house burns down.
When I finally visited the US & Rochester for business (photographic) 20 months ago I had preconcieved ideas, most americans would be horified by the way their own media portrays their homeland to the outside world. I expected a good but mundane museum. However I found a world class and superbly run facility.
Kodak's lost the plot and has no senior management who can make remotely accurate strategic over views of the potential market changes, very different to Fuji.
Ian
QUOTE=Paul Howell]In the past few days Kodak has started the Always Digital ad campaign here in the Phenix area. From the 2 or 3 TV ads I've seen it looks like Great Yellow Father is targeting cell phone camera users. Kodak will even store images for you on line in case your house burns down.[/quote]
What bothered me is that in the Ads a group of children are touring the digital realm in which all of the great photographs, along with all of the others not so great, are on display. Some are really important historical images, non of which were taken with a cell phone camera.
[quote=Ian Grant "We can offer no more of a guarantee that we will continue to manufacture black and white films and chemicals than any other company" he said when asked about the future of other monochrome products.[/QUOTE]
Hmmm - no more than ilford? I'm glad that Kodak is as on tha ball when it comes to the business their bailing out of as they are when it comes to the bandwagon they are willing to maim themselves trying to jump on...
Took me a while to type this as I was laughing to hard after reading Flotsam's observations on some other, brilliant Kodak marketing moves. I hear they are trying to offset some of their losses from this whole unfortunate film "phaze" by opening an air conditioning outlet in Anchorage
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Please . . . . . . . don't quote me thats a Kodak Statement..
Lets think realistically about why Kodaks not on the ball :-)
They (Americans) still play rounders, an old Scottish game but as wimps with armour - and a name change to baseball.
They looked at the heroic sport played in Canada, the UK, Ireland, France, Italy , Romania, Fiji, Samoa etc etc and a couple of other small islands in Australasia, put heavy padding on and called it American Football simplifying the game as it was too hard and mentally taxing :-)
The only time an American has an eye on the ball internationally is in the Golfing world and thats again of Scottish origin.
Stupid as it might seem it's true but really more about american companies not understanding world markets, and in the case of Kodak making far too many marketing mistakes and being to late spotting the maket changes.
Please . . . . . . . don't quote me thats a Kodak Statement..
Lets think realistically about why Kodaks not on the ball :-)
They (Americans) still play rounders, an old Scottish game but as wimps with armour - and a name change to baseball.
They looked at the heroic sport played in Canada, the UK, Ireland, France, Italy , Romania, Fiji, Samoa etc etc and a couple of other small islands in Australasia, put heavy padding on and called it American Football simplifying the game as it was too hard and mentally taxing :-)
The only time an American has an eye on the ball internationally is in the Golfing world and thats again of Scottish origin.
Stupid as it might seem it's true but really more about american companies not understanding world markets, and in the case of Kodak making far too many marketing mistakes and being to late spotting the maket changes.
Actually, there are alternative explanations as to why Fuji has Ilford make B&W film for them. B&W films are hard to make, so maybe Fuji cannot do a good enough job. Maybe their plant is not big enough, but maybe, just maybe they are making mistakes just like Kodak.
Has anyone cared to look at the sudden confusing name changes of Fuji products, or the markets they have dropped out of? Has anyone looked at their losses in the traditional photo products area? What is their penetration in China vs Kodak in all photo products?
The list could go on, but I think that everyone here is content to bash Kodak for their errors rather than include Fuji.
Lets bash Ilford as well. Why did they almost sink? Anyone consider that it was a bunch of bad decisions? Comment here has been made about the new multigrade paper keeping less well than previous papers due to the incorporated developer. Good or bad decision? Time will tell. When your recent paper performs more poorly than stuff 5 - 10 years old, then you might begin to make posts here about Ilford.
What state is Agfa in right now?
Lets be fair. There is enough blame to go around to Ilford, Fuji, Agfa, Ferrania, 3M, etc, etc. And if you read enough posts you read complaints about some companies films having too much curl, coating defects, and even emulsion that floats off the support. And yet many people still want to save some money and trust their memories to these cut rate films.
Kodak management has made some big errors, no doubt, but so have all of the other photo companies and many of them are hanging on by their teeth. Lets give Kodak the benefit of a doubt. They are still selling quality products in color and B&W and the loss of sales in B&W to digital and to people who want cut rate products has made them decide to exit that market in paper.
This should be a rounded debat rather than the bashing of a country or a company.
Fuji has done one thing that irks me to no end. They bought the rights to the graphmatic, made a flimsy copy of it and then took it off the market or at least reduced its availability.
How american of them. They have the rights to one of the best inventions ever and they do nothing with it. Where are the chiness counterfeiters when you need them?
In any event Kodak has seen the writing on the wall. If they want to remain a HUGE company they need to get into new markets and out of any markets that don't meet their goals.
This is a particular habit this guy does. I had some PM's with him a while ago and he started in on this bash the US. He apologized when I called him on it but I see he did not mean it now.
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