Photokina: Positive news for film

[madhatter]

Thanks again, Henning. The translated version is almost as good as the original one.

[AgX]

Henning,

I was hinting at basic research, not at results of transferring motion picture achievements into still photography. That Kodak Two-Electron-Sensitization thing is not something achieved within the last three or four years.

That introduction of 11 new films shows that Kodak considers the still photo market as profitable enough to justify improvements and is seen by me that they want to avoid loosing that hard core of analog users. But that profitability can change due to circumstances outside the still photography community.

My post was intended as a warning to draw rash conclusions from the fine situation of today.

Thank you for posting that Agfa information.

[Henning Serger]

Originally Posted by AgX

Henning,

I was hinting at basic research, not at results of transferring motion picture achievements into still photography. That Kodak Two-Electron-Sensitization thing is not something achieved within the last three or four years.

AgX, do we really exactly know, that in the Portra version 3 or the new Ektar "only" Two-Electron-Sensitization is implemented? No, we don't know exactly.
Kodak is clever enough to keep their secrets. And they won't give any secrets to retired employees.
The Two-Electron-Sensitization was said to be implemented already in the Portra version 2 in 2006.

In the end, it doesn't matter. For the photographer it is only important, that the new film is better than the old one. And Portra 400 NC/VC-3 is better than the version 2.
And Ektar 100 of 2008 has much finer grain than Portra 160 NC-2 of 2006.
Therefore I think it is not unlikely, that Kodak has made some progress in technology recently in the past two years.

Originally Posted by AgX

My post was intended as a warning to draw rash conclusions from the fine situation of today.

We all know that the market situation is very hard for all manufacturers. The transformation to a stable niche market (niche relative to digital) is not fully completed yet. But we see first signs of stabilisation in parts of the market. And I think there is a good chance for a stable market in the future, with a combination of product improvements and clever marketing strategies (this opinion is based on scientific market research I am involved in).

Best regards,
Henning

[AutumnJazz]

Thank you for that report! I've been trying to find analog info, but all the "photokina" sites seem purely focused on the digital.

And as a 16 year old, I have to say that I love film. I have friends taking photo classes, they're forced to use film, and they like it. (I'm also about to invest a ton of money in a range finder setup, enough that I could probably get a decent full-frame DSLR. I think that says something, no?)

I think the only thing people don't really like about Lomography is that they sell $20 cameras for $120...

[Sal Santamaura]

Originally Posted by Henning Serger

...Fotoimpex...promised to try to make MCC next year...

Henning, Mirko hasn't posted updates here recently, but the Web site

http://www.adox.de/english/ADOX_Papers/ADOX_Papers.html

still says MCC 111 will be coated late this year. Did you get the impression that has changed?

Mirko -- any comment?

[Simon R Galley]

Dear Henning,

Good report : All of us from HARMAN were indeed in Cologne:

The reason for us not exhibiting was very simple, last PHOTOKINA we spent a very large part of the annual
marketing budget on PHOTOKINA.....and virtually no 'new' customers came, the show has changed out of all recognition to even 2002 / 2004 : We used to see thousands of 'end users', two years ago we met about 600 that works out at over 200 Euro's per customer contact ! We do of course see all our Worldwide distributors,but this we did anyway as we had a meeting venue near the Messe... also the exhibition itself is not structured toward traditional products, its promoted now as the digital show. Numbers of course are also much lower but exhibiting costs are higher. As to new distributors, we know everyone who seriously trades in monochrome.

Its true we could have 'downsized' ...the problem is we have a maxim, if its worth doing its worth doing well, we looked at a stand 50% of the size and the cost saving was only about 25% ... going to a very small booth is not an option for us.

We will indeed reconsider next PHOTOKINA especially if they had an analog hall or even an art hall...

We will continue to exhibit at shows where we can meet our customers face to face and make a difference, at shows such as Photoplus in New York ( I am actually going this year! ) and FOCUS on Imaging in the UK ( 30,000 end users in 4 days this year! ).

Simon ILFORD Photo / HARMAN technology Limited :

[gr82bart]

Originally Posted by Henning Serger

Hello,

I attended the Photokina photo fair in Cologne, Germany, last week (professional) and want to give you a short report about some important facts concerning film (Photokina is the world biggest photo fair).

What a great review! Thanks so much for posting this.

Lomo: The Lomographic Society was the great surprise on this years photokina. They had two (!) very big boothes, much bigger than most of the boothes of digital companies. The complete ground of both boothes was covered with real color prints, all of them lomo pictures, overall more than 100.000!! They needed some days for gluing these pictures side by side by hand.
Their biggest booth was on the boulevard between two great halls, at a strategic point, because all visitors had to pass by, see the booth and the very big logo above: “the future is analogue”. Very lovely to read such a statement at a digital dominated fair.
They held lots of workshops every day to teach photographers the art of lomography. Very interesting: They addressed these workshops especially at very young people (in the 16 – 25 year old range). And the young (often grown up only with digital photography) were interested!! There booth was full with visitors. They sold lots of Holgas , Dianas and Lomos.
They told me that their business growth rates were 50% p.a. in the last years! Even if you don’t like this photography concept, you have to admit it is very good for film, because young people or digital photographers get in touch with film.

I can see the Lomo haters having a fit over this one. Haters only hate, nothing else. Hehehe ...

Regards, Art.

[Henning Serger]

Originally Posted by Sal Santamaura

Henning, Mirko hasn't posted updates here recently, but the Web site

http://www.adox.de/english/ADOX_Papers/ADOX_Papers.html

still says MCC 111 will be coated late this year. Did you get the impression that has changed?

Mirko -- any comment?

Sal,

at their booth they told me next year. The problem is that it is fibre base paper. If you coat that, you need a very intensive cleaning of the coating machine afterwards. And Agfa Gevaert don't want to do that. They are happy to coat only "clean" PE (paper) and PET (films) which are unproblematic.
Therefore the plan is to coat MCC at Inoviscoat (that is the engineering company of former Agfa engineers who starts this project, they make the emulsion). But their coating machine was still under construction this summer (they moved it from Leverkusen to Monheim).

Best regards,
Henning

[David A. Goldfarb]

Originally Posted by Simon R Galley

We will continue to exhibit at shows where we can meet our customers face to face and make a difference, at shows such as Photoplus in New York ( I am actually going this year! )

Now this might give me a reason to attend this year. Presuming I'll be in town, see you in New York, Simon!

[Simon R Galley]

Dear David,

Any APUGGERs will be most welcome on our stand, I will be there the whole period.......

Simon ILFORD Photo / HARMAN technologfy Limited