When did Kodak start to discontinue it's films?

[RGS122]

Did it start after 2000? I was wondering because I have Ektachrome 160T that was expired in 2005 and I have Elite Chrome 160T that was expired in 2003. They surely don't make these anymore and I was wondering when they started the cuts. Also what other types of film did they carried?

[wiltw]

Kodak has always been discontinuing films, as new technology in emulsions would outdate one emulsion and be replaced by another one.

If you are asking about films dropping in demand and being discontinued due to the advent of digital, that particular phenomenon probably came about when 35mm film could adequately be replaced by digital image quality for digital cameras to replace film cameras for most uses, at reasonable cost...about 6-7 years ago.

[Tom Kershaw]

Kodak has always been discontinuing films, as new technology in emulsions would outdate one emulsion and be replaced by another one.

If you are asking about films dropping in demand and being discontinued due to the advent of digital, that particular phenomenon probably came about when 35mm film could adequately be replaced by digital image quality for digital cameras to replace film cameras for most uses, at reasonable cost...about 6-7 years ago.

Although with careful attention to detail one can get excellent quality from 35mm.

[Photo Engineer]

The biggest drop in sales of all analog products world-wide came in about 2005. This is when Ilford and Agfa underwent their problems, and Kodak discontinued the manufacture of all B&W papers. There was about a 35% drop in one single quarter alone.

PE

[Ektagraphic]

black and white currently seem to be doing pretty well from all I have gathered so I wonder if Kodak regrets giving up the black and white paper.....

[Photo Engineer]

Well, when I asked Antonio Perez face to face a similar question he replied "Ron, we were hemorrhaging out of the paper business and it just could not continue." At that time, there was no upswing visible that would sustain the large effort in making and coating paper. Film was strong, but paper was poor in sales.

[Tom Kershaw]

Ron,

Do you have any thoughts on the disconnect between Kodak film and paper sales?

Tom

[Photo Engineer]

Not a clue Tom and it seems that no one at Kodak does either. It is one of those imponderable events that confounds everyone. B&W film sales at EK remain strong from what I hear. B&W paper sales fell to abysmal levels. Maybe it was the huge product range? They did have trouble supporting all of those paper types.

PE

[fotch]

Maybe the shift to scanning rather than printing cause the drop in paper sales. At first glance, many may have thought it the way to go. Seems like the comment "returning to the darkroom" is becoming more common now a days.

Just a thought.

[tim elder]

I've only been printing for about a decade, but Kodak's black & white paper never seemed popular to me; almost everyone around me was always using Ilford or Agfa paper, even though I never got a real reason for people's dislike of it. I wasn't that surprised when they dropped it.

-Tim