Kodak will no longer produce any colour reversal still films

[NB23]

By the way, in looking for a rare enlarging lens, I was talking to the owner of a very good lab in the state where I live about E6, he literally just wrote back one minute ago and said the following:

"Right now E-6 is doing very well. We process for other labs around the country so our daily runs are fairly consistent. As long as we can buy juice and Refrema parts we'll keep on with it. We use Fuji chemistry."

Rare lens?
About two years ago I was looking for an Elcan 50mm enlarging lens (searching for one for years) and I found one I was willing to buy. I then forgot to bid on it. It turned out the seller dumped 20 Elcan enlarging lenses on ebay and they all sold for about 50$ apiece. I was totally shocked.

I am still shocked today.

[keithwms]

I would kill, KILL I SAY, for fresh Astia, especially in sheet film.

Well then...

http://www.japanexposures.com/shop/index.php?cPath=28

I still use it in many LF sheet sizes, and even as quickloads

[Prof_Pixel]

APS, disc, 126, and all the other Kodak mistakes

Of the three, 126 wasn't a mistake - it solved an actual consumer problem - the difficulty consumers had in loading 35mm cameras. APS tried to solve the same problem. However, by the time APS came out, the Japanese camera makers had solved the loading problems by offering great autoloading cameras.

During the '70s and '80s (when I was sill involved in traditional photographic products) consumer use of color reversal films (as compared to color negative film) was much higher in Europe than it was in the US. I don't know how long that trend continued.

A former Kodak Photographic Engineer

[NB23]

By the way, in looking for a rare enlarging lens, I was talking to the owner of a very good lab in the state where I live about E6, he literally just wrote back one minute ago and said the following:

"Right now E-6 is doing very well. We process for other labs around the country so our daily runs are fairly consistent. As long as we can buy juice and Refrema parts we'll keep on with it. We use Fuji chemistry."

The thing I don't like about this quote is that they do it for labs around the country. This alone means bad news and shows what is really happening. All until a few years ago, a regular city of 100,000 people could count at least 10 labs doing E6. Now we're down to 10 labs doing the job for the whole planet (or something like that).

[BrowniesAreCool]

Hmm. Better get some Ektachrome off of the Guernsey-based discount photography and electronics website before prices rocket.

[jnanian]

hard to believe they were still making it until now ...
i wouldn't be surprised if c41 is next, so they can concentrate
on keeping their b/w line ( sort of ) in production.

[PKM-25]

Rare lens?
About two years ago I was looking for an Elcan 50mm enlarging lens (searching for one for years) and I found one I was willing to buy. I then forgot to bid on it. It turned out the seller dumped 20 Elcan enlarging lenses on ebay and they all sold for about 50$ apiece. I was totally shocked.

I am still shocked today.

I am being ruthless about this search, I stand about as good a chance at finding one of these as I do a 45mm Apo-N, but that is another story.

I just got off the phone with the photo director of a well known arts center near where I am. I asked if they had the lens and they said they would look. But the more interesting thing was that when I asked about the lens, I had mentioned I thought of them because as far as I had heard, they had mothballed their darkroom workshops. As it has turned out, the studio clerk has since cleaned and got the darkroom back up and they are offering at least an alternative process workshop this Summer, the first in years, a week long digital neg. to Platinum workshop, certainly a start.

A quote by the photo studio manager:

"In recent discussions with program coordinators, it was universally agreed upon that the traditional darkroom will make a noticeable comeback, film it self has simply become alternative process."

[Brian C. Miller]

hard to believe they were still making it until now ...
i wouldn't be surprised if c41 is next, so they can concentrate
on keeping their b/w line ( sort of ) in production.

Eh, what? Kodak is coating everything on just one machine. Color sells lots more than black & white. If Kodak stops making color, then it will also be shutting down everything for good. Goodbye, and thanks for all the fish. A smattering of cross-processing Lomographers is not enough to prop up a major manufacturing plant.

[PKM-25]

The thing I don't like about this quote is that they do it for labs around the country. This alone means bad news and shows what is really happening. All until a few years ago, a regular city of 100,000 people could count at least 10 labs doing E6. Now we're down to 10 labs doing the job for the whole planet (or something like that).

Ned, I don't agree with you here, this is not D76 we are talking, it is control strips and volume...you want the lab to have volume in one place, not an accumulation of several dozen. Between fresh imagery, fresh marketing and consolidation, color film can and will survive in some form...

[Roger Cole]

I see Astia 120 readily available at Adorama.

Available, maybe (and I also have a few rolls in my freezer, picked up along with a box of various film) but still discontinued. Anything you see now from a dealer is existing old stock.