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 Originally Posted by DREW WILEY
They're hardly abandoning film at all. What they've done is put their best foot forward. They've got
their finest, most versatile color neg and b&w films ever. Maybe not as big a selection as in the old
days - but financial common sense favors reengineering toward greater versatility and less redundancy. Yeah, some people are disappointed that they stopped making chrome film; but they do have to pick and choose which battles they can realistically win. I'd far rather see a sustainable
small selection of really good film than an unustainable big selection of it.
I think we can all agree with that.
I posted about it at the time but when they announced the end of E6 I tried to order some E100G from Freestyle and got the "call for inventory" thing so I called. I was ordering ten rolls. I forget how many they said they had but it was enough for me and the guy said, "we usually sell about ten rolls of that a month so you should be fine..." Granted they are often more expensive than B&H (at the time, it seemed hard to get B&H to ship without signature -they've since changed that and I generally order film from them) but they're still one of the biggest online analog retailers in the country, and they were selling ten rolls a MONTH. Maybe they sold more E100VS but I doubt it as Velvia always seemed more popular for the saturated look.
I just shook my head at the time thinking, "no wonder Kodak quit making it."
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Drew, you have said it well.
Matt, you are right. Kodak has essentially sold the marketing rights (or the marketing division) to an outside company, but continues to make the film and paper. In fact, some of the paper is made in the Colorado plant which Kodak sold a while back. They lease the machines when needed and make a run of color paper. Otherwise, the plant is making medical products for another company.
PE
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Originally Posted by Roger Cole
I think we can all agree with that.
I posted about it at the time but when they announced the end of E6 I tried to order some E100G from Freestyle and got the "call for inventory" thing so I called. I was ordering ten rolls. I forget how many they said they had but it was enough for me and the guy said, "we usually sell about ten rolls of that a month so you should be fine..." Granted they are often more expensive than B&H (at the time, it seemed hard to get B&H to ship without signature -they've since changed that and I generally order film from them) but they're still one of the biggest online analog retailers in the country, and they were selling ten rolls a MONTH. Maybe they sold more E100VS but I doubt it as Velvia always seemed more popular for the saturated look.
I just shook my head at the time thinking, "no wonder Kodak quit making it."
Really, how is this possible? 10 rolls a month? Why would they even order any more chrome film if that is all the sales they could get. I hope this just shows how abysmal Freestyle is at selling film rather than the true popularity of Kodak slide film. I joined this game, VERY late so have zero history with slide film. I have shot tens of thousands of images using either color or b & w negative film, but never got the bug for positive until just last year. I was always under the assumption that Kodak's slide film was THE most popular. So if they sell 10 rolls/month of Kodak slide film, what about Fuji? 5 rolls a month?
I know that there is a lot of concern over the future of E-6 film and one would hope that with Kodak shutting down their supply, the increase in demand to Fujifilm might help them keep their E-6 lines going with some degree of security. But from the above, it seems highly unlikely.
Shoot it while ya got it.
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Originally Posted by RattyMouse
...this just shows how abysmal Freestyle is at selling film..
Actually they sell 100,000s of rolls a year. If you do not think I am correct just call them and ask.
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Originally Posted by brianmquinn
Actually they sell 100,000s of rolls a year. If you do not think I am correct just call them and ask.
So their slide film business was 0.1% of film sales? Is this really credible?
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Originally Posted by RattyMouse
So their slide film business was 0.1% of film sales? Is this really credible?
I would expect that Freestyle isn't known for its slide film. So it doesn't necessarily attract the attention of slide film shooters, who themselves are a small niche of the filmn shooters out there.
Slide film has become an incredibly narrow niche in the market.
Matt
“Photography is a complex and fluid medium, and its many factors are not applied in simple sequence. Rather, the process may be likened to the art of the juggler in keeping many balls in the air at one time!”
Ansel Adams, from the introduction to The Negative - The New Ansel Adams Photography Series / Book 2
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I would believe that they sell a helluva lot more Fuji E6 than Kodak at Freestyle, Provia and Velvia has always been pretty popular.
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Fuji has been the dominant player in chrome film for a long time now - that's why Kodak finally ceded
that spectrum of the business to them. And digital has disproportionately eroded the demand for
small camera films versus sheet e-6 film, where a far bigger investment is required to even roughly
approximate equal reproduction quality, that is, unless you're tethered to a scanning back in a studio. Sad, because E100G was in certain respects the pinnacle of Kodak's own chrome progress.
Nothing new, really, however. Favorite films and papers have come and gone as long as I've been
around. One adapts, simply because there is no option.
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I have no doubt Fuji slide film sold better than Kodak, and B&H sold more than Freestyle. But I was still shocked at the ten rolls per month figure they mentioned.
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So, how are colour slide film sales connected to Fotokemika? Time to open another thread I suggest...
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