Kodak Retires Kodachrome Film

[TerryM]

Kodak is set up for large continuous production runs. Setting up for niche markets would require new equipment, which is not being built, and retooling. ...

Their Ektachrome Films are made with their existing Coating Machine in that Building 38 Ron refers to. They can run off one Master Roll or two or more.

... not everyone wants to order products from the US paying in US dollars and getting nailed to the wall with customs and brokerage fees. ... If Kodak is directly selling to customers then the distributors and dealers will not be amused, some will be so cheesed off as to drop Kodak all together. So while you add a few customers, you potentially lose a lot more. ...

Paul, Kodak is already selling their Movie Films directly to their customers. They're sold through Kodak's national offices in numerous countries, and so there are no customs fees nor foreign currency exchange. That's how you can buy Super8 and 16mm and 35mm MP Films. So, I'm only proposing that Kodak extend this to all their photographic Films. You need to consider the situation of people living in small towns of less than 50,000 people. You cannot get these specialty Films unless you try to special order through a Photo Store, and get ripped off big time! Due to the competition from Digital, it is vital that Kodak ensure that everyone can buy their Films. As the old adage says: if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself. Nobody more than Kodak will be concerned about Kodak Films being universally available. No Store nor Distributor will truly care about Kodak's products. Kodak needs to step in directly to ensure that people and professionals all over the world can purchase their Films, or otherwise they'll lose their customers to Digital.

Here is a Link from JVC America's Website which I just used to buy a Digital TV DVD Recorder / VCR for only $242 US Dollars! I couldn't find it at any Store in my area. Kodak has the same problem with Stores not carrying their Films, and they will do well to follow JVC's Website example! Without the JVC American Website I would be **** out of luck!!!
http://av.jvc.com/product.jsp?modelI...hId=115&page=1

[Sirius Glass]

Their Ektachrome Films are made with their existing Coating Machine in that Building 38 Ron refers to. They can run off one Master Roll or two or more.

But they have to go from one master roll to the next fairly quickly.

What was suggested is that they run one or two master rolls and then shut the line down for weeks, months or years until the next order comes in. That could be done with records and vehicles but not with film manufacturing.

And who pays the employees while they sit around waiting for the next order?

Steve

[Photo Engineer]

You have to understand that the production of the specialty organic chemicals for each film product is dependant on the price of oil and is labor intensive requiring the labor of an organic chemist in a high-end lab. So, what was said about silver may be "negotiable" in our talk, but you are nailed by fluctuating oil prices and labor.

As for coating, let us imagine the 6 layer Kodachrome being made in B-38. Just like all processes using coating, it takes a few moments for the bead to stabilize, and there are a few moments of instability at the tail end due to shutdown. At Kodak's coating speed, this accounts for about 1% or so of the coated product, maybe more, but as the number of layers go up to say 12 or 14, the startup and shutdown become a factor.

There are those who might say coat extra, but that involves the extra waste of good support and remember that a coating alley that is 1 mile long requires that the machine be threaded with 1 mile of leader at startup, then the startup film, then the good stuff, then the shutdown and then the 1 mile of leader that threads the machine when you are done with the run. If the machine is to continue running, this becomes a complex ballet of changing head and tail end rolls using huge fork lifts and splicing machines.

I am sitting here reading over several pages of comments purporting to "teach" Kodak, written by people who apparently have no business experience, no scientific background, and who have no concept of what the coating machine does or how it does it. And this does not factor in the merging timelines with tracks of intermediates and everything else such as boxes for packing, cans for packing, time on the slitters and perfers and other things subordinate to what have been discussed this far.

Don't get me wrong though. There are some excellent comments here, and very much to the point, but a lot more is sophomoric and misses the real issues by a country mile.

So, I say kudos and sorry guys. You figure out who I am talking about.

PE

[wogster]

Their Ektachrome Films are made with their existing Coating Machine in that Building 38 Ron refers to. They can run off one Master Roll or two or more.


Paul, Kodak is already selling their Movie Films directly to their customers. They're sold through Kodak's national offices in numerous countries, and so there are no customs fees nor foreign currency exchange. That's how you can buy Super8 and 16mm and 35mm MP Films. So, I'm only proposing that Kodak extend this to all their photographic Films. You need to consider the situation of people living in small towns of less than 50,000 people. You cannot get these specialty Films unless you try to special order through a Photo Store, and get ripped off big time! Due to the competition from Digital, it is vital that Kodak ensure that everyone can buy their Films. As the old adage says: if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself. Nobody more than Kodak will be concerned about Kodak Films being universally available. No Store nor Distributor will truly care about Kodak's products. Kodak needs to step in directly to ensure that people and professionals all over the world can purchase their Films, or otherwise they'll lose their customers to Digital.

Here is a Link from JVC America's Website which I just used to buy a Digital TV DVD Recorder / VCR for only $242 US Dollars! I couldn't find it at any Store in my area. Kodak has the same problem with Stores not carrying their Films, and they will do well to follow JVC's Website example! Without the JVC American Website I would be **** out of luck!!!
http://av.jvc.com/product.jsp?modelI...hId=115&page=1

Part of the problem, is you need those little yellow boxes in stores, so they need to tread carefully around high volume products, to keep the distributors and dealers happy. Setting up a direct Internet sales channel that only covers limited market products, can be annoying for customers. For example if I can order Ektachrome 100GX, then why can't I order Tri-X or Ektar 100. Opening up that channel to all products, will likely see a lot of existing dealers, switching their yellow boxes for green ones.

I used to be in the software development business, and to set up a system to do pre-ordering and Internet sales would likely cost over $100,000, especially if it dealt with different countries, tax structures and currencies and dealing with potentially different escrows and trust accounts. So we have an expensive sales channel for minimum market products, for a company that isn't set up for the manufacturing of small market products.

As for your Digital TV, just wait until it breaks down, and you have to ship that TV back to the US for repair, because JVC Canada refuses to repair a US market product.

[clayne]

Okay, well who here actually has a positive SOLUTION of any sort? Surely there have to be some real tangible ideas that have the possibility of helping?

[Q.G.]

There is only one.

Digital photography proving to be a terrible mistake, causing strange and incurable diseases, so that people have to return to film if they want to take pictures.

[Photo Engineer]

There is only one.

Digital photography proving to be a terrible mistake, causing strange and incurable diseases, so that people have to return to film if they want to take pictures.

Unfortunately, many feel that there is no solution to this problem.

In fact, the digital world claims that analog causes strange incurable diseases.

PE

[Scott_Sheppard]

You people need to realize that FILM IS DEAD...

We are LUCKY to have what we have...

No stop bitching about it and go BUY some film and SHOOT it... Before they stop making it all together !!

[Prest_400]

What about the other manufacturers? Specially fuji, It would be interesting to know how are they doing in the business. I suppose they are in a similar situation as Kodak about the production, too high for such low demand
Fuji seems to be something of a mystery, we don't have anyone active who "speaks" for them or that talks about them. We got PE/Ron who speaks about kodak; thanks to him I've learnt a lot of stuff I would never have without following this thread.
Scott, dead, I don't see it that big, while we got a manufacturer left, it's not dead. It's dead for the consumer "Film? What the heck is that? a DVD that you put in the camera?"

[lns]

...I am sitting here reading over several pages of comments purporting to "teach" Kodak, written by people who apparently have no business experience, no scientific background, and who have no concept of what the coating machine does or how it does it.....
PE

Yes, this has turned into the magical thinking thread. Still, I'd rather read 500 pie-in-the-sky ideas than one gratuitous "film is dead" comment. At least it took 668 posts before someone trotted that out.

PE, please write your paper/book about film coating. Or at least an outline. Someone has to try to bank this knowledge.

-Laura