Kodak's back to the wall.

Heard this on the news this morning; it made think back on all the Kodak darkroom supplies I purchased over the years, in the iconic yellow/orange packages. They were the gold standard. Will miss them, though with digital, I guess it had to come.

Well, I don't know if it was inevitable that this would happen. Fuji is still going strong and if anything Kodak was in better shape than Fuji.

I fully expect some vulture investor will buy out their brand and technology out of bankruptcy court. One encouraging thought is that Ilford is owned by Harman, which is private equity owned so clearly somebody thinks that there will still be a market for film in the years to come.

Kayam, Im glad you brought up the Fuji angle. I feel really bad for Kodak but somewhere along the line they had the power to prevent this. Where are all the really cool digital or niche film cameras that Kodak could have produced to have cash inflow to make sure other areas of their photo/imaging business didnt sink them. Look at what Fuji has done with the X100 and now the X Pro 1. They are amazing new digital rangefinders that are causing a huge stir in the photographic world. Once again an American company fails to innovate. As an American this truly saddens me.

I hope Kodak film will still be produced by someone. I really like Ektar. :(

The Economist had an interesting article in its last issue comparing the diverging fortunes of Kodak and Fujifilm - http://www.economist.com/node/21542796
It'll be too bad if Kodak's film division doesn't emerge from Chapter 11 in one form or another - of course, I don't think I've bought a new roll of Kodak film since I took about 20 rolls of tri-x out West in 2005 and I can't even remember the last time I had anything printed on Kodak paper... there are too many people like me, I guess.

They actually sold their digital cameras at a loss for a time. Did they really think they would make it up with the printing of digital pictures?

http://www.kodaktransforms.com/

They are selling inkjet printers at a loss too. They don't gouge on ink prices like HP and Epson, so even the supplies aren't particularly profitable.
The film division is probably still profitable, so someone will continue to run it.

Kodak subsidiaries outside the US claim that their business operations will not be affected because of the Bankruptcy in Kodak- US. So Kodak still supplies huge volumes to the Motion picture industry in India, etc. It is reported that Kodak also holds over 1100 patents on digital camera components which they supply to other digicam makers. Perhaps, this Bankruptcy move is a way of reorganizing the company and increasing overseas production and profit centers without being accused of "outsourcing". At the same time it protects the parent company from due payments to creditors. sp.

I just hope that someone out there will still make Tri-X....and Dektol!

I just hope that someone out there will still make Tri-X....and Dektol!

It would be nice to see the Tri-X formula sold to another company, but don't bet on it. Kodachrome was discontinued, and I suspect Tri-X will be discontinued someday too. I haven't ever seen any sales figures, but I suspect Kodak doesn't make a profit on Tri-X, nor on any other film.

And speaking of Tri-X, I still have about 75 feet of it sitting in a bulk loader that I bought in 2003. It's been sitting at room temp since then and I need to load a roll and go out and shoot to find out if there is any fog. I think the good old Nikon F with standard prism will be my camera of choice for this test!