Kodak files Ch 11
 

Sigh, end of an era.

Kodak bankruptcy: Photographers mourn - Arts Post - The Washington Post

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I just heard about this today.... Damn that's a shame.

I still shoot film and will continue to do so as long as film is available.
Even the movies are becoming digital now. Did you know the new 3D movies are digitally projected?

They invented the digital camera.....:(

Not enough vision to predict the future....

Isn't Ch 11 just "reorganization"? Although if their stock goes to zero, I guess that's it. It's already down 36% for today at 36 cents.

Hollywood used to be a large part of their revenue. Everythings digital/HD now. No more "checking the gate", short ends, dailies, etc.

They used to have a big plant in Windsor, CO. It was demolished last summer. Now Halliburton is planning to use the land to store sand.

We had to quit using Kodak aerial film several years ago. They had not done any improvement in the film for years. Agfa had and still has a far superior film for aerial mapping cameras. We heard they shut down the aerial film production recently.

The "great yellow father" is just fading away.

yes, just reorganization

EK's film business is slightly profitable, and would be very profitable if they scaled it down to fit the current size of the market. Film will never go away, just as oil paint, sculpture, and other obsolete forms of image-making are still here. It will simply be a niche, artsy, hobbyist medium, and at $5/roll it can be very profitable to make film.

Where EK has been losing all the money is in digital. Going up against HP, Canon, etc is way hard. I wonder if there is really any hope of success for EK.

Interestingly EK has a meaningful potential revenue stream from licensing their patents. I imagine competitors will be trying to buy those from the bankruptcy.

I can't say I'm surprised... They put too much emphasis on printers for the average consumer.

I've never heard that term before, interesting.

Sad
 

Really sad to see Kodak going down but they should have looked at their own history and made bolder steps in the digital revolution. As for the film 35 stock / neg biz. In my experience Crap return policy, un helpful vendors. Although Vision series looks lovely Kodak just are not helpful when budgets are tight. And with modern Tele Cine it doesn't matter that Kodak is more subtle.

Fuji film OTOH have swept in and picked up a following. For film projects they are helpful, and take returns. On jobs where film is a must we can over order and return the excess. Kodak expected us to pay up front, and do not take back unopened cans. Fuji offer a good base products which something like the baselight can take anywhere, and even a more dated system like DaVinci can still make look as good as vision.
Fuji have been very smart both analogue and digitally offering high end prosumer P/S cameras X1, X10 and thier new camera is about to crush the prosumer changeable lens scene. They get it that the design and high end features go hand in hand. And they try hard at customer service. Kodaks digi cams just didn't measure up. It's really sad to see, but they should have been more fluid.
Ultimately Arri with the Alexa seem to be crushing everything, and Canon not far behind. Sadly I expect Leica to be gone soon.

Is Leica doing poorly?

1922 Kodachrome motion picture film test.

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my home town. their failing has been felt in the community since i was in high school 25 years ago. back in the late 1980s they were offering early retirements. a few of my buddy's dads got to retire from their at age 40 and went on to do more interesting things with their lives.

as the years went by, you would see more and more Kodak buildings and factories torn down which are still vacant lots and the businesses that once thrived off the workers on lunch break, boarded up and still boarded up

still selling $5k+ digital and film cameras
and some of the best lenses in the world.

thank goodness i'm a nikon fan, i would be bankrupt too if i ever got into red dots.