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#1
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Sad news for film-based photography
Aavo Koort, the president of Channel City Camera Club sent a message to
all members about the future of film-based photography. It is a very interesting article, pretty sad though. Please read on. Your feedback/input are welcome. ----------------------- A member of Delaware Photography Society sent the following to me. He obtained it from a friend who recently retired from Kodak. I have been unable to verify the news presented in the article. So read it with that in mind. While the article reflects the current advances in digital photography it is somewhat sad to all of us who have used film for these many years. September 2004 Channel City Camera Club Page 2 From a retired Kodak worker About the only thing Kodak has done relevant to historic photographs lately is buy a controlling interest in Applied Science Fiction, which is a software company that makes a program to restore lost and faded color by digital processing of scans. This product is somewhat helpful for people who don’t want to learn Photoshop, it is automatic and requires no skill. It does a decent job of turning a photo that has turned red or green back into some resemblance of natural color. It is very sad to report on what Kodak is not doing anymore now, they have dismantled their R&D department for chemical photography and announced they will not be making any new products for film based photography. According to an analysis published in the Wall Street Journal, they plan to continue manufacturing existing film and chemical based products only as long as demand supports each individual product and then discontinue it. They see no future in chemical based photographs. All Kodak and Agfa products made for professional photo conservators and historic photo technicians are already discontinued. No manufacturer in the world makes any copy film anymore. The next item Kodak is expected to discontinue is the only archival color film made, which is Kodachrome. Even archival photographic paper is being discontinued. Probably the most upsetting thing is that Kodak made the only archival CD, and that is now discontinued. Shortly after the announcement, all the existing stocks of the Kodak Gold CD in the world were snapped up, mostly by the British Museum and the Library of Congress. So now there is no option of archival storage on CD anymore. Nobody seriously expects the second choice CD, which is Kodak silver & gold CD, to last more than 25 years, and most other CDs are expected to last 8 years or so now. Virtually all the discussion on archivist and conservator lists now centers on mothballed hard drives, with annual testing of the BLER rate, and replacement of the drive every five years or so. I have had experience with regional Kodak salesmen who talk up their products, but really don’t know what they are talking about. One rep claimed that Kodak’s RC paper had been improved and was now archival, when I phoned Eastman and spoke with an engineer he said that their RC paper has a life expectancy of 75 years before the resin breaks down, which is hardly archival considering the salesman is proposing to use it as a replacement for products with life expectancies four times that or greater. You would think that smaller factories would step in to fill the void, and a few are, however the quality control is not good enough and I am faced with throwing away much of it. These factories just don’t have the abilities in quality control that major manufacturers enjoy. Sorry to be so harsh, but Kodak does not smell any money in traditional photography anymore. It is virtually a general consensus of the industry that traditional photography as we know it today will be gone within five years, and all film based work will become an “alternative process” like Platinum printing is considered today. What this means for people interested in archival photographs is that professional labs who do the work will disappear, and only small specialized operations will be able to do any of it, depending on material availability. For all those with September 2004 Channel City Camera Club Page 3 copying projects, negative printing projects, etc., now is the time to act. With the steadily reducing demand, costs for chemical based products are skyrocketing. In five years, black & white chemical photo services may cost double or triple what it does now. |
#2
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This is total BS...
"Ronald Shu" wrote in message ... Aavo Koort, the president of Channel City Camera Club sent a message to all members about the future of film-based photography. It is a very interesting article, pretty sad though. Please read on. Your feedback/input are welcome. ----------------------- A member of Delaware Photography Society sent the following to me. He obtained it from a friend who recently retired from Kodak. I have been unable to verify the news presented in the article. So read it with that in mind. While the article reflects the current advances in digital photography it is somewhat sad to all of us who have used film for these many years. September 2004 Channel City Camera Club Page 2 From a retired Kodak worker About the only thing Kodak has done relevant to historic photographs lately is buy a controlling interest in Applied Science Fiction, which is a software company that makes a program to restore lost and faded color by digital processing of scans. This product is somewhat helpful for people who don’t want to learn Photoshop, it is automatic and requires no skill. It does a decent job of turning a photo that has turned red or green back into some resemblance of natural color. It is very sad to report on what Kodak is not doing anymore now, they have dismantled their R&D department for chemical photography and announced they will not be making any new products for film based photography. According to an analysis published in the Wall Street Journal, they plan to continue manufacturing existing film and chemical based products only as long as demand supports each individual product and then discontinue it. They see no future in chemical based photographs. All Kodak and Agfa products made for professional photo conservators and historic photo technicians are already discontinued. No manufacturer in the world makes any copy film anymore. The next item Kodak is expected to discontinue is the only archival color film made, which is Kodachrome. Even archival photographic paper is being discontinued. Probably the most upsetting thing is that Kodak made the only archival CD, and that is now discontinued. Shortly after the announcement, all the existing stocks of the Kodak Gold CD in the world were snapped up, mostly by the British Museum and the Library of Congress. So now there is no option of archival storage on CD anymore. Nobody seriously expects the second choice CD, which is Kodak silver & gold CD, to last more than 25 years, and most other CDs are expected to last 8 years or so now. Virtually all the discussion on archivist and conservator lists now centers on mothballed hard drives, with annual testing of the BLER rate, and replacement of the drive every five years or so. I have had experience with regional Kodak salesmen who talk up their products, but really don’t know what they are talking about. One rep claimed that Kodak’s RC paper had been improved and was now archival, when I phoned Eastman and spoke with an engineer he said that their RC paper has a life expectancy of 75 years before the resin breaks down, which is hardly archival considering the salesman is proposing to use it as a replacement for products with life expectancies four times that or greater. You would think that smaller factories would step in to fill the void, and a few are, however the quality control is not good enough and I am faced with throwing away much of it. These factories just don’t have the abilities in quality control that major manufacturers enjoy. Sorry to be so harsh, but Kodak does not smell any money in traditional photography anymore. It is virtually a general consensus of the industry that traditional photography as we know it today will be gone within five years, and all film based work will become an “alternative process” like Platinum printing is considered today. What this means for people interested in archival photographs is that professional labs who do the work will disappear, and only small specialized operations will be able to do any of it, depending on material availability. For all those with September 2004 Channel City Camera Club Page 3 copying projects, negative printing projects, etc., now is the time to act. With the steadily reducing demand, costs for chemical based products are skyrocketing. In five years, black & white chemical photo services may cost double or triple what it does now. |
#3
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This is total BS...
"Ronald Shu" wrote in message ... Aavo Koort, the president of Channel City Camera Club sent a message to all members about the future of film-based photography. It is a very interesting article, pretty sad though. Please read on. Your feedback/input are welcome. ----------------------- A member of Delaware Photography Society sent the following to me. He obtained it from a friend who recently retired from Kodak. I have been unable to verify the news presented in the article. So read it with that in mind. While the article reflects the current advances in digital photography it is somewhat sad to all of us who have used film for these many years. September 2004 Channel City Camera Club Page 2 From a retired Kodak worker About the only thing Kodak has done relevant to historic photographs lately is buy a controlling interest in Applied Science Fiction, which is a software company that makes a program to restore lost and faded color by digital processing of scans. This product is somewhat helpful for people who don’t want to learn Photoshop, it is automatic and requires no skill. It does a decent job of turning a photo that has turned red or green back into some resemblance of natural color. It is very sad to report on what Kodak is not doing anymore now, they have dismantled their R&D department for chemical photography and announced they will not be making any new products for film based photography. According to an analysis published in the Wall Street Journal, they plan to continue manufacturing existing film and chemical based products only as long as demand supports each individual product and then discontinue it. They see no future in chemical based photographs. All Kodak and Agfa products made for professional photo conservators and historic photo technicians are already discontinued. No manufacturer in the world makes any copy film anymore. The next item Kodak is expected to discontinue is the only archival color film made, which is Kodachrome. Even archival photographic paper is being discontinued. Probably the most upsetting thing is that Kodak made the only archival CD, and that is now discontinued. Shortly after the announcement, all the existing stocks of the Kodak Gold CD in the world were snapped up, mostly by the British Museum and the Library of Congress. So now there is no option of archival storage on CD anymore. Nobody seriously expects the second choice CD, which is Kodak silver & gold CD, to last more than 25 years, and most other CDs are expected to last 8 years or so now. Virtually all the discussion on archivist and conservator lists now centers on mothballed hard drives, with annual testing of the BLER rate, and replacement of the drive every five years or so. I have had experience with regional Kodak salesmen who talk up their products, but really don’t know what they are talking about. One rep claimed that Kodak’s RC paper had been improved and was now archival, when I phoned Eastman and spoke with an engineer he said that their RC paper has a life expectancy of 75 years before the resin breaks down, which is hardly archival considering the salesman is proposing to use it as a replacement for products with life expectancies four times that or greater. You would think that smaller factories would step in to fill the void, and a few are, however the quality control is not good enough and I am faced with throwing away much of it. These factories just don’t have the abilities in quality control that major manufacturers enjoy. Sorry to be so harsh, but Kodak does not smell any money in traditional photography anymore. It is virtually a general consensus of the industry that traditional photography as we know it today will be gone within five years, and all film based work will become an “alternative process” like Platinum printing is considered today. What this means for people interested in archival photographs is that professional labs who do the work will disappear, and only small specialized operations will be able to do any of it, depending on material availability. For all those with September 2004 Channel City Camera Club Page 3 copying projects, negative printing projects, etc., now is the time to act. With the steadily reducing demand, costs for chemical based products are skyrocketing. In five years, black & white chemical photo services may cost double or triple what it does now. |
#4
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Ronald Shu writes:
SNIP A member of Delaware Photography Society sent the following to me. He obtained it from a friend who recently retired from Kodak. I have been unable to verify the news presented in the article. My aromatherapist heard from her masseuse that a client of the masseuse had a personal trainer for a producer for 60 Minutes who said this was completely unverifiable nonsense and to look for it on Fox News any minute now. -- Philip Stripling | email to the replyto address is presumed Legal Assistance on the Web | spam and read later. email to philip@ http://www.PhilipStripling.com/ | my domain is read daily. |
#5
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Ronald Shu writes:
SNIP A member of Delaware Photography Society sent the following to me. He obtained it from a friend who recently retired from Kodak. I have been unable to verify the news presented in the article. My aromatherapist heard from her masseuse that a client of the masseuse had a personal trainer for a producer for 60 Minutes who said this was completely unverifiable nonsense and to look for it on Fox News any minute now. -- Philip Stripling | email to the replyto address is presumed Legal Assistance on the Web | spam and read later. email to philip@ http://www.PhilipStripling.com/ | my domain is read daily. |
#6
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Ronald Shu writes:
SNIP A member of Delaware Photography Society sent the following to me. He obtained it from a friend who recently retired from Kodak. I have been unable to verify the news presented in the article. My aromatherapist heard from her masseuse that a client of the masseuse had a personal trainer for a producer for 60 Minutes who said this was completely unverifiable nonsense and to look for it on Fox News any minute now. -- Philip Stripling | email to the replyto address is presumed Legal Assistance on the Web | spam and read later. email to philip@ http://www.PhilipStripling.com/ | my domain is read daily. |
#7
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Phil Stripling wrote:
I have been unable to verify the news presented in the article. My aromatherapist heard from her masseuse that a client of the masseuse had a personal trainer for a producer for 60 Minutes who said this was completely unverifiable nonsense and to look for it on Fox News any minute now. Dan Rather will apologize for everyone shortly (while deflecting responsibility). -- -- rec.photo.equipment.35mm user resource: -- http://www.aliasimages.com/rpe35mmur.htm -- e-meil: there's no such thing as a FreeLunch.-- |
#8
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Phil Stripling wrote:
I have been unable to verify the news presented in the article. My aromatherapist heard from her masseuse that a client of the masseuse had a personal trainer for a producer for 60 Minutes who said this was completely unverifiable nonsense and to look for it on Fox News any minute now. Dan Rather will apologize for everyone shortly (while deflecting responsibility). -- -- rec.photo.equipment.35mm user resource: -- http://www.aliasimages.com/rpe35mmur.htm -- e-meil: there's no such thing as a FreeLunch.-- |
#9
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Ronald Shu wrote:
Aavo Koort, the president of Channel City Camera Club sent a message to all members about the future of film-based photography. It is a very interesting article, pretty sad though. Please read on. Your feedback/input are welcome. Is that you Dan Rather? How's the black bag business going? -- jer email reply - I am not a 'ten' "All that we do is touched with ocean, yet we remain on the shore of what we know." -- Richard Wilbur |
#10
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Ronald Shu wrote:
Aavo Koort, the president of Channel City Camera Club sent a message to all members about the future of film-based photography. It is a very interesting article, pretty sad though. Please read on. Your feedback/input are welcome. Is that you Dan Rather? How's the black bag business going? -- jer email reply - I am not a 'ten' "All that we do is touched with ocean, yet we remain on the shore of what we know." -- Richard Wilbur |
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