What will Kodak's final film be?

What will Kodak's final film be?

  • Portra

    Votes: 9 4.0%

  • Ektar

    Votes: 22 9.7%

  • E-Series (E100G, etc)

    Votes: 3 1.3%

  • ELITE Chrome

    Votes: 1 0.4%

  • T-MAX

    Votes: 19 8.4%

  • TRI-X

    Votes: 124 54.6%

  • BW400CN

    Votes: 5 2.2%

  • PLUS X

    Votes: 1 0.4%

  • A non-professional Kodak film

    Votes: 24 10.6%

  • Something that hasn't been invented yet.

    Votes: 19 8.4%
  • Total voters
    227
Dave Wilkinson said:
We'll be happily using our M10's by then!:)
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Dave: I will be holding out for a great "buy it now" deal come mid December 2012 from those who will conclude that you can't take it with you.

For those of you who are slow on the pick-up, I am planning on film being available and my cameras still working on my last day.
 
I considered answering Reala, but that would be a bit off base, so I would say that it has to be a film used in making motion pictures. After all, consumer film cameras are not a big market.
 
In 2009 Kodak reported annual sales of their film, paper and chemicals segment of $2.2b, compared to $3.0b in 2008, $3.6b in 2007 and $4.3b in 2006. A steady rate of decrease due to digital conversion which, if it doesnt slow down, is guaranteed to shut Kodak's film operations by 2012. The core of these sales however is film sold to the cinema industry, which has not converted to digital yet. I believe that for as long as cinema shoots predominantly film Kodak will continue to make photographic film even if its only 100 people around the world that use it, because the factory will be open anyway and making film for cinema. When cinema decides to convert to digi (and it is near impossible to predict when that will happen) Kodak will shut the film shop. But thats only my speculation, at the moment the hard numbers say no Kodak film by 2012.

So, to answer the question, I reckon the last film made by Kodak will be the one on demand by the cinema industry, whatever that is :p
 
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Roger Hicks said:
True, but my understanding was that the main customers for 220 were wedding photographers and that's mostly colour unless you're doing reportage, in whicj case I suspect you'd use 35mm anyway.


Cheers,

R.
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Roger, I would hate to count on the income from marketing a 220 B&W film for wedding photography, at any time in the entire history of 220 film.

The labs I used sold 120 and 220 film as a service as they preferred you bring in film from a single emulsion batch to make printing easier.

However, shooting the 6x12 and 6x17 cm formats, as rare as they are, would seem one of the few places to consider 220 a real advantage.

Big difference perhaps in 4 and 8 exposures per roll? Slight advantage also for 6x9, 16 exposures per roll.

I only know a few people personally who shoot 6x17 cm, and one enlarges it to make negatives for platinum prints,-- so even more exotic an application.

I shot a wedding in France, and found when I arrived a week later in Prague for a six week stay, that I had left my 120 insert at home, I may have bought all the 220 B&W in Prague,--- it was not difficult, and that was 11 years ago. Most available was Ilford.

15 years ago I had a problem with some Agfa APX 400, and while talking to the tech guys at Agfa, asked why they did not make 220.

I then asked what percentage of film sold by Agfa was B&W, and he said less than 1%, that they made no money on B&W, but kept up production to support the arts. I got the impression then they felt like the Maytag repairman.

I appreciate any good films still made, and am planning on shopping for a newer fridge to lager my film. I would like to see data on long term film storage, precise effects of heat, and just how long it will take for cosmic radiation to make even cold stored film useless. I think we are in a conservation mode for any favorite emulsions.

Regards, John
 
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V-Max

V-Max

History shows that in the year 2077 Kodak placed on the market its V-Max film brand. V-Max, which is short for Maximum Versatility, quickly replaced all other films, owing to its ability to take on the characteristics of virtually any film. By using the appropriate developer, V-Max can be used as a slow, high-acutance fine-grain film; as a fast (ISO 10,000) moderately fine-grain film, or anything in between. It can also function either as a black and white or color film, while in the latter case both prints and slides are possible.

It is a testament to the Kodak engineers of their time that they were able to invent a film so versatile that even now, in the year 4440, VMax is not only unsurpassed, but has been the only film to have survived in production for over 2000 years. This is, of course, not only due to its remarkable versatility, but also because it has long been the only film capable of fully registering the full resolution of Leica lenses, both classic or modern.
 
NickTrop said:
Kodak's last film will be whatever film that happens to be in the Yashica GSN used by the last surviving human to document "The Big Crunch" - opposite to the Big Bang, when all the matter in the universe collapses in to itself and not only film, but everything - down to the tiniest subatomic particle, exists no more.
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I don't know how to break this to you, Nick, but there's not gonna be a "big crunch." The rate of expansion of the universe is increasing, not decreasing. Everything is just gonna keep getting farther and farther apart.


No crunch.
 
JohnTF said:
I think you can scratch off the Dental Xray-- they have gone digital, and e-room Xrays have to be digital so they can email someone in China to read them. ;-)

Regards, John
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Not True. I just had a tooth X-Rayed by my dentist last week, and she used film. A dentist in Santa Fe worked on my teeth a couple of years ago and he also used film.
 
JohnTF said:
I think you can scratch off the Dental Xray-- they have gone digital, and e-room Xrays have to be digital so they can email someone in China to read them. ;-)

Regards, John
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My dentist is now using a powerful light source that can shine right through the tooth to reveal any problems inside. He also has a tiny digital camera that goes right inside the mouth. It's called an "in-sight." Clever name, eh? He recently found over $1000.00 worth of problems with these toys.
 
Chriscrawfordphoto said:
Not True. I just had a tooth X-Rayed by my dentist last week, and she used film. A dentist in Santa Fe worked on my teeth a couple of years ago and he also used film.
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They now stay in the room during the exposure, no bite wings, and the results come up on a screen very quickly, bills seem higher. ;-) They have a laptop in each examination room.

I did not mean to imply that some dentists may not hold on to old equipment, will bring it up with my radiologist friend soon, but it makes sense to go to lower dosages, and no chemistry.

Some dentists used to hold the film inside your mouth, and ended up with cancers on their fingers. Some older machines also were not collimated, so your entire body got a dose.

I had my knees X rayed last fall, and they told me they were changing over from film.

I did hear microfilm may hang on for a long time, as it is archival, and the technology to view it is so simple it will never become obsolete.


Regards, John
 
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My dentist definately used film. Her assistant went to develop it so we had to wait about 10 minutes to see it and she had the little films from the bitewings that we looked at on a light table.
 
Chriscrawfordphoto said:
My dentist definately used film. Her assistant went to develop it so we had to wait about 10 minutes to see it and she had the little films from the bitewings that we looked at on a light table.
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I'm not disputing it, but it has been years since my folks have used film and I do not see film as a long term factor in X Rays, first it is slow, and time is definitely money with these guys, second, as I have been told, the film is high silver to reduce the exposure, third they are digitizing the data including old films plus they send it around electronically, and silver is getting more expensive.

They also have a pretty fancy office. ;-)

They started putting computers in every examination room about the same time, everything is now digital.

The device is rather odd looking, I have not asked much, except about the display.

I do not recall if they still use the lead apron.

One place I would approve of digital over film. ;-)

Regards, John
 
Being as how film is produced in a batch process, any Kodak film could conceivably already be out of production, and we'd never know until the warehouse inventory runs low.

~Joe
 
Rob-F said:
I don't know how to break this to you, Nick, but there's not gonna be a "big crunch." The rate of expansion of the universe is increasing, not decreasing. Everything is just gonna keep getting farther and farther apart.


No crunch.
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Out of interest—why do you dismiss the big crunch hypothesis? What is your alternative explanation for the origin of the time/space continuum?
 
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