Re: [APML] Film: begining of the end?

[astropix@att.net (Geoff Powers)]

 Bobby writes:
> I wonder if any of those are really new (as opposed to 'repackaged') and if
> they would fit our needs...

 Hey Bobby...

     I really can't say for sure... Kodak announced plans to concentrate it's US efforts on strictly digital technology, last September. No R&D for film in the US... but said it will continue to expand film in stronger, overseas markets. Perhaps Wei-Hao can relay some info from his friends in Asia, where film is still a pretty strong seller.

     FWIW, here's Michael Covington's take on Kodak's 'Market Shift' announcement last fall, forwarded from the AtlantaAstroImaging list:

 On Thu Feb 5, 2004  10:28 pm, Michael Covington wrote:
" One last thing. What I have gathered from several discussions of the Kodak
situation (with industry observers, not contacts at Kodak) and from reading
Kodak press releases is the following.

- The news media have exaggerated quite a few things lately.

- As a massively popular medium for snapshots, film is about to be dead.
The mass consumer market is shrinking very fast. In five years we won't see
film in grocery stores.

- Among professional photographers, fine-art photographers, and scientific
photographers, film is not dead. The market is shrinking, but film can be
made and sold profitably to a *much* smaller market than we have now. For
goodness' sake, Kodak even still makes glass plates!

- The recent management of Kodak has been widely criticized. Unlike, say,
Ilford, Kodak is not very good at dealing with a small market. Thus, for
management reasons, Kodak may be in trouble in a way that the rest of the
photo industry is not. I don't have any details of this.

Reports that Kodak is about to discontinue film are unwarranted. Pull out
of the *consumer* film market, maybe. That's not the same thing."

 Best...   :o)

--
 Geoff

http://home.att.net/~astropix/


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