Kodak set to quit camera film and photo paper business

[Chris Dodkin]

Debt-struck photography pioneer Kodak says it may sell off its still-camera film and photo paper divisions.

The firm has already stopped making digital cameras as part of efforts to reduce its losses after filing for bankruptcy protection in January.

It has also been trying to raise funds by selling off more than 1,100 digital imaging patents.

BBC News - Kodak set to quit camera film and photo paper business

The British Journal of Photography said the news would concern the industry.

"A lot of professionals still shoot with film and like the quality it gives them," Olivier Laurent, news editor at the journal, told the BBC.

"The resolution is still a thousand times higher than most digital cameras can offer so long as a good scanner is used.

"A film photograph has a different mood thanks to its grain - it's about the love of the image and digital still has a hard time trying to reproduce that feeling."

 

[Pete Askew]

I read this with dismay last night. They plan to stay with cine film etc but I would have thought the relationship in terms of R&D between still and cine would be important. It does not sound good. Let's hope someone with as much imagination as Ilford / Harman buy them!

 

[Brian Moore]

Very sad news indeed but not wholly unexpected really. I am worried about the color emulsions. I can get B&W from numerous manufacturers, but color only from Kodak and Fuji.

 

[Hamish Gill]

Yeah it is a concern ...
And odd concidering how well illford are doing!
Maybe folks just prefer b&w these days?

 

[Brian Moore]

I wonder if folks are using the B&W for artistic stuff and color for snaps? For example, I'm on holiday at the moment. I brought some color film but mostly I brought B&W film. I figured that for snaps (color stuff) I'd mostly use my digi camera. That was my thought process anyway and a small example of how one person perceives the benefits of color film. Also, could be that a lot more people are processing their own these days, and B&W processing is more readily accessible in the sense that its a simpler process.

 

[Pete Askew]

I think the professional colour film market is still pretty bouyant and Ilford sell a lot of black and white into specialist markets (eg film-based speed cameras) as well as the art and pro / hobbiest ones. I would guess Kodak's biggest market is in cine film but that is being eroded slowly by digital systems. It seems a bit short-sighted to sell off something that may one day end up as being small but profitable business - but they seem to specialise in such decisions! Hopefully they have thought it through and know what they are doing. At last!