Anybody else disgusted at the slaughter of emulsions by Kodak?

Me | 3/11/02 | Me

[Don Joe]

It's sickening! No more Ektar (25 & 100 missed the most), no more Royal Gold (25 & 100 as per Ektar), no more Pro100, no more Kodachrome 25, no more 120 Kodachrome, no more Verichrome Pan, no more Plus-X or Tri-X (although they will be delivering replacements -- different films -- with the same names for those two classics), and there was going to be no more Kodachrome 200, but they backed down -- they'll sell it at something like $23 a roll -- while there's still demand for it. (Gee, how long will that be at that price?)

[Don Joe]

Argh, argh, argh!

[Texaggie79]

uh.....yeah.....sure

[Crowcreek]

No sweat, partner. . .

Good Bye Kodak -- Hello Fuji, Konica, ect.

[mlo]

Is there an actual piece of news you are ranting about?

[freedomlover]

Pictures, please.

[Lazamataz]

Kodak is a buggywhip industry. So is Xerox.

Thusly, I left Rochester.

[Timesink]

Well, if anyone was still questioning whether or not to short Kodak stock, they have their answer now. This company is barreling towards Chapter 11 faster than Bill Clinton towards a pair of 36Ds.

[counterrevolutionary]

Sob...those poor little emulsions...silver halide running in the gutters...the horror...the horror....

[Timesink]

(Note to those reading this chart from THE FUTURE!: This chart is dynamically generated every time this page loads, using data up to and including the current day. What we're seeing on March 11 isn't what you're seeing in 2025. Of course, knowing Yahoo, they'll change the URL for their stock charts a week after I post this anyway, and all you'll see is a big empty rectangle. FR really needs to start letting people load graphics onto the FR servers ... not just that stupid "Caption This Image" section, but for anything.)

[Bella_Bru]

This is General Interest. Home of all things amusing, bewildering, cheese-infested, and vanity-esque. It's a nod to the whiners on the regular side who couldn't figure out how to NOT click on a thread they thought they may have no interest in.

[freedomlover]

Does this mean we can have a General Interest moderator who will slap around whiners and delete newsworthy posts??

[Bella_Bru]

I hope so!

[Don Joe]

"Good Bye Kodak -- Hello Fuji, Konica, ect."

The thing is, there's nothing remotely comparable to the emulsions they killed. They were really head and shoulders above the crowd.

K25 and RG25 were grainless razor-sharp emulsions. You could make huge prints and have the quality rival 4x5 quality. Literally!

What happened as best as I can tell is that the beancounters took over and said gee, we're not making our target revenues from those lines, so dump 'em. That would be like Chevrolet dropping the Corvette, or Dodge dropping the Viper.

They killed their flagship products, they cut their pro lines off at the knees, and they're trying to go toe-to-toe with the "cost-cutter" off-brand stuff for the point-and-shoot crowd. Instead of playing up the quality of those legendary emulsions, they pared down their consumer lines, rebadged 'em with stupid teenybopper names like "Max Zoom!" and put bright shiny colors (doubtless tested on lab monkeys) on the boxes.

My freezer is full, I'm still trying to round up some 120 RG25 (and some more 35mm if I can) at reasonable prices. They're all way outdated, but I found a roll that had been bouncing around in two attics over ten years and ran it through my old Retina 2a for giggles, and it came back looking like it was fresh off the shelf. The slow films have staggering keeping qualities. (Films age due to heat and cosmic rays, and the faster the emulsion, the more susceptible it is to the latter.)

I could keep on ranting (and probably will later on :)) but I need to sit back and de-aggravate my blood pressure now... Ugh!

[Don Joe]

"Kodak is a buggywhip industry."

They can have my Kodachrome when they pry it from my...

[CharacterCounts]

Now I have to keep two windows open. One for the serious stuff and one for the fun stuff.

[freedomlover]

Be careful, that comments was a little too ... serious. :)

[falfa]

And leave my sliderule alone too!

[Timesink]

Don Joe, where did you read/hear about this, anyway? I'd like to read more myself, but I'm having trouble finding any news stories about it.

[headsonpikes]

"...I'm having trouble finding news stories about it."

If you insist on talking about 'news', I'll press the 'Abuse' button.

This forum is for 'un-news', get it??

[Timesink]

What about news about Britney Spears's breasts? Bet you wouldn't hit the abuse button on THAT!

Hiiii, headsonpikes. *blowing kiss!*