"You'll be back! And you! And you!"
Posted on 01/13/2004 7:39:37 PM PST by HAL9000
Eastman Kodak said Tuesday it will stop selling traditional film cameras in the United States, Canada and Western Europe, another move by the photography company to cut lines with declining appeal in favor of fast-growing digital products.With sales of digital cameras poised to overtake film cameras for the first time this year, Kodak is redefining itself in an effort to keep pace. But the No. 1 maker of photographic film will continue to sell one-time use cameras in the West and expand its sales of these and other film-based cameras--and film--in emerging markets where demand is on the rise.
Shares of Kodak eked out narrow gains Tuesday after the announcement, and was one of the few blue chip stocks to close higher on the New York Stock Exchange.
The move comes amid Kodak's controversial plan to focus on high-growth digital products, such as medical imaging systems and production printing, and reduce dependence on its declining film business. Late in 2003, Kodak said it would stop making slide projectors, but still manufactures color slide films.
"Every one of these steps indicates more and more the strength of Kodak's conviction of moving toward digital," said analyst Shannon Cross of Cross Research. "However, the jury is out on whether (the digital strategy) will work."
Blaming declining demand, the Rochester, N.Y.-based company said it would by the end of this year quit making reloadable cameras that use 35-millimeter film, including those in the Advanced Photo System (APS) format.
In 1996, when it was unveiled, Advantix was hailed by Kodak as the "most important photographic announcement since Instamatic cartridge-loading cameras were introduced in 1963."
Kodak will still make film for existing Advantix and other cameras, and intends to introduce new high-performance 35mm and APS films next month.
Camera makers typically make little profit--or lose money--on hardware, but enjoy strong margins from sales of supplies such as film and paper, which must be replaced frequently.
Kodak said that it plans to continue making reloadable cameras that use 35mm film for emerging markets, such as China, India, Eastern Europe and Latin America and that it will introduce six new cameras in those markets this year.
"(We) estimate that there are 60 million Chinese consumers who have the purchasing power to participate in photography, but have not bought their first camera," Kodak spokesman Charles Smith said.
Under Kodak's new strategy, unveiled in September, it will shift its investments into digital markets with greater growth potential than the waning film market. But film still provides ample revenue for Kodak--more than 120 million rolls of film are sold each year industry-wide.
According to estimates by InfoTrends Research Group, global film camera shipments in 2004 will shrink to 36 million units from 48 million in 2003, while digital camera shipments will rise to 53 million from 41 million units.
Other companies that helped develop APS--Canon, Fuji Photo, Minolta and Nikon-- will continue to make APS cameras.
"The consumer who has APS likes it a lot, but the growth potential is probably tapped out from Kodak's standpoint,'' said Gary Pageau, spokesman of the Photo Marketing Association, an industry organization.
"You'll be back! And you! And you!"
Digital cameras will have to reach 10 megapixels to match the resolution of 35mm still film cameras. Even so, film handles reciprocity failure better and is able to record more contrast than CCDs.
Why would anyone in the market for a professional digital SLR buy a Kodak rather than a Nikon. Nikon has a huge collection of high quality lenses that can be used with their cameras.
It probably will for quite a while. I seriously doubt digital camerals will match the resolution of 4"x5" or 8"x10" view cameras anytime soon.
Kodak is a very PC company. It is almost as bad as Disney. It doesn't deserve much goodwill. The only Kodak film Fuji doesn't match is Kodachrome, but color reversal film is getting less popular. It is no longer necessary to make color separation negatives to publish photographs. Color negative film is cheaper and has a wider exposure latitude.
NOW Sony has an 8 mexapixal on the market!
What are we gonna do?
Why do we need that?
The article didn't say Kodak was going to stop selling film just cameras. On the other hand, there are excellent reasons for not buying Kodak film.
I would really love to get back into photography with a digital camera, but I would like the sort of control that I had with my old SLRs (an Olympus OM-2n for day to day general photography, and a Nikon FM-2 for "serious" work and sports photos. Thank goodness for the old Tamron "Adaptall" lenses!). It seems that the only cameras that allow manual focus and complete control over exposure are the semi-pro and pro cameras that sell for about $800 and over! I'm hoping that in a year or two, there will be some "hobbiest" cameras that are more affordable.
Right now, I've got a Sony Mavica CD-1000 that I bought used, and really like it, but it's only 2.1 MP, and for all intents and purposes, it's a point and shoot camera, with minimal controls. I'd like something in the 5 MP range with full manual control.
Mark
Remember Moore's Law, which is really an observation, that computing power tends to double every eighteen months. So even if film beats digital by a factor of ten, they will be even in five years, and film will become as extinct as vinyl records in ten.
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