Kodak has a long history of all kinds of false starts in both the film and digital industries. Despite their long history of producing and selling film cameras in NA, they have introduced such things as 110 and APS cameras and films which they promoted as the next best new introduction shince white bread, forcing many labs to spend money getting equipment to process those formats only to see the cameras, film, and need for processing diappear. Kodak's main revenue sources were the movie industry, the graphic arts and scientific industries, and government with general consumer and professional photography being a second tier revenue source. However, Kodak started abandoning their first tier revenue sources by not keeping up withthe changes in those industries but jumping on the bandwagons after the fact - a day late and a dollar short. Having lost much of that business, they scurried around trying to make the general film photography market revenues make up for the reduction in revenues from the other markets but faced stiff new competition from Fuji and others. Given this, they then attempted to introduce all kinds of new gimmicks to recapture the general film photography market but failed as almost every turn. they also tried dipping their toes into the digital market but never showed the committment or willingness to stick to anything within the digital field - they flitted around like a gadfly at a social event. Having eliminated many of their specialty films from their product list and facing stiff competition in the general film photography market at both the professional and consumer levels as well as digital, Kodak is seeking ways to stop bleeding although it still has not found any direction in terms of the future.
Kodak has had a habit of engaging in self-fullfilling and self-denying prophesies. They cut certain film stocks that a consistent market of professionals have been using and try to force them to use the film de jure that Kodak currently wants to promote. The result has been users refusing to make the switch for a number of reasons and turning to other brands of film and other technologies. Consequently, Kodak has lost most of the nitch markets who also use to use Kodak for the more general items while not being really competitive in the non-film technologies. For example, I use to like Super XX 4x5 film for certain types of copy work. This film was also used in the graphic arts fields for making separations. When the graphic arts field went digital, Kodak stopped making the film despite the fact that several professional photographers and labs still were using the film in moderate quantities. The same sort of thing began happening with other specialty films until uses were left with no options among films available to choose from. With the rescent demise of Pro Copy film, users are being forced by Kodak to use T-Max film whether or not the user likes the film or it works well for a given job because that is the only film being produced and recommended by Kodak for copy work (other options being Plus-X and Tri-X). In light of the options available from Kodak, users have turned to other film manufacturers - some of whom are making specialty films so as to fill the gap and service the nitch market - or have gone digital but toward more affordable equipment being put out by competitors to Kodak and its digital line of camera's, CD blank disks, flash cards, etc. -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Arthur Entlich Sent: Thursday, January 15, 2004 4:31 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [filmscanners] Kodak dropping 35mm and APS cameras in N.A. Kodak has announced they are stopping production of their 35mm and APS reloadable film cameras by the end of this year in North America. Obviously, film cameras have never been Kodak's big business in North America, but were mainly a way for them to sell more film to lower end market buyers. However, the fact that they see the demand disappearing with digital cameras now out-selling film cameras in this market is interesting. Art ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------ Unsubscribe by mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED], with 'unsubscribe filmscanners' or 'unsubscribe filmscanners_digest' (as appropriate) in the message title or body --- Incoming mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.560 / Virus Database: 352 - Release Date: 1/8/2004 --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.560 / Virus Database: 352 - Release Date: 1/8/2004 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe by mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED], with 'unsubscribe filmscanners' or 'unsubscribe filmscanners_digest' (as appropriate) in the message title or body
