Kodak preparing for Chapter 11 filing

[S8 Booster]

paradigm at the accelerating speed of light, ....

The Structure of Scientific Revolutions

Th. S. Kuhn (1962)

or, there is a time for everything.

i think reflex hit the nail.

there so much changes like a gigantic octopus tentacled world wheel engaging everything everywhere at the same time.....
no direct connection but would Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Syria, Yemen ... what not happened without the net and the phones?
my guess not.
was Kodak any part of it, my guess not,....
was BushBama part of it, my guess not a lot......

i hope there is a place in it all for Kodak but im afraid all the 1 class seats on the train to the near future that just left the station were occupied some time ago.....

but, I can not enjoy imaging without film so i hope they survive one way or another.....



shoot......film......O

[kuparikettu]

The problem for Kodak, methinks, is just their brand.

They did an excellent job of positioning themselves in the Kodak Memories business - use Kodak when you want a keepsake that you can hold onto for decades and share with your grand kids. People simply don't use photography that way anymore.

These days, my wife snaps interesting and timely photos to share on Facebook. Those images are used to spark conversation, and they have a very short half life. Tomorrow, it'll be something new.

The confluence of mobile phones with decent point-and-shoot camera capabilities and fast data connections makes it really easy to beam images directly online, and there's simply no place for Kodak in the new business model. The shift is especially pronounced in the teen and young adult segment. They have Hipstamatic. It's instant, cheap and makes everything look retro cool.

Meanwhile, the Kodak photo kiosks at our local big box department store stand unused for hours on end. Yeah, someone will eventually come along and order an 8x10 enlargement or prints of Christmas morning for grandma, but it's not a growth industry.

This is certainly true. However, I'm rather inclined to think that this won't go on forever. Me, I'm 24 and have always spent lots of time around computers -- I got one when I was seven! I had my own website and email when I was 10. I took my first digital photos 1996 with a camera that had floppy drive in it. Very digital-y life. And now, after four years of Facebook I'm feeling month after month that I have had enough. Enough of being always online, enough of having quick status updates, informing friends about everything and posting pics. I feel like I have lost my life to someone -- something! -- that doesn't really even care about it. And I want to reclaim my own life.

Some months ago I began my return to film photography. Sure, I have owned those Olympuses but I haven't really shot that much with them. Too heavy to take with me I thought, even if I hadn't even bought a digital camera. Now? Now I want to leave my laptop home and take my OM-1(/2) and take photos just for myself. Not for the faceless crowd or the digital land of never ending sharing -- no, for myself and for my family.

Today my wife took her first film photos in many many years, with her father's old OM-10 SLR. We discussed some days the digital revolution of photography: how she had thought, that she would take photos and then select some of them for printing in the shop. Yeah right. Didn't happen. Idea of just shooting, then developing and having prints to add to ones own albums (the ones on the shelf, not the digital ones made her happy.

Trends change fast. Digital may be with us for a long time, but the culture associated today with it might not. There are limits to the capability of humans to live faster and faster, of having this happen instantly and react to everything. So at least in our family film is returning.

[camera8mm]

wonder what patents would be worth buying now?
If kodak was to offer up kodachrome, it might be cost prohibitive to even make the film let alone the chemistry in which to process it. I could be wrong on that. It would still be nice if someone did buy at least the processing patent and renew the process for any remaining stock for a couple of years before the film is rendered somewhat useless due to colour shifts of unprocessed exposed film.

[Will2]

Trends change fast. Digital may be with us for a long time, but the culture associated today with it might not. There are limits to the capability of humans to live faster and faster, of having this happen instantly and react to everything. So at least in our family film is returning.

Bravo. Couldn't agree with you more. There will always be a place for Facebook or something like it but there will also be blowback.

The process of shooting super 8 gives a little distance and perspective rather than having to instantly view the shot. When I get the film back weeks or months later I'm in a better place to edit it anyway.

I still don't understand why anyone would want the world or even a few "friends" to know where they are at every moment. Seems like such a fake existence that may work if you're in high school but all that tracking info seems more like a boon for marketers rather than some social movement.

[etimh]

People simply don't use photography that way anymore...

There was a radio story this past weekend on our local 89.3 KPPC profiling some young artist who is doing a film diary project where he takes a photo a day for an entire year. Nothing new there, but his idea was that after each roll of film was done he'd throw it in a box to be processed and developed at the end of the year. It was about subverting the immediate scrutiny and transmission of images from digital phones/cameras and the culture of immediate gratification that has become prevalent with the new imaging technologies. Not going to have any effect on mass consumer appetites or practices but some young people are at least thinking about it.

Tim

[aj]

The confluence of mobile phones with decent point-and-shoot camera capabilities and fast data connections makes it really easy to beam images directly online, and there's simply no place for Kodak in the new business model. The shift is especially pronounced in the teen and young adult segment. They have Hipstamatic. It's instant, cheap and makes everything look retro cool.

Always amazes me when typewriters are brought forward or ciné-projectors to induce memories while half the population have no authentic recollection of having seen these things in use other than in films which use them for these reason.
This of course goes too for enhanced images which are supposed to look like 50-ies camera images or look like polaroid while again many people have no idea how these look authentic.

BTW what happens to all these electronic shared images? People still think all these free services are going to keep these online for ever? Like AOL/America on line or geocities etc. There are going to be a lot of sorry people in the future. But maybe there will be a tool which can transform generic images into people's personal memories.

Soon we/they will be eating Soylent Green. Look it up (imbd) if you need to

[etimh]

Soon we/they will be eating Soylent Green...

Lol.

A better Heston-dystopian film reference might be The Omega Man, e.g. Neville's sad reminiscing while watching Woodstock in an empty theater, or the Family's hatred of technology: "One creature, caught. Nothing to live with but his gadgets, his cars, his guns, gimmicks. And yet the whole family can't bring him down."

Good times.

Tim

[Andreas Wideroe]

This is certainly true. However, I'm rather inclined to think that this won't go on forever. Me, I'm 24 and have always spent lots of time around computers -- I got one when I was seven! I had my own website and email when I was 10. I took my first digital photos 1996 with a camera that had floppy drive in it. Very digital-y life. And now, after four years of Facebook I'm feeling month after month that I have had enough. Enough of being always online, enough of having quick status updates, informing friends about everything and posting pics. I feel like I have lost my life to someone -- something! -- that doesn't really even care about it. And I want to reclaim my own life.

Some months ago I began my return to film photography. Sure, I have owned those Olympuses but I haven't really shot that much with them. Too heavy to take with me I thought, even if I hadn't even bought a digital camera. Now? Now I want to leave my laptop home and take my OM-1(/2) and take photos just for myself. Not for the faceless crowd or the digital land of never ending sharing -- no, for myself and for my family.

Today my wife took her first film photos in many many years, with her father's old OM-10 SLR. We discussed some days the digital revolution of photography: how she had thought, that she would take photos and then select some of them for printing in the shop. Yeah right. Didn't happen. Idea of just shooting, then developing and having prints to add to ones own albums (the ones on the shelf, not the digital ones made her happy.

Trends change fast. Digital may be with us for a long time, but the culture associated today with it might not. There are limits to the capability of humans to live faster and faster, of having this happen instantly and react to everything. So at least in our family film is returning.

Thanks for writing. I enjoyed reading your story and thoughts. I agree with you on many things. I miss going out shooting film or taking photos with my film cameras. I did shoot some Super8 a couple of weeks ago, but they were all shot in a rush so I didn't quite get into the "feeling".

[etimh]

Latest:

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/ ... 0-12-29-37

Analysis:

http://money.msn.com/investing/latest.a ... 0df23e6dda

Still not great, but better news.

Tim

[mr8mm]

I hope that person that is shooting film then throwing it in a box to be processed at years end will store the film in a freezer. Could have a lot of color shifted pictures.

Looks like there will be two kodaks. A consumer product Kodak and a commercial product Kodak. One division for the losers and one division for the winners? One goes bankrupt and one marches into the promised land? Or rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic? The motion picture film division appears to be in the winning division. That is good news.

J.S.

[BAC]

The consumer division has film rolls and photofinishing and the the commercial division contains motion-picture, industrial and professional films. Why split up film into two different divisions? I wonder what they consider professional films in this context because some of the roll film that I purchase from them is listed under professional film on their web site like KODAK PROFESSIONAL EKTACHROME Film E100VS:

http://www.kodak.com/global/en/professi ... path=13372.

So they will be selling some roll film under the comercial division and other roll film under the consumer division?

[CHAS]

Soon we/they will be eating Soylent Green...

Lol.

A better Heston-dystopian film reference might be The Omega Man, e.g. Neville's sad reminiscing while watching Woodstock in an empty theater, or the Family's hatred of technology: "One creature, caught. Nothing to live with but his gadgets, his cars, his guns, gimmicks. And yet the whole family can't bring him down."

Good times.

Tim

OMG - I can't believe you used that quote. I was a huge OM fan (still am, actually) and in high school acting class, when I had to come up with a quick monologue I used that whole Matthias diatribe, claimed it was by "playwright Richard Matheson from a Broadway play written in the early '70s" and mad did the class laugh their asses off!

[CHAS]

Trends change fast. Digital may be with us for a long time, but the culture associated today with it might not. There are limits to the capability of humans to live faster and faster, of having this happen instantly and react to everything. So at least in our family film is returning.

I am glad to hear this. But I just don't see the current instant-digital culture going away. The genie is out of the bottle and it's no use trying to get it back in.

[Will2]

wonder what patents would be worth buying now?

Well maybe we can all get together and buy up any Super 8 patents that are still alive...probably nothing there since they would be 30-40 years old by now.

Kodak has some seriously juicy digital imaging patents that they currently license out to almost every digital camera manufacturer in some way or another. They were the pioneers so they have some really good ones.

But since their patents will only be valid for 17 or 20 years depending on when they were filed, I'd guess that some of those pioneering ones won't have much more life.

However most of their recent film ones (Vision series) should still have quite a few years left although companies are probably not lining up for those right now.