What's happened to all the film

[TheTimeChamber]

Has colour film entered its death throes? B&W is very easy to get hold of, but the old favourites of porta etc seem to be hard to obtain...!

 

[Woodsy]

My understanding from a conversation with a retailer the other week was that, with kodak, it's simply a case of they can't make enough of the stuff. Stock orders are barely covering back order levels. I'm not sure if this is so with Fuji - who give the outward impression they couldn't care less, it seems - but in any case, getting hold of Provia in sheet formats is basically impossible these days from what I can find.

 

[Terrywoodenpic]

I doubt any of them have more than one or two coating lines running now. Which means batch production only. So a particular type may be only run once or twice a year.
With the vast losses that came with the advent of digital. I doubt they will ever expand their production by much more. there accountants will never let them take the risk.

 

[Woodsy]

I'm not sure that's true - as part of the discussion I had, they alluded to the point that kodak were raising their prices in order to fund increases their production capabilities. Whether that is true in the long term remains to be seen, but I see no reason why this would be lied about.

 

[stevelmx5]

Kodak have just announced that they're repurposing at least some of their coating machinery to move into battery production for EV's.

https://petapixel.com/2022/07/25/kodak-to-use-film-manufacturing-machines-to-make-ev-batteries/

I'm guessing that's more profitable for them than film.

 

[TheTimeChamber]

My understanding from a conversation with a retailer the other week was that, with kodak, it's simply a case of they can't make enough of the stuff. Stock orders are barely covering back order levels. I'm not sure if this is so with Fuji - who give the outward impression they couldn't care less, it seems - but in any case, getting hold of Provia in sheet formats is basically impossible these days from what I can find.

I did wonder if that was the case, and Covid / shipping problems compounding things further

 

[Plain Nev]

It's difficult to see how companies like Kodak can come back from this, if you ask me. Things aren't going to miraculously improve. They are not going to increase production in what is a badly depressed market. The money has to be available in the first place. It's a vicious circle. Perhaps we should look more to our own producers, or those in Europe who aren't weighed down by the burden of being a multi-national conglomerate. That's where the innovation is coming from.