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Kodak's troubles [Merged]


viramati

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Well they seem to be making a wrong turn even now by putting their hopes on their consumer printer business. They are up against very tough opposition against the established players. Epson has been building its dominant market share for at least 15 years now and there is Canon, HP and even Lexmark.

Leica is not the only camera company dependent upon Kodak sensors, think of Hasselblad, Phase One and now Pentax.

 

Jeff

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Maybe we should buy shares to keep them afloat seeing they dropped in value by 25% yesterday!!!

 

Being traded on an open market, buying shares isn't going to help Kodak financially (at least not in any direct cash sense). Buying their products will be more beneficial to Kodak's cash flow. If the thought of Leica not having any spare sensors is keeping you awake at night I'd suggest buying a couple more M9 bodies to cover future eventualities.:)

 

Personally, I'm not worried. Even if Kodak do eventually go tits-up into Chapter 11 the sensor and film businesses (the two parts of Kodak of most interest in this forum) are not going to disappear overnight.

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So Kodak go bust!!

BBC News - Kodak shares drop by 25% after cash call raises concern

what then for the M9? no sensors and thus no new cameras or repairs. Could it then go the same way as the DMR? Would be a disaster for Leica

 

Hmm.. The DMR was a comercially uninterestng 3600 built, and a supplier that came into direct opposition to Leica. The M8/9 are tens of thousands sold, shared patents and a company that is in more danger of being split up and sold in parts than of disappearing. Not quite the same situation. ANd Leica would be pretty stupid notto have a plan B.

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You mean we will all be forum trolls?:eek::D

 

And the father said to his young son:

When I was as old as you are now, not even one single computer existed.

Whereupon his son replied:

How did you get online then?:D

 

Jokes aside.

How on earth is it possible that once the world's largest photography company may end up in the ditch?:

Is it due to bad leadership? :confused:

The world is full of bad leaders who make wrong choices all the time.

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in the us there are different types of bankruptcy and the most popular is a reorg that allows the firm to continue operating without having to pay its creditors. even the creditors are okay with this. what kodak eventually decides to do is another question. i would imagine they would sell off the pieces just as they have been trying to sell the patents. the problem for kodak is that they are technically sound company that cannot make the equal in terms of consumer products. they invented the digital camera but couldn't make one people would buy. kodak was film, consumer, professional and medical (x-rays). they never had a quality brand past that. and so today they suffer and will very likely go out of business. as for leica, well we will know something in a year when we see whose sensor goes into their new camera unveiled at photokina. for the m9 people, including myself, one can only hope that there is a modular aspect to the sensor in that a different one can be dropped in. a replacement can, as the cracked sensor people know, so then its the software. but if people are willing to fork over a grand to get their m9 turned into a m9p i would suspect they would pay a grand or so to get a new sensor etc.

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Another reason I have not bought a M9. I even posted about it and became a laughing target.

 

Not to worry though, the sunspot storm is coming and all electronics not hardened are going to fail, read TV, radio, digi cams, and the computer you will use to write what a fool am I. The solar storm is brewing right now and that caused the aurora over southern UK last night. It just needs to move to the center of the sun disk and mother earth will be in direct line.

 

Joint USAF/NOAA Report of Solar and Geophysical Activity 26 September 2011 | SpaceRef - Your Space Reference

 

 

Awesome X2-class solar flare caught by SDO | Bad Astronomy | Discover Magazine

 

 

 

 

In any case, there are other chip makers willing to buy out the Kodak patent and tool up to make 2000 sensors, a weeks production for sure.

 

So buy your M9 while you can get one plus a spare or two for parts. Or we could all chip in so DAG and Sherry can stock up on spares.

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Whichever can be the troubles of Kodak, I think that Leica isn't at great risk (apart, maybe, some delay) : almost any electronic component, incase of need, can be sourced from alternative factories : this is expecially true for "mature" products (one can still have made incredibly old components like the famous and glorious Digital Equipment PDP 11 chip : I sourced 10 of them 4 months ago - in Taiwan there are fabs dedicated to such "antiquities"); so not great worry about M8/9 sensors... for future developments, plan B in case...

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