Kodak film expanding production

[lmans]

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Good article.....if Kodak is bringing back the production line...while price remains high, it is perhaps showing that 'film is back'...

https://www.digitalcameraworld.com/news/kodak-were-the-last-color-film-manufacturer-standing?utm_term=406D0795-0446-4D25-AB3D-F5AD82C49B98&utm_campaign=75AC6D4F-39F0-41CB-A47C-7C5D939AC64B&utm_medium=email&utm_content=9177A87D-0392-458D-8E0F-F7A7CF2B55D0&utm_source=SmartBrief

[Huss]

They had to do this to meet the runaway demand for the new M6.

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[Jimmyp82]

That is good news! 

[Mikep996]

Interesting!  If I understand the article, Kodak is the only color film producer.  I have seen Fuji and other brand color film available at various sellers; is it all old stock?

 

In any case, I agree - great news!  I guess we have all the young people who are so into "retro" to thank!!! 

Edited October 23, 2022 by Mikep996

[250swb]

1 hour ago, Mikep996 said:

Interesting!  If I understand the article, Kodak is the only color film producer.  I have seen Fuji and other brand color film available at various sellers; is it all old stock?

 

In any case, I agree - great news!  I guess we have all the young people who are so into "retro" to thank!!! 

I think we should thank Hollywood who continue to shoot major movies on 35mm film and then possibly the kids.

A short list is here

https://movieweb.com/modern-movies-shot-on-film/

 

[Anbaric]

The original quote is in Petapixel:

'“So, really our strategy of being the last company standing in color films, the last company making color films in both consumer and motion picture is paying dividends. We literally cannot keep up with demand, we need more employees. We’re hiring,” says Bokinere.'

https://petapixel.com/2022/10/12/we-cannot-keep-up-with-demand-kodak-are-hiring-film-technicians/

Maybe they just mean last in consumer + movie, though there have been rumours for a while that Fuji is just eking out old batches in cold storage of at least some emulsions. It's interesting that Fuji are selling a 200 ISO consumer colour film in the US market that is rebadged Kodak, and they got Harman/Ilford to make the new Acros II B&W.

[Guest]

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Yay! Great news. Ramp it up quickly Kodak.

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, Anbaric said:

Fuji is just eking out old batches in cold storage of at least some emulsions

It certainly feels like it. You can’t get Fuji film easily these days. It took nearly 3 months to get an order of Acros II recently. I wished I’d ordered more. 

[lmans]

I hope the young people continue....but, as a few of us were talking....are they 'sticking with it'... They love the idea of film/retro...and they are getting into older cameras but knowing their need for quickness and 'now'....will they continue to shoot film and go thru either the time of processing it, or the $ to have someone else to do. Will be interesting. But, in the meantime, bravo for Kodak!

[mikemgb]

7 hours ago, Mikep996 said:

Interesting!  If I understand the article, Kodak is the only color film producer.  I have seen Fuji and other brand color film available at various sellers; is it all old stock?

 

In any case, I agree - great news!  I guess we have all the young people who are so into "retro" to thank!!! 

Fuji film currently available in the US is now made by Kodak, Acros is made by Ilford, Fuji appear to have abandoned film completely. 
 

Most of the smaller companies appear to just respool Kodak movie film. However, I’m sure that companies such as Lomography and Rollei do still make their own color film.

[Mikep996]

May be old news to everyone else here but I've done a little research today and came across two currently available films I never heard of - Kentmere and Fomopan.  Kentmere is apparently 'cheap' Ilford - not sure how that works, exactly.   Fomopan is Czech.

In doing that same research today, I discovered  "monobath developer," which I had never heard of.  So I ordered a bottle of Cinestill Df96 for my first shooting and processing of film in more than 20 years!  Can't imagine it could work as well as the individual products I used back in my darkroom days but I figured it would give me a relatively quick and painless way to see if I REALLY wanted to shoot/process film again.  

[logan2z]

1 minute ago, Mikep996 said:

May be old news to everyone else here but I've done a little research today and came across two currently available films I never heard of - Kentmere and Fomopan.  Kentmere is apparently 'cheap' Ilford - not sure how that works, exactly.   Fomopan is Czech.

In doing that same research today, I discovered  "monobath developer," which I had never heard of.  So I ordered a bottle of Cinestill Df96 for my first shooting and processing of film in more than 20 years!  Can't imagine it could work as well as the individual products I used back in my darkroom days but I figured it would give me a relatively quick and painless way to see if I REALLY wanted to shoot/process film again.  

@Huss on this forum has been a big proponent of both Kentmere film and Cinestill Df96.  His results show that the combo can work very well. 

[Anbaric]

35 minutes ago, mikemgb said:

However, I’m sure that companies such as Lomography and Rollei do still make their own color film.

I don't think anyone other than Kodak, Fuji and the now merged Agfa successor companies (Orwo/FilmoTec/InovisCoat) are currently making colour film. All the others repackage stocks from these companies or from former producers.

Edited October 23, 2022 by Anbaric

[mikemgb]

4 minutes ago, Anbaric said:

I don't think anyone other than Kodak, Fuji and the now merged Agfa successor companies (Orwo/FilmoTec/InovisCoat) are currently making colour film. All the others repackage stocks from these companies or from former producers.

Fuji definitely isn’t, that does leave Kodak as the only major manufacturer. 

[Sunyforreal]

Just now, mikemgb said:

Fuji definitely isn’t, that does leave Kodak as the only major manufacturer. 

Is Fuji officially not producing Superia 400 anymore?

[Anbaric]

https://www.35mmc.com/10/11/2021/interesting-industry-insights-from-the-tetenal-uk-dealer-day/

'One of the big questions that was raised was why Fuji film has been recently supplied with increasingly short shelf life. The implication being that Fuji have stopped making it, and we’re now just getting the dregs of what they made. [Mark Reynolds from Fujifilm's] response to this was very candid. Fuji had mothballed the facility when Covid kicked off, so yes, we were getting the film that had been made before that. But, he was 100% confident that this was not the end of Fuji’s film manufacture. In fact, he assured us that the Japanese were listening, and were recognising the increase in demand. He pointed out that in the first 6 months of this financial year, Fuji had supplied nearly as much film to the UK as they had done in the whole year previous. This sort of data is apparently not something Fuji HQ ignore. He even talked about the previously announced demise of Fuji 400H, and said that whilst this had been announced, the conversation was still ongoing.'

[mikemgb]

9 minutes ago, Sunyforreal said:

Is Fuji officially not producing Superia 400 anymore?

I don’t think there has been an official announcement but everything points to Fuji production being shut down, most of their film is out of stock everywhere. 

[Anbaric]

The official line (see article above) is:

'FUJIFILM is committed to Imaging, committed to innovation and will continue to sell film into the future to preserve the photographic industry as FUJIFILM.
We cannot guarantee and disclose what type and format of films we can put into the market because that depends on what the realistic economic demand is and following our company policy, but we remain committed to film, and photographic paper printing, not just for film, but also digital input.
FUJIFILM will continue to serve our loyal photo film customers to enrich their photography life.'

Which doesn't really tell us anything.

Edited October 23, 2022 by Anbaric

[Sunyforreal]

 

4 minutes ago, mikemgb said:

I don’t think there has been an official announcement but everything points to Fuji production being shut down, most of their film is out of stock everywhere. 

Wow. Well I hope as they mentioned in the article @Anbaric linked it’s only temporary. No competition is usually not good news for the consumer.

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[mikemgb]

Just now, Sunyforreal said:

 

Wow. Well I hope as they mentioned in the article @Anbaric linked it’s only temporary. No competition is usually not good news for the consumer.

Unfortunately they shut their lines at the beginning of 2021, I doubt it will be easy or inexpensive to start them up again.

I would love them to start producing again, I miss Velvia, I doubt they will though.