Flutterby™! : Kodak quits

Kodak quits

2005-06-20 16:44:33.689885+02 by Dan Lyke 2 comments

Kodak to quite making black and white photo paper.

[ related topics: Photography Current Events ]

comments in ascending chronological order (reverse):

#Comment Re: made: 2005-06-21 14:24:12.868421+02 by: petronius

Although Ilford and Agfa claim to be supporting b&w paper, their financial difficulties would seem to make that assumption a bit shakey. And if darkrroom equipment becomes more of a niche market, certainly there will be no further technical development in that field.

I spent more than 20 years working for a ocmpany that produced training programs in radiology. We were perhaps the largest user of 35mm long roll b&w slide film in Chicago, since we could never get the correct contrast control on color film. I've had thousands of slides pass through my hands, and now Kodak doesn't even make Ektagraphic projectors any more. Its spooky how quickly (and quietly) this century-old technology has faded. It will also change so many ways of doing business, for example, big catalog houses like Sears and Wards would buy up entire production runs of color film from Kodak, to assure consistant chemistry in the emulsions, which changed slightly fron one run to another. Now color control has become the complete province of the PhotoShopper. We have moved from a direct chain of transmission from t lense to image, to utter manipulation at every stage.

#Comment Re: made: 2005-06-21 17:27:45.364238+02 by: Dan Lyke

I wonder if we're going to see a resurgence of home-made B&W paper. From what i've read of the middle half-century of photography, it's not that hard, and if you're into the processes of photography enough to have a darkroom at this late stage then there's not that much impediment to taking the craft from end-to-end.