Associated Press report on Kodak's kiosks

Read an AP article in Monday's NY Post, business section, don't know

if it was picked up by other papers, (and I am unable to find it in

their online edition to refer you to.)

 

Main points in the article:

 

Announced that Kodak will launch stand-alone kiosks in Detroit this

month, with a full-scale rollout later in the year. They will be in

pharmacies, supermarkets, and photo stores.

 

The consumer will place their film cannister in the kiosk and prints

will come out in as little as seven minutes. The user will be able to

select which prints to print, and only pay for those. They will not

get their negatives, but will get their photos on CD.

 

Kodak is launching this in an attempt to "slow the faster-than-

expected migration of shutterbugs to digital cameras."

 

781 million rolls of film were processed in the year 2000, with 200

million less than that amount processed in 2003.

 

"There is and will continue to be a very big market for film,

particularly in emerging markets in Asia and Latin America." (

Ulysses Yannas, analyst with Bickman, Buckman, and Reid, NYC.)

Uh-oh I don't think our very own expert industry analysts right here on the Leica forum are going to agree with Yannas!

Now, if all the people whining about film would just move to China or Bolivia everything would be fine.

Are these going to be the same kiosks they announced they were doing with Nokia so that people can beam their cell phone pix to the kiosk and pick up prints later?

 

And regarding Asia...I've already reported what I've seen, but I received email last night from a Vietnamese-American photographer friend who five weeks into a two month visit to Vietnam and Cambodia, and this was in the middle of it - " I would never come back to

film unless I have to. I surprise that lots of people here use digi too. "

>>They will not get their negatives, but will get their photos on CD.

 

What???

<an attempt to "slow the faster-than- expected migration of shutterbugs to digital cameras.> A bold initiative to give the customer what he doesn't want.

Frank, wouldn't the shadow details appear first and extended hilight details appear last?

It won't work. People won't wait 7 minutes, plus the time it takes to fiddle with the expectedly crappy software to select their prints. They want to rush in, drop off their film and then rush back in when it's done and pick it up. I think Kodak would have a better chance of providing a machine to run the film and upload the scans to a website, making money off the prints. As it is, Fuji, Agfa, Noritsu, etc. are eating their lunch in the mini-lab business.

 

What happens if 10 people come into the store in a 5 minute period, all wanting their prints? Is it going to take 70 minutes? They won't wait 5 minutes, much less 70. Geeez!

 

I tried to use one of those Kodak photo kiosks to print images from a CF card last year. The resulting prints were very good, mind you. But the entire experience with its multi-layer software, slow response time, and resulting high cost of (I think) $7 for a 5x7 was a real turn off. It took me about 30 minutes to get one print done. It also crashed once!

 

Kodak has got chimps running that company. Anything that will get deployed in Detroit as a first market is so Americanized and xenophobic that it will get crushed in "real" markets like where i live in NJ. Maybe I'm jaded, but Kodak has become such a company that is America-centric that it can't compete in many global markets.

 

Maybe they should test-market it in emerging markets, rather than Detroit.....oh, I forgot, Detroit IS an emerging market.

 

I don't think that this "analyst" has ever tried to use one of Kodak's systems.

 

Sorry about the soap-box rant.

I wondered if it was the ASF technology that I saw last year. It smelled like that...Fast development, dispose of the film, scans or prints only.

 

It's more Kodak money poured down the drain.

If they really want to attract people and have them stand around waiting, the kiosk should spit out a Krispy Creme doughnut along with the CD.

How about a Starbuck's Latte and TWO KK doughnuts. That would be heaven for me, an old-line southern boy raised on warm Krispy Kremes. (Now in the great frozen north, with little access to warm KK's.)

Isn't this utterly stupid: people who want instant pics use digital, those who want a permanent record use film. Even to the general public this will be seen to represent the worst of both worlds.

 

and

 

A friend of mine in the scary world of computers tells me that CD-Rom may have a data life expectancy of "as little as 10 years" and that data loss is a real problem in many formats (I recently found that about one in three MiniDisc recordings I made about 3-5 years ago have now reverted to "blank disc" status).

Hmmmm, maybe Kodak think they'll hold copyright on all those negs ;-)

Here is my advice to Kodak:

 

MAKE FILM ONLY!

 

Do not THINK you can do anything else. YOU CAN NOT!

 

DO NOT try to design new formats.

 

There WILL be a market for film for a long tme, but there will be no market for KODAK film if you keep screwing it up!

 

Your BEST film is Kodachrome, and if you would put some money into it and really promote it you could kill Fuji.

I totally agree with what Skip, Frank, Andy, and others have already said- It's a Stupid, Lame, idea! If they think these stupid kiosks will make everyone suddenly stop considering buying that digital camera.... well, they've totally lost it.

 

The article mentioned prints "in as little as seven minutes." No guarantee of that seven minute time frame. Picture a dumb ass examining all 24 images first, then choosing what to chuck, and what to keep, (print) actually get the cropping, fixing, and selecting sizes straight before they crash the machine, and then watch them give the kiosk a great kick before walking away, or screaming for the store manager??? Wanna bet the average point and shooter takes 45 minutes at the kiosk? The only way I see the store making money off these kiosks, is if they have a video camera pointed at the user, and later sell the video to either "America's Funniest Videos", or "America's Most Wanted", (after the guy trashes the machine out of frustration.)

There is a distinct economic factor involved. If they don�t return the negs then they have the advantage of total recycle of the silver. Returned negs have up to 50% of the silver consumed which is never recovered.

i am thrilled. i get all my c41 35mm (mostly t400cn) film

processed one hour, negs only with a kodak photo CD. the

scans are very good, and i rarely rescan unless i want to go

bigger than 8x10 or really care about getting the best possible

print. small file size but great dmax. i use genuine fractals to

upsample.

 

this is the BEST of both worlds and the wave of the future i hope.

i shoot with film, get the archival properties of film, AND quick

access to digital. GREAT NEWS!!

Those Kiosks were announced more than a year ago. They don't fix the negs, just process and scan, then the negs are swallowed by the machine and later on go for reclaiming of the silver. The idea is that people who want digital files to home-print or to view on the monitor or e-mail to friends and family can do so and still shoot film. Unforrtunately its a day late and a dollar short. People who have such limited end-use are the P&S crowd and go to any party or tourist destination and count how many film P&S's are in use vs digital P&S's. The time came and went for that Kiosk. Kodak can't win for losing.

Hmmm, some people have digital cameras and like to see thier snaps right away on the camera's screen or downloaded to their computer. And they can print them right at home with a printer from Hewlett-Packard.

 

So their friends with film cameras would rather get in the car and go to the mall and fool around at some kiosk? Right. They'll try it once and buy a 2 mp digital camera for $79.

If we look back at all the stages of photography development it's clear that the system

that offers the best quality at the best price will win out. It may not take over an existing

quality system, but it will find a nice balance in it's niche.

 

APS, 110, Polaroid and even now photo phones all caught a little bit of interest when

they first came out, mainly because of ease of use, but all did or will die because of

quality and cost.

 

Digital will continue to get better and most people will want digital, but film will still

have a place in photography, but not like it did. Kodak needs to stop making desperate

attempts at luring customers back with petty schemes like this one. They need to build

solid products and follow the consumer trend, even if it means film only has 10 per cent

of the market. So what? Live with it. Build a quality digital camera and offer quality

prints from the files.

I agree with Skip and Jay. If I want to use film I can drop it off, go and browse in a store for 20 minutes or get lunch for an hour and get it back processed and printed by humans. And how can this compete with digital where you see the pictures right away?