Is there a possibility that Kodak will bring back the Ektachrome VS some day?

<p>How do you think?<br>

As Velvia 50 was brought back once...</p>

<p>I'm not an oddsmaker, but I'd bet against it.</p>

<p>I would agree that it is odd, to say the least that a brand with such influence on Photography, that will continue to produce films, would omit a positive film from their portfolio of films. Ektachrome films have provided unique tones for the consumer that copying digitally won't match. Nothin like the real thing.</p>

<p>I would certainly make a bet that they won't bring it back. I would win either way. Most likely I would win the bet. Unlikely but if it happens I win because I have my film once again. </p>

<p>It's all about supply and demand, costs and profits. I imagine they would consider it if it was a compelling business decision. But it's never going to be a compelling business decision. Demand is simply way too low and costs too high. What reason would there be for demand to increase to levels that would make it viable?</p>

 

<p>Velvia 50 was originally discontinued because of difficulties obtaining some production materials, not because it wasn't profitable.</p>

<p>Velvia 50 was brought back by a company that is profitable and financially sound. Sadly, the same can not be said today for the company that made Ektachrome VS.</p>

<p>Short answer ... I wouldn't bet on it either.</p>

<p>Fujifilm also is slowly but surely slimming down reversal film options. They just discontinued Provia 400X. That leaves Velvia 50, Velvia 100 and Provia 100. My guess is Velvia 100 will be next to go.</p>

 

<p>In May 2012 there was an interview with Fujifilm's president in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Newspaper, where he said that traditional photographic film accounted for [only] perhaps 1% of revenue. I.e. Fuji<em>film</em> is not too focused on film these days either.</p>

<p>Its time to accept reality and move on.</p>

<p>I think that Velvia was a better seller than 100 VS but Fuji is starting to slim down their slide film too. Given that labs are getting hard to come by for slides and the slide film cost, Fuji put up their cost 20% this July. I doubt it. The saturated Velvia isn't even offered in LF anymore. </p>

<p>While one thinks Kodak is better in C41, when I researched their offerings now. Other than Ektar, Kodak only have 2x diff films like Fuji. </p>

<p>I also think Velvia 100 is next to go. Eventually all slides will go. And I think that if they make digital cameras that can replace disposables, C41 could be all out too eventually. Leaving b/w.</p>

<p>Velvia 50, in 6x7 does the trick hence the 4x5 issue. If one understands the tools in the box, you know that Velvia 50 is sensitive to blue, and Velvia 100 is sensitive to red. It would be wise for Fuji to keep both. Adnausium, here we go, a properly exposed Velvia 50, or 100, properly scanned, and printed to large proportions, 24x36 printed by lightjet... has more information for the eye at the proper viewing distance than any other form of capture media. Period....Period.!</p>

<p>right.. but I still think that there is certain demand of film, it's just not the way it was once<br>

and maybe the problem is that from big corporation, Kodak has to become just a normal company<br>

I really don't know the production costs and etc, but I hope that there is a way to optimise it, so that it won't go away... still it was one of the best ever - the ektachrome VS<br>

but who knows... <br>

I was wondering also if they keep the technology so that some day some other companies may try to put it again to life - as some are trying with polaroid I think</p>

<p>I think if it remains or increase it would be a niche. Slide film processing and getting the actual slide film is getting harder and harder. It's not like one could pick up a roll of slides at any camera store and go into any store and have them develop it. I am in little NZ, but Supermarket or the Warehouse or the Kmart might do it if you request it and they write up a form and post it away, same with pharmacies, this is C41 but I don't know any labs that do C41 in the suburb malls here. There is 1 lab in my area in the CBD that does E6 and 3 that does C41 in their own premise. In my area sent away to be printed digital kiosks have sprung up in pharmacies, bookshops, Kmart type stores in my local mall there isn't even a camera store now. They used to have a Kodak and a Fuji place but both closed now. These two stores since the year 2000 didn't do slides anyway. </p>

<p>Velvia 50 was discontinued supposedly because some of the raw materials could no longer be obtained, then reformulated and brought back about 6 years ago, when the film market was a fair bit healthier than today. I suspect that any film that's killed off because it's unprofitable in 2013 is gone for good.</p>

<p>What do you think has changed for the better since discontinuation, that might persuade Kodak to reconsider? Have sales of film cameras increased dramatically? Have the reduced number of film users started to use a lot more film? As someone else said, time to move on.</p>

<p>To be blunt, there are two chances: slim and none (and slim just left).</p>

<p>All Kodak film production will cease within a small number of years. (They will continue to sell existing inventories which will last for another year or two beyond cessation of manufacturing.)</p>

<p>If Kodak ceases film production, I wonder might there still be enough demand out there to support an operation à la The Impossible Project buying out (some of) Kodak's film assets and making a viable business out of it. I wouldn't be so confident there would be enough demand to resurrect Kodak's reversal film lines though.</p>

<p>I think the question to ask is: Will Kodak even exist as a film company 5 years from now? I wouldn't be surprised if someday "Kodak" is just a trademark owned by one or more foreign-based companies. We are starting to see that now, with a "Kodak" digital camera made and designed by a Chinese company. Kodak merely licensed their name. Remember RCA? RCA was at one time the premier electronics company in the world. Now, it is just a trademark. So, the question is not will Kodak bring back Ektachrome, but will there even be a Kodak. Sorry for the pessimism....it must be the summer heat.</p>

<p>"<em>If Kodak ceases film production, I wonder might there still be enough demand out there to support an operation à la The Impossible Project buying out (some of) Kodak's film assets and making a viable business out of it. I wouldn't be so confident there would be enough demand to resurrect Kodak's reversal film lines though</em>."</p>

<p>The missing unknown variable in this equation is demand. That's what got lost amidst the fabulism and hot air stirred up by the Kodak debacle in early 2012. Who'd invest in such a venture knowing demand for the product was still declining? Ilford is smarter, faster, and right-sized to cope with this uncertainty. </p>

Demand can't decline indefinitely - it's got to level out at some point. I would have thought that anyone using film now is using it because they reached the point long ago where they choose whether to continue with film-based photography or not, and they chose to continue. (Although, maybe not in the case of film use in the movie industry - I think the "digital switch" is going strong in that case.)

<p><em>"I would have thought that anyone using film now is using it because they reached the point long ago where they choose whether to continue with film-based photography or not, and they chose to continue."</em></p>

<p>Yes, they are hard cases, but they skew old and are dying daily. And not being replaced, except for a few hipsters whose motivations and thought processes are just too depressing to contemplate.</p>

<p>We're looking at the results of decisions about film use people made over the last decade. Demand will likely shrink to the point where Kodak will no longer be able economically to make film "pay." I suspect they're closer to that than any of us would like. Anecdotal evidence aside, there remains the oft-cited PMA statistics that put N. American films sales at 1 billion rolls in 1999 followed by a decline to around 20 million rolls in 2010. "Happy talk" and "film renaissance" stories can't/won't come to grips with the reality that film isn't really the mass market item it once was--and is unlikely to become again. The residual market for film will arguably be for b&w film materials.</p>

<blockquote>

<p>Demand can't decline indefinitely - it's got to level out at some point.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>There was an <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/what-kodak-could-still-learn-from-polaroid/2012/11/29/01b8b8e4-38d7-11e2-b01f-5f55b193f58f_story.html">interesting Washington Post article</a> this past November 30th that addresses exactly that issue. See the quote from Mr. Tom Mooney, Kodak's Film Capture product manager, "As it turns out, the film business has fallen so far that it may have stabilized. As Mooney said, among professionals, “there isn’t that much digital incursion left.” In the past year, Kodak film sales have, for the first time in more than a decade, gone up rather than down."</p>

<p>But then the article references the decline of demand from the movie industry, so the story hasn't ended yet. The article then lists courses of action to keep Kodak film viable and also discusses the Polaroid Impossible Project for anyone interested.</p>

 

<blockquote>

<p>All Kodak film production will cease within a small number of years. (They will continue to sell existing inventories which will last for another year or two beyond cessation of manufacturing.)</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Time will tell for sure. There have been predictions of the demise of Kodak and its film products going back ten years but yet it's still around, so I view predictions skeptically. All we can do is use it while we have it.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>"<em>There was an <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/what-kodak-could-still-learn-from-polaroid/2012/11/29/01b8b8e4-38d7-11e2-b01f-5f55b193f58f_story.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">interesting Washington Post article</a> this past November 30th that addresses exactly that issue. See the quote from Mr. Tom Mooney, Kodak's Film Capture product manager, "As it turns out, the film business has fallen so far that it may have stabilized. As Mooney said, among professionals, “there isn’t that much digital incursion left.” In the past year, Kodak film sales have, for the first time in more than a decade, gone up rather than down</em>."</p>

<p>Sounds like the old "dead cat bounce."</p>

<p>Kodak E-6 coming back...?...not a chance...<br>

It's the same old thing really, E-6 is on life support & C-41 not very far behind when one considers the disappearing coat tails of the motion picture industry's hunger for celluloid. That leaves Ilford as the winner of the "Film-Niche" horse race. I hope Kodak stock sticks around for awhile longer, especially black and white, it's fantastic stuff, I stocked up huge and hope to do more.<br>

If anyone was to look to "invest" time, money, talent and energy into using film in the future, I would say that the only sure bet is black and white. That's what I am doing and I am pretty confident I have invested wisely. If not, I am happy to be done with photography as a career and passion...</p>

 

<p>I think that slides will go first. Labs may run out of Fuji/Kodak chemicals but others may offer services with Tetenal for those with freezer loads. C41 will be redueced to one emulsion for consumer film and down to two pro C41 plus Ektar but they will all go when a company release a disposable digital camera with a USB port that us reuseable without LCD or other buttons etc. The thing is now, a cellphone can take decent photographs in daylight. Disposable film cameras weren't very good at all in low light anyway. E6 labs are dissaparing, in some places C41 isn't that easy either if you are looking for an actual store that does it on site.</p>