jtdnyc Posted February 7, 2008 Share Posted February 7, 2008 I live within walking distance of Adorama and just got back from the store, where I attempted to buy a roll of 35mm Kodak Portra 400VC. The salesman at the film counter told me that they had no 400VC in stock and wouldn't be getting more, as Kodak is discontinuing the film in that format. He said NC was disappearing also, though they had a little left. When I asked for an alternative, he offered me Kodak 400UC. I agreed to buy a roll, but when he typed it into the computer he saw that it had been deleted from the Adorama system, and so the order had to be written up manually. His explanation was that 400UC was being discontinuted, too. I have shopped at Adorama since the early 1980s and have trusted the information I have received from their salesmen. I know that film sales are dropping, but this is the first I've heard that Kodak is discontinuing its pro color negatives film in 35mm. Could this possibly be true? (Incidentally, I tried to buy Kodak color negative film at Spectra earlier in the week. All they had available at the closest store was 160NC.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ronald_moravec1 Posted February 7, 2008 Share Posted February 7, 2008 Kodak wants out of the film business. Let it go. You will be happy with Fuji 160 Pro. Really nice pro portrait film. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tmorgan Posted February 7, 2008 Share Posted February 7, 2008 Jonathan,<br><br>This sounds like a mixed up description of what is happening with the 'VC' and 'new VC' formulations.Here's a <a href="http://www.kodak.com/global/plugins/acrobat/en/professional/products/films/portra/portra400QAs.pdf?id=0.2.26.14.7.14.22.5.14&lc=en">Kodak page </a>with relevant information. <br><br> More general Portra 400NC/VC information can be found <a href="http://www.kodak.com/global/en/professional/products/films/portra/400main.jhtml">here</a><br><br>   ...Tom M Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
d_s31 Posted February 7, 2008 Share Posted February 7, 2008 It's no mix up on his end, Thomas. It's KODAK. There was a memo going out to dealers last October/November 2007 that showed the 35mm PORTRA films (only in 35mm) being discontinued. It was posted here on P.Net but it has since been deleted off of the system. I have a copy in my hand but no scanner - which is probably good since I question it's accuracy, now.<p/>The link you posted shows 35mm Portra VC and NC being around and your link is newer, so I'll be going by your posting. It's also hopeful thinking because I really like the Portra VC 160 & 400. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
d_s31 Posted February 7, 2008 Share Posted February 7, 2008 Oops, the memo is dated December 2007 - sorry. And what he said about UC I have <i>never</i> seen anywhere in print by KODAK or as a rumor. I think the sales guy was pulling the UC being cancelled out of his butt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john_gleason1 Posted February 7, 2008 Share Posted February 7, 2008 Well, for what it's worth, Freestyle seems to have a fairly broad assortment of 35mm Portra films in stock. So, if 35mm Portra has been cancelled, the rush to buy up every last roll hasn't yet hit Freestyle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jtdnyc Posted February 7, 2008 Author Share Posted February 7, 2008 Thomas, thanks for the link. The prospect of "new, improved" Portra films more than makes up for the misinformation I received today. However, it's disappointing that the salesman at the Adorama film counter was unaware of the latest information. Maybe I should have walked a little further...to B&H! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john_shriver Posted February 7, 2008 Share Posted February 7, 2008 The SINGLE ROLLS of 35mm Portra have been discontinued. The 5-roll Pro-Packs of 35mm are still available. That's the way their target market (professional wedding photographers) buy Portra anyways. Also, lots of dealers were breaking up the Pro-Packs and selling them as single rolls to reduce the price. Kodak isn't stupid enough to invest millions in the new Portra formulations a year ago and then discontinue them. All the films they are discontinuing are ancient formulations... The new Portra 400NC has much nicer skies, less grainy by far. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
25asa Posted February 7, 2008 Share Posted February 7, 2008 35mm is used way to much to kill it off so quickly. Also Kodak just announced revised Portra 400 speed films, and should be out soon. We'll see 120 killed off long before 35mm is. And since Kodak did that questionaire, they found out many professionals still prefer to use film on their shoots, whether its strictly film or film with digital mixed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craig_sander Posted February 7, 2008 Share Posted February 7, 2008 Portra films are fine for now. They just discontinued the single rolls, which didn't really matter because the big three places near me all broke up pro packs anyways. But there is a lot of wrong info going around about films. Photo places keep getting EPR and EPY screwed up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aaron_muderick Posted February 7, 2008 Share Posted February 7, 2008 Single rolls are discontinued. Pro packs remain. It makes sense. Why sell single rolls when most of the users are buying in bulk. Your salesperson obviously didn't have the training to know how to look up the product properly. The sad part is that photo store salespeople WANT film to die. I'm not sure why, except perhaps to display some kind of swaggering dominance over the customer. I was in a photo store the other day and they had some old cameras in a display case for sale. I expressed interest in one and the owner said, "And how are you going to be able to use it?" I told him it takes 120 film, no problem. He replies, "I mean Kodak just announced they are discontinuing all film in 3 months. All film is gone. You can't buy any film in 3 months". Uh? Huh? This guy owns a camera store and is completely clueless. I suggested that even if it was true, Kodak wasn't the only company that makes film. He told me, "Without Kodak no one can make film because Kodak is the only one that makes the components the other companies need to make film". He was way to young to have dementia so I am at a loss. Negative thinking and rumors are what will kill film...it will dissuade newbies from giving it a try. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
benny_spinoza Posted February 8, 2008 Share Posted February 8, 2008 Aaron, That's a funny story, at least, it would be funny, if it wasn't so sad. Can't believe that was the owner! If so, he's got more money than brains. The ignorance of people who should know better just amazes me. I wouldn't patronize such a store. Why reward stupidity? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul_boyd Posted February 8, 2008 Share Posted February 8, 2008 I purchased two rolls of 400VC yesterday from Central Camera in Chicago. They came out of a pro-pack with the "now with even finer grain" callout on the box, so I'm assuming they are the new 400VC-3 formulation. I also picked up some Portra800. They were out of 400NC because the photography students at some of the local colleges bought them out. The film counter at Central Camera is still fairly busy, in large part due to the college students. At least 3 came in yesterday during the hour I was there, with their manual film cameras, looking for Tri-X, 400NC, or 400VC. "I'm taking a class and I was told to buy Tri-X." Good to see. paul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
g._armour_van_horn Posted February 8, 2008 Share Posted February 8, 2008 To the extent that camera stores want film to go away, which wouldn't surprise me, I can think of two reasons. First, film is complicated and experienced staff will know a lot about it. Digital is also fairly complicated, but you don't really need any information older than a couple of years, so the new kid that's been on staff for six months is probably just as good at providing service as the old hands. I'd like to think that deep knowledge that includes film, chemistry, and the nature of light itself is valuable, but I can easily understand why a retailer might not want to pay for staff with that level of depth. The other thing is aging. Digital stuff comes in, has a known life, and at a certain point you blow it away with deep discounts and never have to worry about it again. With films, you have to keep a bunch of different emulsions and formats, each of which may have a long life as a SKU, but an individual package has limited shelf life. And you have to refrigerate it. Digital products much more closely fit the normal retail mindset, not to mention the inventory software that retailers use. Van Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gabriel_gabonex Posted July 7, 2008 Share Posted July 7, 2008 Is is true, I believe, the industry wants to kill film. Digital can be sold much easily, even if film margins are notably higher. However, some people believe digital AND film will co-exist peacefully for years to come, as two different media. The questions is, is it worthy to invest today in a good 35 mm film camera, not being sure about film life ? I have been long contemplating about investing in a Nikon F6. But the idea that one could buy a D300 for the price is hard to live with. Still, love the F6. So what do you think, should I buy it or not ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bill_tuthill Posted July 7, 2008 Share Posted July 7, 2008 Half a year after this post, five types of 35mm Portra are still available at NYC mail order houses, not to mention two types of Ultra Color, one of which used to be called Portra. Personally I gave up on film because Fuji Frontier scans are much worse than results from a 7 Mp digicam that I bought for < $300. This lends credence to the assertion that the industry wants to kill film. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
don_e Posted July 8, 2008 Share Posted July 8, 2008 "So what do you think, should I buy it or not ?" How old are you? "Personally I gave up on film because Fuji Frontier scans are much worse than results from a 7 Mp digicam that I bought for < $300." Why I'm buying a Nikon Coolscan V for my digital "camera". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rainer_nagel Posted July 23, 2008 Share Posted July 23, 2008 Hi there was a two page review of these ADLT versions in the french magazine Réponses Photo No 197 August 2008, pp.120-121. PGI rating stayed the same from MK 2 to MK 3. but in shadow regions (0.20 above toe), there should be slightly less grain (PGI system does NOT account for this!) well not sure if the following is correct, they mentioned availability in Plan-film size with ESTAR base. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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