Kodak RIP
Kodak was ubiquitous when I was growing up. While I never owned a Kodak camera, I purchased miles of Kodak film, both color and black-and-white, as well as developing chemicals and printing paper. When Fujichrome first appeared, I tried it, but the pictures always turned out with a green-blue cast. Kodachrome and Ektachrome ruled.
The company was prosperous back in the day. I had an uncle who worked at Eastman in Rochester NY, and Kingsport schools were some of the best in Tennessee because Eastman had a plant there. But now things look grim:
“Kodak has debt coming due within 12 months and does not have committed financing or available liquidity to meet such debt obligations if they were to become due in accordance with their current terms,” the company wrote in a regulatory filing. “These conditions raise substantial doubt about Kodak’s ability to continue as a going concern.”
Eastman Kodak was unable to adapt to digital photography. Another American icon seems about to disappear.
Kodak bites the dust
The company was prosperous back in the day. I had an uncle who worked at Eastman in Rochester NY, and Kingsport schools were some of the best in Tennessee because Eastman had a plant there. But now things look grim:
“Kodak has debt coming due within 12 months and does not have committed financing or available liquidity to meet such debt obligations if they were to become due in accordance with their current terms,” the company wrote in a regulatory filing. “These conditions raise substantial doubt about Kodak’s ability to continue as a going concern.”
Eastman Kodak was unable to adapt to digital photography. Another American icon seems about to disappear.
Kodak bites the dust
I wrote not too long ago (inside ten years) about how with the advent of the digital camera we now have a generation with no connection to Kodachrome, film, or developed photos. Ranks with The Last Cowboy Song: another piece of America gone …
@Ten,
A generation also unfamiliar with 8-track tapes, stick shifts and disco music. While I still drive a stick shift, I’m glad most people can’t–my car will never be stolen.
When I was in junior high, I got a novice class radio license. It was only good for a year and not renewable. I never got my general class license because I couldn’t send and receive 13 wpm in Morse code. Now I see the code requirement is gone, too, although I still have the key. The current generation has no connection with CW.
As for film photography, I’m delighted to leave the darkroom and its fumes behind and do all my image editing on a laptop.
Gone also the sound in the house of: Somebody get the phone! or I’ll get it, it’s for me.
Regarding a standard trans, when my daughter was buying her first car 6 yrs ago, she was concerned that if she got an automatic she would forget how to drive a standard. I chuckled and told her it was like riding a bike.
I stopped using Kodacolor after just a few rolls since Kodachrome slides were a far easier storage than Kodacolor 3X5 prints and better viewing than Kodacolor contact print sheets while also lending themselves to long lasting print enlargements albeit with excessive contrast under some lighting conditions. I happily outsourced all developing and printing despite making me subject to some ridicule by my peers. OTOH, none of those peers even attempted Cibachrome printing from slides. They were proud of their DIY since it allowed them the freedom to radically alter colors from what were true. Framing took a back seat to color enhancement for them.
OTOH, inter-negative printing from slides sucked for wall hanging sized enlargements both due to resolution loss and fading over the years. I have 10X14 Cibachrome prints on my wall that are over forty years old and looking as bright as new.