New Kodak CEO

[T-Scan]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 00204.html

Take your 64T and run before this guy wacks the whole freakin program. The big K is still cutting tens of thousands of jobs that affect families, in order to keep headway in the digital market. apparently he has 2 years to make a difference, you know what that means.. no chance of any kodachrome format surviving this one, and we'll be lucky any reversals will survive period.

[PITIRRE]

Well, this is a scary news, so this mean that super 8 will be dead completly

[BK]

Well, this is a scary news, so this mean that super 8 will be dead completly

Are you kidding! Someone somewhere will give us super 8 if Kodak doesn't.

Bill

[Evan Kubota]

"as Kodak transforms into a digital company to compete with the likes of Hewlett-Packard, Sony and Lexmark International Inc."

F***ing wonderful. They'll probably try to suffocate the film division. This sucks.

[kentbulza]

Yeah...looks like the nail in the coffin. Whether digital or analog, the right CEO would have been someone from research that would share some kind of vision for a product. Either incredibe displays based on organic compounds, or new films with hyper-sensitive silver, or ultra-dense CCDs that could give us 16k in 35mm half-frame. I wonder if the guy owns a camera?????

Like that Fiorina chick, he throws around this word "digital", but never talks about concrete products. What are they thinking of making? More $100 cameras? $50 printers? What? 'Cause if you're not making money on cameras, kiosks or printers now, what are you going to make your money on when they go down even further in price.

If digital does mean something concrete, then let's hear it: "we're going to be making super graphic printing machines that put today's look to shame" or "we're going to be finally releasing the folding flat panels we've been researching".

[BK]

The big K is still cutting tens of thousands of jobs that affect families, in order to keep headway in the digital market.

Best of luck to big K. Hope they don't make the same mistake as they did with the disc cameras, instant camera system, video 8mm camcorders back in the 80's.

Bill

[Evan Kubota]

"Like that Fiorina chick, he throws around this word "digital", but never talks about concrete products."

Hopefully he'll be ousted before he does too much damage. Seriously, Kodak is a *film* company above all else. They would do well to remember that the digital marketplace is crowded as hell. There is simply no need for more low-end digital cameras, printers, etc. The market is saturated. Kodak should focus on cutting costs and eliminating extraneous products which have a very narrow margin anyway (low end cameras, scanners, printers). They should focus their investment on their film product, which, if properly supported, is not going anywhere. The demand is largely fixed for film stock - Kodak is assured a certain amount of revenue unless they really screw up. To become profitable, they just need to reduce costs to the point where the film division brings in more revenue than costs.

[T-Scan]

The big K is still cutting tens of thousands of jobs that affect families, in order to keep headway in the digital market.

Best of luck to big K. Hope they don't make the same mistake as they did with the disc cameras, instant camera system, video 8mm camcorders back in the 80's.

Bill

It's a reality check for those who think Kodak is a charity to a small nitch film market. the good news is that film will survive in motion picture and professional stills, but thats basically it. not to bash K-40 again, i still have my sentiment toward it.. but it's unrealistic to think of it surviving this era. It makes sense for Kodak to narrow down their film market to ECN-2 and E-6. Kodak cutting and carting an existing still reversal for S-8 is a god send right now. hopefully enough people will support it afer the K-40 backlash and we might see another 5 years.

[ccortez]

It's a reality check for those who think Kodak is a charity to a small nitch film market. the good news is that film will survive in motion picture and professional stills, but thats basically it. not to bash K-40 again, i still have my sentiment toward it.. but it's unrealistic to think of it surviving this era. It makes sense for Kodak to narrow down their film market to ECN-2 and E-6. Kodak cutting and carting an existing still reversal for S-8 is a god send right now. hopefully enough people will support it afer the K-40 backlash and we might see another 5 years.

I totally agree with this sentiment.

Most of us have some sort of investment in Super-8 -- small or large, emotional, financial or otherwise. We have what you'd call in the stock market a "long position" -- we're betting that our investment will continue to pay off in the future.

That means it's time to "get long and get loud" -- by talking up the obvious, numerous benefits of the format to everyone who might possibly be interested.

Protect your investment -- help convince others (ppl outside this group, as we do plenty of "preaching to the choir" around here) to try Super-8. If we build a market segment that can't be ignored, we'll be shooting Super-8 as long as they make AA batteries!

My $.02,
c.

[John_Pytlak]

I also posted this Cinematography.com:

For the past few years, Kodak Entertainment Imaging (Motion Picture and Television Markets) has reported to Antonio Perez in his role as Kodak's President and COO. And in that time, Kodak has introduced new VISION2 Color Negative Films, 2 new B&W reversal films, a new VISION2 HD Film and System, and numerous improvements to existing films. Several additional new films are currently in development, and significant capital expenditures for film production facilities are still being made. IMHO, film is alive and well, and has a bright future in this part of Kodak.

[FilmIs4Ever]

John, it's nice to see you back on this forum again, but I have to say that I question your motives, and your company's. Basically, your company has decided that S8 isn't worth it on its own anymore, so you're rebranding a stock that isn't even designed for motion picture photography, that is optimized for shooting at shutter speeds of one second or slower for studio setup work, as a "new S8 film stock". What your company is really saying with the discontinuation of K40A is "S8 isn't worth it to us anymore, so we're going to discontinue the last amateur movie film, Kodachrome, and shoehorn some other film that isn't selling to well in our stills division as "new". Last year I thought you and your company had really turned around and made progress in the customer satisfaction arena when you helped get K40A back into production for DR8. Now this happens. I know the D'Waynes people who process all of your PK-59 mailers here in the United States aren't too happy right now. The discontinuation of K40A throws the whole Kodachrome product line into geopardy. This new development really scares me. Of course, I know there's probably more around the corner. What aren't you telling us? Is all Kodachrome production stopped now, and you're waiting until inventories near depletion for the next announcement? I really wish you and your company would be open and honest and tell us now. I'd really like to save K40A in some capacity, even if I have to do what Schwind does with DR8, buying 10,000 feet from entertainment imaging and then cutting it up and putting it in reloadable S8 cartridges, I'd gladly do it because I care about helping new FILMmakers get their start for cheap. Kodak is doing all amateur and student filmmakers a real disservice. I'll be sending you some email within the next week after I talk to some people who are involved with K40 and see what their take on this all is. I'd really hope that your company will be willing to compromise, like it did after it officially discontinued DR8 in the early '90s.

[Sparky]

I'd like to know, John, if you are visiting this forum in some official capacity to gauge the reaction/sooth the wounds, or out of your own interest in the format. If its the former, thats very interesting as it shows Kodak do really care- do you have any influence on the matter? If its the latter, what's your take on your company's actions- surely you must fear losing a lot of super8 (amateur) enthusiasts through the added complication/cost of this move? And is the professional market large enough to sustain the format?

Mark

[Santo]

An excellent post/questions.