Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2004/10/05

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Subject: [Leica] Kodak closure....
From: daniel.ridings at edd.uio.no (Daniel Ridings)
Date: Tue Oct 5 04:24:18 2004
References: <r02010400-1035-7DF736CC16BD11D99B01000A957A8242@[67.86.119.182]>

Yes, Fuji closed down a lab in Sweden too, but it was a lab designed for
film processing (negative and transparencies). They are still doing well
in all of their small labs that can effectively handle digital.

Kodak missed the boat here. There is a Swedish photography magazine that
does its yearly duty of review the labs. This time it was labs doing
prints from digital. They gave up on Kodak and didn't even cover them.
Kodak, they explained, has been a moving target (literally). Their webpage
kept moving around that they finally lost track of them. None of the
editors could even figure out how to send digital files to Kodak to get
them printed. So far all intents and purposes, Kodak is no longer a player
on the Swedish market. All due to totally incompetent marketing, not a bad
product.

Fuji does well and Agfa came out on the very top when it came to
quality ... and they just happened to be the cheapest too. Mind you, we're
not talking about "Fuji" or "Agfa" really, but smaller enterprises and
some might take their work more seriously than others.

So if Kodak would just get their act together (in Europe at least) for
delivering prints from digital, they wouldn't be so hard hit.

I can still pass by the custom lab here in Oslo and get anything from
processing and contacts (color or b/w) to large scale prints (color or
b/w).

It's looking tougher. I _have_ started to bunker up in 120. I'm hoping
Kodak will keep at least 1 b/w film around in 35mm. My guess is that it
would be Tmax, so I've gone over to it. I'm just being careful. Things are
going pretty fast now and the demands shareholders make on corporations
are pretty tough. Now-a-days shareholders are usually institutions with
little or no concern for the core business per se, just the bottom line,
and not annually, but quarterly.

Daniel


On Tue, 5 Oct 2004, Kenneth Frazier wrote:

> This from the Guardian online:
>
> > Adam Jay
> > Tuesday October 5, 2004
> >
> >   Kodak today announced 600 UK job losses and the closure of a
> Nottingham factory as the world's largest photography company continued
> to shift its focus towards digital cameras.
> >
> > The group is to shut down its photographic film finishing plant at
> Annesley, near Nottingham, with the loss of 350 jobs. It will also end
> some operations in Harrow, Middlesex, reducing the 1,350-strong
> workforce there by 250.
>
> url:
>
> http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,3604,1320088,00.html
>
> Ken Frazier
> _______________________________________________
> Leica Users Group.
> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
>

Replies: Reply from philippe.orlent at pandora.be (Philippe Orlent) ([Leica] Kodak closure....)
In reply to: Message from kennybod at mac.com (Kenneth Frazier) ([Leica] Kodak closure....)