Re: RE:Just the facts, Ma'am, Just the facts... Kodak B&W Paper Discontinued

----- Original Message -----
From: "BOB KISS" <bobkiss@caribsurf.com>
To: <alt-photo-process-l@sask.usask.ca>
Sent: Wednesday, July 13, 2005 6:45 AM
Subject: RE:Just the facts, Ma'am, Just the facts... Kodak
B&W Paper Discontinued

> DEAR LIST,
> Let's examine the evidence:
> 1) Michael and Paula have not only stocked AZO...they are
> contracting with a
> manufacturer to produce a top quality chloride contact
> paper to replace it!
> 2) Kentmere has introduced their own fine art
> silver/gelatin papers and are
> doing a BIG advertising push. All this while we are
> hearing of implosions
> from Kodak, Ilford, etc., etc!
>
   It appears that Ilford is also plannng to continue
supplying B&W materials for the foseeable future.
   Kentmere is an old company who has been supplying
contract materials for a long time. For instance, Freestyle
Arista paper was for a long time Kentmere paper. Some of it
still is but now Kentmere is marketing under its own name.
They also make the POP paper sold as Centenial in the US and
also I think some of the liquid emulsions sold under other
names.
   It is difficult to know what is happening with Agfa. Agfa
photo in the US is doing fine but depends on the European
part for manufacture of product. They made a recent
announcement that Agfa materials will continue to be on the
market for the forseeable future.
   It is also difficult to know about Kodak with any
certainty. At the moment the motion picture industry is
still film based and Kodak is the primary supplier but
motion pictures are moving toward electronic media so this
very large market may disappear before long.
   I suspect that the market for B&W materials will settle
down after a while. It will be a small fragment of its
pre-digital size, but sill large enough to support smaller
manufacturers. At least I hope so. I have nothing against
digital other than it has substantially reduced the
materials available for chemical photography, something I
enjoy working with.
   Alternative processes, for most of us means some printing
method other than silver-gelatin paper. I think Ryuji Suzuki
is right in saying that silver-gelatin will soon become an
"alternative" process. Hopefully, the making of these
materials will not become a lost art.

---
Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles, CA, USA
dickburk@ix.netcom.com