Re: Kodak B&W Paper Discontinued?

----- Original Message -----
From: "Nick Zentena" <zentena@sympatico.ca>
To: <alt-photo-process-l@sask.usask.ca>
Sent: Thursday, June 16, 2005 7:48 AM
Subject: Re: Kodak B&W Paper Discontinued?

> On Thursday 16 June 2005 10:39, davidhatton wrote:
>> Hi All,
>>
>> Given that the Kodak decision to cease production of B+W
>> papers is true
>> would it be true to say that logically the next product
>> may well be B+W
>> film?
>
>
> Odds are they'll make film until the movie industry stops
> using it. One
> minute of 35mm movie film is likely more film then the
> average consumer uses
> in ten years.
>
> Nick
>
   At sound speed that's 90 feet per minute. Figure an
average of 10:1 camera original shot to that used on screen.
Current practice is to release in a great many theaters at
once so a major feature picture can have anywhere from 1000
to 3000 or more release prints. Add to this a much smaller
amount of film used in the laboratory for intermediates and
duplicates. That is a lot of film. Also, it appears that
quite a bit of commercial work is still photographed on film
but printed digitally.
   I don't think color materials will be discontinued soon
and Kodak at least seems to have found a reasonable
economical way to make B&W film. Also, Kodak's paper quality
had fallen off which I think must partially account for the
loss of sales.
   There are a number of experimenters, our own Ryuji Suzuki
being one, who are learning about emulsion making and are
capable of producing printing paper.
   Predicting the future is always risky but it seems to me
that at least some "conventional" materials should be
available for about 10 years although they may come from
smaller and less well known companies than in the past.

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