A little sadness - Kodak axes B&W photo paper production.

[swag]

Analog world is slipping away. First Kodachrome slide film, then Ampeg studio audio tape, now this. I'm sure other suppliers will fill the breach, but reliability of supplies will go down for users (like photographers) and prices will go up.

http://www.pdnonline.com/pdn/prodtech/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000962967

June 16, 2005
By David Schloss

Kodak today quietly announced that as of 2006, it will no longer be producing black and white photographic paper. The surprise announcement was made to PDN via a phone conference on Monday.

"Kodak will discontinue the production and sale of black and white photographic papers as part of its worldwide digital growth strategy," Said a company statement. "As the imaging industry transitions from film to digital technologies, demand for B and W paper is declining by 25 percent per year and no longer represents an attractive market for Kodak."

The company added that it will continue to produce both film and chemicals, in a move that's bound to confuse the consumer at least a little bit. "Kodak is not exiting the B and W film or B and W chemical market. We are concentrating on growth areas and helping/enabling the professional imaging markets to innovate and grow through digital capture, digitization of film images and thermal output solutions."

When asked if other companies might be allowed (or pursued even) to produce the line of Kodak black and white paper, company representatives indicated that while they had investigated that option, it did not seem attractive, adding that other companies are still making black and white papers, which should still give the consumer plenty of options for black and white output.

This puts the professional black and white photographer who has relied on Kodak papers in a bit of an odd place, as they can continue to buy black and white film from Kodak as well as the chemicals to process that film, but will either have to turn to other manufacturers for their paper-based output or begin scanning their film and printing it digitally.

. . .

[swag]

1. Of course Kodak's stock is up on the news.

To cop a line from the policically regrettable Ezra Pound, "We see the beautiful decreed in the marketplace."

[Trigger Hippie]

2. That's too bad

B&W photos can be so gorgeous.

[asthmaticeog]

3. There's still Agfa, Forte, Ilford...

And zillions of other B&W papers that I find quite frankly superior to Kodak's. While in an "end of an era" way, this is every bit as sad as a few years ago when Polaroid killed off its professional products in the face of insurmountable competition from digital cameras, this still isn't the death of the silver gelatin print.

[swag]

4. Thanks for clarification.

I'm always too willing to mourn the passing of something that isn't really passing, I think.

[Double T]

5. Kodak has made A LOT of bad decisions and mistakes in recent years...

and this is just another one. Profits rule over sanity.