Kodachrome Processing to move

On Thu, 08 Jul 2004 18:52:02 GMT, "Derek Gee"
wrote:

"James Robinson" wrote in message
...
In understand that the K-14 processing machine in Fair Lawn, NJ is
supposed to be shutting down in August or September, and Kodachrome
processing is supposed to be contracted to somebody "out west."

Anyone know any more about where the processing is supposed to be done,
and what will happen with mailers and so on?

The only somebody in the US left for them to contract with is:

Dwayne's Photo
415 S. 32nd Street
Parsons, KS 67357
Tel: 1-316-421-3940
Tel: 1-800-522-3940
F A X : 1-316-421-3174

That just leaves Kodak's Swiss lab as the only other K14 lab worldwide.

Derek



What kind of volume do these labs do? Every store I go into still
sells Kodachrome. It is at every camera shop and every drug store in
the area. Even if every store in the U.S. only sells one roll a week,
the volume for one or two labs must be huge.

"bakechad" wrote:

What kind of volume do these labs do? Every store I go into still
sells Kodachrome. It is at every camera shop and every drug store in
the area. Even if every store in the U.S. only sells one roll a week,
the volume for one or two labs must be huge.

Hi "bakechad",

Yeah... I've had that same thought myself. I've always used 35mm
Kodachrome. Not in huge volumes, to be sure, but steadily enough to keep
track of where I can get a roll locally when I want one.

There is almost no place I can think of locally that, if they are selling
transparency films at all, aren't selling Kodachrome 64 as one of them. Off
the top of my head I can think of two supermarkets, one drug store, one
general merchandise store and one local one-hour photo lab. All within a
six minute drive. And I live in a semi-rural, rather small town location.
The going price around here for 36 exposures is about US$7.99, which is
about US$2.00 less than the usual comparable competing offerings by the
other regular manufacturers, including Kodak's own E-6 variations.

Even the local (45-60 minute drive away) camera stores will still admit to
selling it, along with, in two cases, Kodachrome 200. (But only after the
EMTs have finished treated their horrified clerks for the trauma associated
with having a customer actually ask for something and not specifically utter
the word "digital" in the process...)

Since I presume these places wouldn't continue to carry it if they were
ending up just throwing it out (or whatever) when it became outdated, where
is it all going?

Ken

"bakechad" wrote:

What kind of volume do these labs do? Every store I go into still
sells Kodachrome. It is at every camera shop and every drug store in
the area. Even if every store in the U.S. only sells one roll a week,
the volume for one or two labs must be huge.

Hi "bakechad",

Yeah... I've had that same thought myself. I've always used 35mm
Kodachrome. Not in huge volumes, to be sure, but steadily enough to keep
track of where I can get a roll locally when I want one.

There is almost no place I can think of locally that, if they are selling
transparency films at all, aren't selling Kodachrome 64 as one of them. Off
the top of my head I can think of two supermarkets, one drug store, one
general merchandise store and one local one-hour photo lab. All within a
six minute drive. And I live in a semi-rural, rather small town location.
The going price around here for 36 exposures is about US$7.99, which is
about US$2.00 less than the usual comparable competing offerings by the
other regular manufacturers, including Kodak's own E-6 variations.

Even the local (45-60 minute drive away) camera stores will still admit to
selling it, along with, in two cases, Kodachrome 200. (But only after the
EMTs have finished treated their horrified clerks for the trauma associated
with having a customer actually ask for something and not specifically utter
the word "digital" in the process...)

Since I presume these places wouldn't continue to carry it if they were
ending up just throwing it out (or whatever) when it became outdated, where
is it all going?

Ken

"Michael Scarpitti" wrote:

The Fairlawn plant is being shut down because the land is so valuable
Qualex is selling it. Dwayne's is becoming the primary source for
processing in the US. Being centrally located helps. I would prefer,
though, that Kodak have about 5 or 6 plants around the US: New York
City or New Jersey, Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, Detroit, and Dallas.

Hello Michael,

Well, that could explain it then...

Couple weeks ago I received a call from the NJ facility to inform me that
they had mis-trimmed a roll of K64 of mine. Seems eight frames got
inadvertently sliced within the picture area. None were Pulitzer Prize
material, but of the 36 those were, of course, the eight frames I'd really
wanted...

In any case, I got a new roll of replacement film with processing... and a
chance to chat for a few minutes with the customer service gal. I took the
opportunity to pass along how happy I was that Kodachrome was still alive
and how I hoped that might continue. (Never hurts to let someone know
there's still a few of us left out here.) Her quiet response was,

"Me, too. But none of us are feeling too good about things right now.
We're all hoping we'll still have jobs."

She didn't elaborate. I wished her - and them - the best.

Ken

Michael Scarpitti wrote:
bakechad wrote in message . ..

On Thu, 08 Jul 2004 18:52:02 GMT, "Derek Gee"
wrote:


"James Robinson" wrote in message
...

In understand that the K-14 processing machine in Fair Lawn, NJ is
supposed to be shutting down in August or September, and Kodachrome
processing is supposed to be contracted to somebody "out west."

Anyone know any more about where the processing is supposed to be done,
and what will happen with mailers and so on?

The only somebody in the US left for them to contract with is:

Dwayne's Photo
415 S. 32nd Street
Parsons, KS 67357
Tel: 1-316-421-3940
Tel: 1-800-522-3940
F A X : 1-316-421-3174

That just leaves Kodak's Swiss lab as the only other K14 lab worldwide.

Derek



What kind of volume do these labs do? Every store I go into still
sells Kodachrome. It is at every camera shop and every drug store in
the area. Even if every store in the U.S. only sells one roll a week,
the volume for one or two labs must be huge.


The Fairlawn plant is being shut down because the land is so valuable
Qualex is selling it. Dwayne's is becoming the primary source for
processing in the US. Being centrally located helps. I would prefer,
though, that Kodak have about 5 or 6 plants around the US: New York
City or New Jersey, Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, Detroit, and Dallas.

Kodachrome is a problem for Kodak, it's a complex process, the market
(pros and serious amateurs -- in Western Europe and North America) is
either retiring or going digital, there is no reason to invent new
markets, even in China and India, better to offer just the ubiquitous E6
process films. The only plants that can handle it are sitting on land,
that was considered Industrial wastelands 20 years ago. The cities have
grown around them, and now that old industrial plant, after a little
cleanup, demolision and some building would make a nice site for a super
store "farm", you know a Home Depot, a Sam's Club, a Best Buy, and a few
other superstores. This makes the land massively more valueable.

So how does Kodak resolve this problem, they make it more difficult to
get processing, leave one outside lab, then the price goes up, because
the lab is so busy they can charge more, that reduces the market
further. Kodak then says sales are way, way down, and discontinues the
product.

W

"The Wogster" wrote in message
. ..
Michael Scarpitti wrote:
bakechad wrote in message
. ..

On Thu, 08 Jul 2004 18:52:02 GMT, "Derek Gee"
wrote:


"James Robinson" wrote in message
...

In understand that the K-14 processing machine in Fair Lawn, NJ is
supposed to be shutting down in August or September, and Kodachrome
processing is supposed to be contracted to somebody "out west."

Anyone know any more about where the processing is supposed to be
done,
and what will happen with mailers and so on?

The only somebody in the US left for them to contract with is:

Dwayne's Photo
415 S. 32nd Street
Parsons, KS 67357
Tel: 1-316-421-3940
Tel: 1-800-522-3940
F A X : 1-316-421-3174

That just leaves Kodak's Swiss lab as the only other K14 lab worldwide.

Derek



What kind of volume do these labs do? Every store I go into still
sells Kodachrome. It is at every camera shop and every drug store in
the area. Even if every store in the U.S. only sells one roll a week,
the volume for one or two labs must be huge.


The Fairlawn plant is being shut down because the land is so valuable
Qualex is selling it. Dwayne's is becoming the primary source for
processing in the US. Being centrally located helps. I would prefer,
though, that Kodak have about 5 or 6 plants around the US: New York
City or New Jersey, Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, Detroit, and Dallas.

Kodachrome is a problem for Kodak, it's a complex process, the market
(pros and serious amateurs -- in Western Europe and North America) is
either retiring or going digital, there is no reason to invent new
markets, even in China and India, better to offer just the ubiquitous E6
process films. The only plants that can handle it are sitting on land,
that was considered Industrial wastelands 20 years ago. The cities have
grown around them, and now that old industrial plant, after a little
cleanup, demolision and some building would make a nice site for a super
store "farm", you know a Home Depot, a Sam's Club, a Best Buy, and a few
other superstores. This makes the land massively more valueable.

So how does Kodak resolve this problem, they make it more difficult to
get processing, leave one outside lab, then the price goes up, because
the lab is so busy they can charge more, that reduces the market
further. Kodak then says sales are way, way down, and discontinues the
product.

W

Getting processing for Kodachrome from Kodak is no more difficult than it
was before, it's just slower. You still put it in the envelope, Kodak sends
it where it needs to go, and returns your slides in a week or so. From
Kodak's point of view, they have to do something. There isn't enough volume
to keep that many Kodachrome lines running. Heck, even A&I through in the
towel. Better shoot your Kodachrome now and keep Kodak making the film, and
Duane's processing it.

I love Kodachrome. My main use for it though is as a copy film, with the
very dense blacks making just super copies of old photo prints for
projection. I prefer the new Kodak E-6 films for my stereo photography,
mainly due to the finer grain and hopped up colors. As noted before, many
photographers are turning to digital. While digital may never completely
replace chemical film, it's clearly going to eat into the total market share
for imaging.

Derek

Last year I predicted on this venue that Kodachrome processing would
eventually be outsourced by Kodak and that after that Kodachrome production
would cease. This is simply a matter of looking at what is happening to
the photography business landscape in general and Kodak in particular. That
old post is at:

http://groups.google.com/groups?q=ho...s.com&rnum= 1

Kodachrome is an orphan product with negative growth prospects. It's
prospects are to forever shrink in sales until it goes away all together.

So it goes.

John

Last year I predicted on this venue that Kodachrome processing would
eventually be outsourced by Kodak and that after that Kodachrome production
would cease. This is simply a matter of looking at what is happening to
the photography business landscape in general and Kodak in particular. That
old post is at:

http://groups.google.com/groups?q=ho...s.com&rnum= 1

Kodachrome is an orphan product with negative growth prospects. It's
prospects are to forever shrink in sales until it goes away all together.

So it goes.

John

Last year I predicted on this venue that Kodachrome processing would
eventually be outsourced by Kodak and that after that Kodachrome production
would cease. This is simply a matter of looking at what is happening to
the photography business landscape in general and Kodak in particular. That
old post is at:

http://groups.google.com/groups?q=ho...s.com&rnum= 1

Kodachrome is an orphan product with negative growth prospects. It's
prospects are to forever shrink in sales until it goes away all together.

So it goes.

John

after that Kodachrome production
would cease.

Time marches on. Wet plate photography was invented and was very popular. But
when dry plates were invented, wet plate photography gradually disappeared. I
don't know of anyone today who is using wet-plate photography.