Agfa to depart from photography? (one more rumor from Old Continent)

We just came back from our Europe trip:

I saw this last week in major Dutch newspaper: Agfa found
no takers for their film division and will as the 1st of
the 3 major brands depart from photography completely,
focussing on their currently major business in printing,
publishing and medical imaging.

Last year was bad for Agfa's film business. With mere
350 millions of sold 35mm film rolls their market share
dropped to 12%. I am looking for a source showing the
market distribution between Kodak and Fuji, but I cannot
any source with such numbers...

Anyway, major problem which Agfa has here in the US is
their problem: Who will pay a $1 per roll more than for
a Sensia? In Germany this looked differently. I just
got at Sauter in Munich the black round box with 10
CT-100 Precisa for Eur 25. Comparable non-pro slide
Fuji Sensia or Kodak was for Eur 30 in a 10 pack.
Pro 100ISO roll of slide film is approx. 5-6 Eur
for both Fuji and Agfa. Since I do not use Kodak,
I am not sure what are their current pro slide
films.

Thomas


By the way: Sauters slide developing process made me
jealous: 1 Eur same day cut and sleeved, 2Eur non-cut
all role sleeved. I was happy so far with Calypso in
Santa Clara $4.5 next day or $6.5 next day. Otherwise
I paid already $10 and more.

Thomas

ThomasH wrote:

We just came back from our Europe trip:

I saw this last week in major Dutch newspaper: Agfa found
no takers for their film division and will as the 1st of
the 3 major brands depart from photography completely,
focussing on their currently major business in printing,
publishing and medical imaging.

ummm, a group led by the film group management is taking it on as
Agfafilm... so the products will remain and hopefuly flourish.

http://news.agfa.com/corporate/news....E?opendocument
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/techinv...a-all-in_x.htm

--
-- rec.photo.equipment.35mm user resource:
-- http://www.aliasimages.com/rpe35mmur.htm
-- e-meil: there's no such thing as a FreeLunch.--

Alan Browne wrote:

ThomasH wrote:

We just came back from our Europe trip:

I saw this last week in major Dutch newspaper: Agfa found
no takers for their film division and will as the 1st of
the 3 major brands depart from photography completely,
focussing on their currently major business in printing,
publishing and medical imaging.

ummm, a group led by the film group management is taking it on as
Agfafilm... so the products will remain and hopefuly flourish.

http://news.agfa.com/corporate/news....E?opendocument
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/techinv...a-all-in_x.htm

Great, great, thanks Alan, this corrects the obviously
not well researched message by "de Volkskrant" which I
saw in Holland!

Thomas


--
-- rec.photo.equipment.35mm user resource:
-- http://www.aliasimages.com/rpe35mmur.htm
-- e-meil: there's no such thing as a FreeLunch.--

On Mon, 23 Aug 2004 17:10:58 GMT, ThomasH wrote:

Anyway, major problem which Agfa has here in the US is
their problem: Who will pay a $1 per roll more than for
a Sensia?

Today, I would guess that sales of consumer negative film are far more
important to a company's well being that sales of slide film. In many
parts of the country, it's easy to get Agfa consumer print film
inexpensively -- just walk into a Walgreen's drug stop. The Studio
35 film is rebadged Agfa Vista, and is available in 200 and 400 speed.

The "base price" is $5.99 for a three pack, but there's rarely a
problem finding a "free roll" 4-pack at the same price. About one
week a month, it will be on sale at $4.99, or they'll add free
processing for a roll.

In their own name, Agfa hasn't tried to be anything but a niche player
in the U.S. for many years.

--
Michael Benveniste --
Spam and UCE professionally evaluated for $419. Use this email
address only to submit mail for evaluation.