Graflex.org

[glennfromwy]

I have just read that TechPan is being discontinued. Load your freezer if you use the stuff.

_________________
Glenn

"Wyoming - Where everybody is somebody else's weirdo"

[Henry]

Oh, jeez, and this is the stuff that replaced my beloved Panatomic-X! Guess it's back to Plus-X now---but what am I saying, I don't shoot 35mm anymore or use my wet darkroom now that I have a Century; it's 120 chromogenic b/w all the way.

[R_J]

Glenn, the announcement has been out for around 48 hours now. Some thoughts.

At the risk of sounding militant, I'd recommend anyone who cares sufficiently, to email www[dot]kodak[dot]co[dot]uk or the [dot]com version and go to [Contact] and write an email.

As T_P is to be phased out from winter 2004, perhaps Kodak's management could be encouraged to repeat one of its spectacular U turns, revoking its own snap decisions. Kodak have at least announced prospectively that it will phase out its T_P film over the next year in stages - perhaps a retrospective announcement would have been worse.


The alternative is probably a view which most traditional film based photographers have thought about, however not put into practice.
There are possible counter-strategies:

1. Purchase film from an independent film
based retailer instead of a bulk warehouse
store or chain, which undercuts the
independent film market and siphons its
gains to the acquisition of other fashion
stock. The majority of chain stores in
Europe are able to bleed the independent
film market dead, were it not for a
handful of loyal organisations and
customers. Without the independent market,
bulk warehouses may raise film prices over
time, or migrate towards digital sales and
abandoning eaving film based sales, at a
point when the damage to the independent
film market has already become
irreversible.

I'm not sure what the effect of this would
be; perhaps someone with more skill than
myself could analyse the consequences on
the stability of the film market.


2. As Kodak's present management is more
inept than Esau in the custodial
responsibility of its own historical
legacy, consider transferring support
through film sales to another major (and
sensible) film manufacturer.
This may be the only long-term strategy
for most film consumers, a little short of
using liquid emulsion on toilet paper for
a distinctive photographic image.
Is there any consensus, that this would be
either Fuji or Ilford? (Forum users with
stocks or shares in either - please
refrain.)


3. The freezer option: my annual supply of
Konica IR750 blocks the freezer option, at
least until every April of the subsequent
year, lest Konica make a Kodak snap
decision.

[t.r.sanford]

I don't doubt that Kodak is capable of discontinuing "Technical Pan"; they have dropped more useful films. But where does one get these bulletins?