Kodak files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Protection

I hope they're able to reinvent themselves through this. I was sad to see all their great film emulsions disappear over the years, but would hate even more for the Kodak name to disappear. My office is filled with a large collection of vintage (1917 - 1965) Kodak cameras... Autographic, Brownie, Tourist, Duo 620, Retina, Duaflex... and a few vintage magazine ads. I still shoot with a Kodak Duo 620 (ca. 1937) and a Retina IIIc (ca. 1957).
 
Kodak cameras - my part in their downfall ;)

Kodak cameras - my part in their downfall ;)

Grug said:
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-501363_162-57361610/kodak-files-for-ch-11-bankruptcy-protection/

Looks like things are getting even grimmer for Kodak :embarasse
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It's partly my fault.

Years ago I bought a Kodak 'instant' camera (obvious copied from Polaroid) at a jumble sale for a couple of pounds.

I bought one vastly overpriced instant film, realised why it had gone to the jumble sale in the first place, then gave it to my young children to play with.

Some months later I read a newspaper article about a successful lawsuit brought by Polaroid against Kodak for copyright infringement of their instant camera. The upshot was that Kodak had agreed to refund anyone who had bought one of their own instant cams - £25 (not a bad sum back ithen) No cheques or bank transfers either, the money could be paid in cash by a participating dealer.

So, it was immediately off to rummage through the toybox - retrieve the battered Kodak camera, and then into town to an authorised Kodak dealer. Sign a form, hand over the camera, and £25.00 in ready notes was mine ;) I can still remember how happy I felt when I left the shop...

Later, in the late 1990's I was one of those greedy UK January sale shoppers who clicked on a ridiculously low priced camera on the Kodak website. It transpired that the price had been deliberately altered by a disgruntled employee who was leaving - resulting in thousands of orders from keen eyed bargain hunters.

At first, Kodak said it was all a mistake, and that they wouldn't be sending anyone their dirt cheap camera. Howls of outrage enused - much talk of consumer protection and a general internet forum furore, fuelled by bitter flame wars between those who felt they had been wronged, and those who had missed the 'offer', and who didn't want to see anyone else get an unrepeatable bargain.

Eventually, after the press took up the story, Kodak sent the camera to everyone who had ordered it. Just a 4mp p&s - but better than one might expect, and made in Japan.

Ironically, given the salvaging of the Kodak instant camera from the toybox, my 8 year old grandson now has that Kodak bargain cam - which is still working, and still taking decent snaps.

I suppose I should be thoroughly ashamed of my greed - and so I would be, were it not for the fact that Kodak were, themselves, pretty ruthless in their early days, apparently.

Anyway, I take my share of the blame ;)
 
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Seriously though this is a really really sad day, I still don't like Digital and don't think I ever really will.

How can we only have one film company out there now ? will Fuji take over with the A-minima Spools ? Will Kodak still produce 16mm Film.

Hunter, help me out man ?
 
I saw a Kodak ad in American Cinematographer this morning that said "Tired of Hearing "Film is Dead"? Well, So Are We." and I thought it was such a negative ad. Not good advertising. They didn't put up a very good fight.
 
Jade Lane said:
Seriously though this is a really really sad day, I still don't like Digital and don't think I ever really will. How can we only have one film company out there now ? will Fuji take over with the A-minima Spools ? Will Kodak still produce 16mm Film.Hunter, help me out man ?
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No clue- Surely someone will make the film. What the hell will NFL films do with out 16mm? Just use fuji I guess?
 
I really Hope not, didn't they just bring out some new 16mm film stock ?

Hunter, you still got you're A-Minima ? really loved you're stuff on Vimeo..
 
Thats what I heard a new 50d? About the aminima- No I sold it for an sr3 advanced- then sold that because I wasn't getting hired to shoot much film at all- I do have a k3 still though . Thanks, I really loved that camera, hope I can shoot again on it sometime soon : )
 
hunter richards said:
Does anyone know they will in fact stop making film because of bankruptcy?
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As I understand it, their motion picture film division is still quite profitable. It's everything else (excluding their printer division) that's losing money.

They haven't been able to move their digital imaging patents (which is the big problem) I wonder if it's because everything's moving so fast at the moment, those patents are already out of date?
 
This is a story of arrogance and incompetence. A very old story, repeated countless times. At one time, Kodak was the number 1 film stock production company, with almost no competition - or competition that was vastly inferior. And yet, instead of building on that advantage, the management of the company not only allowed the competition to become powerful through a series of missteps (Fujifilm), but ultimately, completely lost the plot. Sound familiar? Well, it's exactly what happened with the U.S. car industry. Number 1 for decades, yet fumbled the competition with Japanese companies, and ultimately ended up practically bankrupt (only rescued by the U.S. taxpayer - and in the case of Chrysler, not once but twice). This is what happens when you get bad management. I see more such companies and industries with bad management, arrogance and incompetence - though admittedly, management here is the best compensated in the world... taking so much, delivering so little. Oh well, a bankruptcy well deserved and well earned.
 
OldCorpse said:
Oh well, a bankruptcy well deserved and well earned.
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I could throw in some German industries as well: computers, photography and video (yes, they seriously missunderwrong-estimated the latter too). Different country, same mistake. So here we feared for a moment ARRI would go the same way - then came Madame Alexa, the saving grace. Still it's sad should the film-branch of Kodak go down somewhere in the future.
 
Kodak isn't going anywhere soon. They've asked for a some 'free-time' from their investors until they re-organize their business. To do so, they had to file a bankruptcy case. But this doesn't mean they will close down, they just need time to re-organize, rethink or just prepare for their slow death... Or, I hope come back with an excellent idea for their next 20 years in the business, because as they are now, there won't be the next 20 years, for sure.
 
Nuno Dias said:
Kodak isn't going anywhere soon. They've asked for a some 'free-time' from their investors until they re-organize their business. To do so, they had to file a bankruptcy case. But this doesn't mean they will close down, they just need time to re-organize, rethink or just prepare for their slow death... Or, I hope come back with an excellent idea for their next 20 years in the business, because as they are now, there won't be the next 20 years, for sure.
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Well bankruptcy generally means all investors get wiped out, and the debt holders become the new shareholders. So by "investors" did you mean creditors?

Really they screwed up a few years back. Instead of only designing and licensing patents, they should have started developing digital cinema cameras on their own, as their eventual replacement for their film business. Really they should have bought Dalsa, when it was still an independent company. Rebranded the Origin and Evolution as Kodak cameras, and worked on introducing new digital cameras.
 
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Andrew McCarrick said:
Well bankruptcy generally means all investors get wiped out, and the debt holders become the new shareholders. So by "investors" did you mean creditors?
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By filling a bankruptcy act, they were able to get a 300 million loan (or some figure like that). This will give them the time (and money) they need to restructure whatever they need to restructure. And I agree, they should have started investing in digital science a long time ago. Now, only time will tell if they're reacting too late...
 
Nuno Dias said:
By filling a bankruptcy act, they were able to get a 300 million loan (or some figure like that). This will give them the time (and money) they need to restructure whatever they need to restructure. And I agree, they should have started investing in digital science a long time ago. Now, only time will tell if they're reacting too late...
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They got a $950 million loan from Citigroup to cover current expenses while they're under bankruptcy. That's all the funding I know about.
 
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