Re: Kodachrome, Kodalux, Qualudes ...

["Charles E. Love, Jr." <cel14@cornell.edu>]

At 08:58 AM 12/5/96 -0400, you wrote:
>Chuck, et al, 
>
>You have the Kodak processing plant story right. It would be a shame if
>others read the incorrect story and believed it. 

I am unclear about what is the correct and what is the incorrect story.

>Kodak does lots of things, and does most of them right. It has made some
>blunders (magenta flesh in Kodachrome 64 and other mistakes with
>Kodachromes in particular that let Fuji into the market here) and may be
>too big to deal with on a personal basis, but our world would be much
>worse as photographers without the commpany.

Of course--who would have said otherwise?  But I am puzzled about how they
handled Kodachrome--it seems to me to be on the way out, mostly because of
their mistakes.  They also don't seem to be able to get a film out to
compete with Velvia (though I haven't tried their latest effort).
>
>Selling off the processing plants was a big mistake for sure, and Kodak
>realized it and corrected it. 

Well, OK, but it took them years and years and years to do so, while
Kodachrome went down the tubes.  They have handled Kodachrome so badly
(including failing to do any upgrade work on it for years) that it almost
seems they are trying to get rid of it.

>But they were neither forced to sell
>originally and of course were not forced to buy plants again. 

Maybe this is the correct/incorrect story part--right?

>The
>company is actually doing a remarkable job of being in both the
>silver-based world and in the digital forefront. I look at their
>competition on every front and marvel at their ability to stay ahead in
>almost every field....film, digital cameras, PCDs, dye sub printers,
>color management systems, etc. 
>
Well, I grew up in Rochester and my father-in-law worked for Kodak, so I
have various kinds of rooting interests in their success.  But they have had
many problems in recent years in addition to their allowing Fuji to get a
good-sized stake in the film and paper market--they have made bad purchases
and have had to get rid of them, and they are fumbling the transition from a
paternalistic company to a hard-nosed one IMHO--they are getting REALLY hard
nosed when it comes to their employees.  Anyway, I'd just like Kodachrome
back, with some work done on it to update it; I only converted to Fuji when
the combination of lousy processing and quality control problems with the
film got to be too much.
 
>Fred Ward
>
Charlie

Charles E. Love, Jr.
CEL14@CORNELL.EDU