[Leica] Unlikely Kodachrome resugence

["Tom Furlotte" <tfurlott@midsouth.rr.com>]

         As a member  of  Kodak's Pro Products Network of retailers I have
to agree with Tina's post . Kodak has shot themselves in the foot with
regards to Kodachrome. Even the new "minilabs" won't help. There is no
market left to supply customers for them .  All the professional customers
that I had who shot Kodachrome have had to quit using it because of the slow
processing time.  We used to get film back in two working days; Now we're
lucky to see it in seven days. Pros will not wait that long, nor will their
customers.  Who can justify the cost of one of these new minilabs based on
the current volume of Kodachrome processing?  Who would buy one
"hoping" to get customers to switch back to Kodachrome?
           As far as a new Kodachrome is concerned, Mark, Don't hold your
breath . Kodak just discontinued the pro version of K25. And as long as the
"bean-counter"  mentality exists at the Great Yellow Father we can count on
further developments like these:
      ~ Our only contact with Kodak is a quarterly telemarketing call.  We
used to have both consumer and pro reps to call on our store. Both have been
laid of.
       ~ While Ilford is introducing new papers and films for b/w Kodak is
discontinuing Ektalure and Elite and massively cutting back on size and
surface offerings on their line.  Ilford successfully launches a warmtome
paper and Kodak discontinues theirs. Who's pulse is on the market here?
We're seeing a resurgence in interest in hand-tinting of b/w images and
Kodak discontinues their most popular paper for that purpose.
       Of course, this is just one store in one market and one man's opinion
.

Leically

Tom Furlotte
Memphis TN