So Long, and Thanks for All The Films

It’s been a while since I did any Kodak bashing, but the latest news from Rochester is that part of the business up for sale will include its consumer film emulsions. Interestingly, they still plan on producing motion picture film, and there is some debate about whether Kodak includes its professional films with its consumer films!

Whatever it sells off, and whatever it keeps, I think it is safe to say that Kodak is officially dead. Everything that made Kodak great is gone or going to the highest bidder, and judging by the difficulty they’ve had selling off what should be a very lucrative patent portfolio, one has to wonder how they will ever sell an unprofitable part of the business.

The really annoying thing for me though are the number of anti-film/film is dead/ why would anyone use film comments circulating off the back of the story. Well Kodak’s film stock may be going bye-bye, but Ilford are turning a profit, Fuji are doing okay, despite whittling the range down, and there are plenty of Eastern European companies making film. There’s even Lomography, and let’s face it, any company who’s livelihood is built on selling cheap plastic cameras to people who’ll pay a massive premium for them is going to make sure there’s film available.

Kodak may be dead, but film lives on, despite the naysayers.

Simples

The Yorkshire Wildlife Park near Doncaster has only been around a few years, but its ethos of animal welfare and conservation can be seen all across the park.

The first post from the day out are of the Meerkat area.

The first pic is another Yellow Mongoose, looking less Joker-like.

Next to the Mongoose are the Meerkats. (in fact the Mongoose and Meerkat’s seemed to be mingling quite happily.)

This little chap is a Racoon Dog and it walked over to its den and lifted its head up to watch me fiddling with my camera. By the time I composed the shot, it laid down, so I stayed and waited for it to lift its head up again. It obliged.