Kodak stopped all film production in late 2024 to modernize their factory and invest in the long term viability of film production. Many photographers saw this as the beginning of the end for the film photography giant but the company is back at it. Hit the jump to find out what this means for film photographers!
Kodak Film Production Is Alive And Well
Eastman Kodak temporarily halted all film production in late 2024 so they could modernize their plant in an effort to meet the increased demand for film. CEO Jim Congtinenza gave the news during the company’s Q3 2024 earings call:
“We’re doing a shutdown in November, total shutdown. We’ve continued to invest in our manufacturing process, while we need to shut down completely to bring light into the dark, right? Film is made in dark.”
Apparently a sense of humor is not a job requirement to be CEO.
Be that as it may, the news sent ripples through the film photography community causing a lot of film photographers to jump to conclusions about the future of the world’s largest color film producer. But these worries were largely unfounded and the company has resumed production as if nothing had happened.
What Film Photographers Would Like To See
Film photographers like Isaac Abner from Overexposed (video embedded above) hope these changes would allow Kodak to create new film stocks and resume production of older stocks like the much loved Aerochrome or even the legendary Kodachrome. But Kodak has not said anything to indicate that this is true.
But restarting Kodak film production for something like Kodachrome which requires its own processing system is far fetched at best. It would require incredible amounts of infrastructure to be in place even if Kodak decided to process it exclusively in house. I just don’t see that happening in the near future.
The Last Word
I’d love to see something like Aerochrome back on the market. I mean, who would love to magically turn the world into shades of pink and plum? And I don’t think I’m alone in thinking this way.
But the reality is that Kodak’s decision to shut down was most likely just an effort to modernize their facility to scale production as the demand for film goes up or down. Kodak is a corporation at the end of the day and anything they can do to squeeze a few more cents out of every dollar earned adds up.
I’m reminded of the time in 2007 when they reformulated Tri-X. The company pitched the change as necessary “primarily to reduce grain size and silver content while maintaining its high-speed capabilities, resulting in a finer-grained emulsion while still preserving the film’s characteristic look.” Or to paraphrase, “Bla bla reduce silver content bla bla bla bla bla.”
No doubt they increased profit by reducing the amount of silver in the emulsion. But I’ve yet to meet a photographer who didn’t prefer Tri-X before they changed it.
Welcome to capitalism, I guess…
What’s your take on Kodak film production coming back on line? Are you hoping for a new film stock? Or just happy that they didn’t raise the price of Portra. Oh, wait. I think they did. Nevermind.