I had an interesting coffee break with an old friend who used to be a
professional portrait photographer in my home town. Now he works for
Kodak's digital imaging division. He was visiting some old friends in town
and we had a chance to chat about the state of film and digital imaging
products. Various topics included the demise of Ilford, Agfa, looming
bankruptcy of Hasselblad and the projected dimise of Kodachrome. Seems a
new closed system for Kodachrome processing had been developed but arrived
too late on the scene. The processor operated on a sealed system of only 5
gallons of processor unlike the old system of about 450 gallons of various
processors and dye coupler fluids. I am not well versed on the exact process
but do know from him that the waste product of Kodachrome processing is
cyanide and invironmental concerns have led to the closing of the many
Kodachrome processing centers in the US and around the world. It turns out
the new machine would have done away with these concerns but consumption of
Kodachrome being deminshed over the years didn't warrant the new technology
to pump life into waning Kodachrome sales. Very sad, eh Doug Herr?
We also talked about the future of Kodak in the digital market and he said
although it is a very volatile industry, Kodak's role in digital cameras
looked fairly bright. Knowing that Kodak also had it's hands in the
development of the Leica Digital back for the R8 and R9 asked him about the
delay until spring of '05. He said he couldn't comment on that delay but
told me not to hold my breath. Without saying the words, he gave me the
impression that the digital back may not happen in April either. Makes the
Canon DSLR look all the more an option and if Leica can't deliver the
digital back at all it will not bode well for R9 sales.
Dave
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