Kodak Discontinuing Black and White Paper

That's a bummer!... There will be plenty of paper manufacturers left so I'm not really worried but it's still a bummer! :(
 
I saw the title as "Kodak Discountinuing Black and White....", I if it would have said film I would be sad :cry: The paper is somewhat sad but I never really liked their paper as much as Ilford :p I think that the market for B&W paper will grow smaller, but won't go away for a long time (hopefully)
 
Thats depressing. Although I LOVE AGFA fiber base papers. after switching to the AGFA I will be hard pressed to change again.

Maybe digital imaging will make people see the work involved in traditional photography and the process will be valued more. I dont know.
 
The only thing I've ever used is Kodak b/c that's what my school required, so I guess I'll miss it but learn something new :)
 
Agfa is bankrupt... I hope the paper would still be available. I like it, I just spent the last 6 hours printing on it :(

I don't know for sure, the collodial plates aren't dead. I hope there's still be film available and paper in 30 years or so.
 
I have always counted on the big companies ditching film and papers, chems, etc... They aren't about photography, they are about big wads of cash, and digital is the golden goose now.

Years ago I realized that Kodak had little interest in photography or photographers (other than their wallets), and overall were assh*les, and I ditched them. The only Kodak product I still use occasionally is Tri-X. It would be a shame to see it go, but I could live without it.

These days I know about more small companies that make and sell BW gelatin silver papers than I noticed even 5 years ago. Buying from smaller companies is going to be more expensive, but on the other hand they will probably pay a lot more attention to what their customers want. Kodak's BW paper division has been on the back burner of the company kitchen for a very long time; even before digital, color was where they made their money.

BW darkroom geeks take heart, and check out some of these links. At some of theses places you can buy fresh film and papers that were supposedly discontinued decades ago. They are also coming up with new products.

http://www.jandcphoto.com/

http://www.kentmereusa.com/

http://www.photoformulary.com/

http://www.apug.org

http://www.bryantlaboratory.com/photographic.html

http://www.claytonchem.com (I heard that this is who has been making Kodak chems for years now anyway)
 
All this really does is make the niche market of B&W papers stronger for the other players. Really the biggest loss is for AZO(a contact paper). Kodak had pretty much ditched the pro-sumer market along time ago. Most the their sales where through your standard gold films and now digital kiosks. I hate to see jobs lost, but the effect on me is rather small. To say the least, it will be interesting to see how this all plays out in the next couple of years.
 
Should we expect the prices of the film to go up? After all, once the market shrinks and the demand is small, the production shrinks and the costs go up.

Maybe not by much though, because making film is pretty low tech.
 

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