Two new films are coming back!
It’s only natural that as the world becomes richer, we need to make fewer trade offs. Shifting to digital photography opened up new technological capabilities AND saved physical resources. Instead of maintaining both, and having photographers pay to maintain twice as much equipment, we traded. Film for digital.
Now we can have both. I expect that this will continue in general, regardless of the sucess of the film… which is dependent upon Kodak having a strong backbone and maintaining production regardless if they don’t meet intial sales… something a lot of management can’t stand to do these days.
During CES 2017, Kodak announced it would revive the film stock it discontinued in 2012, Ektachrome. The announcement was well received, and was itself the result of an uptick in professional film sales, something that has also spurred Kodak toward another possible revival: Kodachrome. Eastman Kodak’s President of Consumer Film division and Chief Marketing Office Steve Overman confirmed as much during a recent The Kodakery podcast.
The Kodakery team spoke with Overman from the Kodak booth during CES, and near the end of the discussion they mentioned the Ektachrome revival. That topic snowballed into a confirmation from Overman that Kodak is likewise looking into bringing Kodachrome back, but plans to do so haven’t been finalized at this time.
Source: https://www.dpreview.com/news/0231791472/kodak-cmo-says-the-company-is-looking-into-reviving-kodachrome
Kodak Brings Back a Classic with EKTACHROME Film
Las Vegas, NV, Thursday, January 05, 2017 —To the delight of film enthusiasts across the globe, Eastman Kodak Company today announced plans to bring back one of its most iconic film stocks. Over the next 12 months, Kodak will be working to reformulate and manufacture KODAK EKTACHROME Film for both motion picture and still photography applications. Initial availability is expected in the fourth quarter of 2017.
KODAK EKTACHROME Film has a distinctive look that was the choice for generations of cinematographers before it was discontinued in 2012. The film is known for its extremely fine grain, clean colors, great tones and contrasts.
“It is such a privilege to reintroduce KODAK EKTRACHROME Film to the cinematography community,” said Steven Overman, Kodak’s chief marketing officer and president of the Consumer and Film Division. “We are seeing a broad resurgence of excitement about capturing images on film. Kodak is committed to continuing to manufacture film as an irreplaceable medium for image creators to capture their artistic vision. We are proud to help bring back this classic.”
Kodak will produce EKTACHROME at its film factory in Rochester, N.Y., and will market and distribute the Super 8 motion picture film version of EKTACHROME Film directly.
Kodak Alaris, an independent company since 2013, also plans to offer a still format KODAK PROFESSIONAL EKTACHROME Film for photographers in 135-36x format. KODAK PROFESSIONAL EKTACHROME Film is a color positive film, also known as “reversal,” “slide,” or “transparency” film. Unlike all of the other KODAK PROFESSIONAL Films available today, which are color negative films, EKTACHROME generates a positive image that can be viewed or projected once it is exposed and processed. This makes it ideal for high-resolution projection or presentations. It is also well suited for scanning and printing onto a range of professional-grade photographic media. Availability is expected in the fourth quarter of 2017.