The end of an era...

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Laura Halliday - 05 Dec 2004 20:34 GMT

I stopped by one of the local camera places and bought
their last two rolls of 120 Technical Pan yesterday.

They won't be getting any more. Nobody will. It really
is the end of an era; Technical Pan was unique.

Sigh. I guess this is progress.

Laura Halliday VE7LDH "Que les nuages soient notre
Grid: CN89mg pied a terre..."
ICBM: 49 16.05 N 122 56.92 W - Hospital/Shafte

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Tom Phillips - 05 Dec 2004 23:59 GMT

Rather, just lazy marketing efforts on Kodak's part
whose drooling over mere potential digital profits
while ignoring their real bread and butter is sinking
the company. Tech Pan may never have been one of their
biggest sellers (in fact, it _always_ took a couple of
years to sell off a production run...), but it would
sell better if they actually marketed it and all they're
other films.

To sell a product, you must create a market..

> I stopped by one of the local camera places and bought
> their last two rolls of 120 Technical Pan yesterday.
[quoted text clipped - 7 lines]
> Grid: CN89mg pied a terre..."
> ICBM: 49 16.05 N 122 56.92 W - Hospital/Shafte

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Robert Vervoordt - 06 Dec 2004 01:14 GMT

From what you say, Tom, it looks like the new marketing guys at Kodak
were hired away from Agfa. Those guys had a lot of niche winners to
work with, and just blew it time after time.

>Rather, just lazy marketing efforts on Kodak's part
>whose drooling over mere potential digital profits
[quoted text clipped - 18 lines]
>> Grid: CN89mg pied a terre..."
>> ICBM: 49 16.05 N 122 56.92 W - Hospital/Shafte

Robert Vervoordt, MFA

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Tom Phillips - 06 Dec 2004 02:12 GMT

> From what you say, Tom, it looks like the new marketing guys at Kodak
> were hired away from Agfa. Those guys had a lot of niche winners to
> work with, and just blew it time after time.

I must have been one of their niche users. APX 25
in 4x5 was an excellant film Agfa failed to adequately
market here...

> >Rather, just lazy marketing efforts on Kodak's part
> >whose drooling over mere potential digital profits
[quoted text clipped - 20 lines]
>
> Robert Vervoordt, MFA

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Robert Vervoordt - 06 Dec 2004 06:36 GMT

>> From what you say, Tom, it looks like the new marketing guys at Kodak
>> were hired away from Agfa. Those guys had a lot of niche winners to
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
>in 4x5 was an excellant film Agfa failed to adequately
>market here...

They had so many MP emulsions under the Gevaert name that were unique
and widely sought, that they could have owned Hollywood if they had
lifted a finger in support. They had Gevagam, a fantastic VC paper
that you had to spend days tracking down to purchase. They had a
Cibachrome type of paper I could never locate, despite some good
contacts I had in the industry. Their MP color print films were
always in short supply and hardly ever advertised, while their optical
sound stock was never advertised at al, despite it having blown away
every other brand in tests by the sound houses in NYC.

It almost began to sound as if Kodak was paying their staff.

>> >Rather, just lazy marketing efforts on Kodak's part
>> >whose drooling over mere potential digital profits
[quoted text clipped - 20 lines]
>>
>> Robert Vervoordt, MFA

Robert Vervoordt, MFA

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Michael A. Covington - 06 Dec 2004 14:40 GMT

>>> From what you say, Tom, it looks like the new marketing guys at Kodak
>>> were hired away from Agfa. Those guys had a lot of niche winners to
>>> work with, and just blew it time after time.

Agfa makes some microfilm materials that are of interest to people who were
using Tech Pan, but Agfa apparently does not have technical data sheets for
them! At least, not on the Web. And even the exact names of the microfilm
materials are hard to pin down.

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Uranium Committee - 06 Dec 2004 04:20 GMT

> Rather, just lazy marketing efforts on Kodak's part
> whose drooling over mere potential digital profits
[quoted text clipped - 6 lines]
>
> To sell a product, you must create a market..

Not true. Tech Pan had an extremely small market, including its
original purpose: technical photography in microscopes, etc.

There are better ways to do that now...

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