Kodak may not last much longer...

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Here is another follow up article from this morning...

[Ryan Gallagher]

There does seem to be a bit of news media latching onto this story because it will get clicks, perhaps doom-sensationalizing based on somewhat "normal" investor type announcements. Not good ones for sure, but maybe not quite so apocalyptic? That revenue flip cited could easily be due to their expanding into pharma and having lots of related expenses ramping up a new division. Liquifying a pension plan is never good news for employees!

[Phil Ranucci]

I had no idea they were in the pharma chemical business too, trying to get into the pharma business.

How many other companies out there can do what the film industry still needs?

Everything old is new again.
They sold off their chemical divisione in 1993 and they're getting back in the business?!!

[Leo Enticknap]

Yeah you beat me to it, I was gonna share Destin's tours here too eventually.

I'd also put in a shout out for Robert Shanebrook's book Making Kodak Film, which offers a very deep dive into the chemistry and manufacturing processes of film stock from the perspective of a Kodak engineer. I have the first edition, which was out of print for some time, but apparently there is now a second that is available for order.

[Marcel Birgelen]

Photo-active films used to be everywhere, not just in photography and film making. It used to be the backbone for x-ray imaging for decades for example. No modern x-ray uses film anymore and instead of x-ray, we now also have other scanning techniques, not relying on photo-active films. Another heavy user used to be the printing industry, which also largely has moved away to other technologies.

Companies like Canon, which were very active in the analog photography space, since successfully moved over to digital camera technology, but also into photolithography. Photolithography is used to produce our modern integrated circuits and behemoth like ASML specialise in wafer steppers that cost half a billion dollars. But there is more beyond just "simple" integrated circuits. Photolithography is the key to additive nano-manufacturing. How do you think those microscopic mirrors on those DMD that currently powers almost all digital cinema projectors is being produced? Even the tiny microphones in your ear-buds are produced via photolithography. I've never understood why Kodak, with all their knowledge in photo-chemicals, never seriously entered into that business.

Yet, they even managed to revive Polaroid as a boutique brand for instant photography, even though they're just running from a single, former factory. So, Kodak being the last serious producer of 35mm film stock, should be able to keep the lights on somehow.