Gast
Hi Mirko,
I really like the Ferrania colour films; they have a certain vibrancy and richness to them. Unfortunately, they’re only available in 35mm.
Wouldn’t it be a good idea for FOTOIMPEX to order a master roll from Turin, have it sent to Samobor, have it processed into ADOX colour roll films, and sell them for around 3–4 euros?
I reckon there would certainly be customers for that, especially for the high-speed films.
Best regards,
Otto
Frank
... I'll be there with 50 rolls.
Best regards, Frank.
Gast
Hello!
Good idea – the 800 would be particularly interesting, as films like that from Kodak and Fuji are practically unaffordable.
Werner
MirkoBoeddecker
We’ve been considering, negotiating and calculating all this for years now.
Negotiations have already taken place on this matter on several occasions, including discussions about producing various roll film formats.
It’s a lost cause; the minimum order quantities exceed 100 years’ worth of roll films, and that’s precisely why nobody does it anymore...
Mirko
Gast
Mirko,
That won’t work then; it was just an idea. How does Maco actually handle the A8 roll films?
Otto
MirkoBoeddecker
...these were made from a test roll that was supposedly only purchased to test the 'break-in' of the machines (it was enough for 30,000 films....).
Ferrania kindly produced these at a loss in anticipation of upcoming large orders.
But they don’t do that anymore. They’ve wised up at Ferrania now.
Best regards,
Mirko
Gast
Mirko,
Does that mean it’s the end of the Macocolor films now, or is Efke going to have to step in?
Otherwise, I’ll pop round to your shop and pick up a few of those colour films – I’d actually thought there was a ‘constant supply’.
Christian
MirkoBoeddecker
30,000 films are enough for a pretty constant supply...
At current demand levels, that should last until around 2050.
Anything that deviates even slightly from the norm isn’t a ‘constant supply’ but rather a ‘hats off to the manufacturer’s courage and thank you for still producing this sort of thing’ supply.
Available for as long as the manufacturer’s courage holds out.
Best regards,
Mirko
Gast
Mirko,
Right, that’ll do until 2050, but the films won’t last that long, so I’ll be putting a large batch of them in the freezer.
I can’t imagine that Maco/efke/fotimpex can afford to freeze 30,000 rolls of film.
Best regards,
Christian
cfb_de
Christian,
You’re a real scoundrel, aren’t you?
Uncle Hartmuth will just sell off the last 10,000 as a ‘final reserve special edition’ for three times the price. Or as a newly launched brand under another company’s label for at least three times the price. Or else: the stock will simply run out and won’t be replaced. That’s probably the most likely outcome. Sometime around 2050. And from 2010 onwards, people who develop their own film will be declared daft.
Around 2025, we can expect a certain company to announce that, “as a new product due to high market demand”, it “once again finds itself in a position to offer today’s photographers an exclusive premium product”. Or something like that.
How does that work? We black-and-white snappers are currently experiencing the pilot project with some roll films bearing the Elite logo.
Or, as true “believers”, when buying a perfectly ordinary film, the very existence of which has already been a thorn in the side of every motorist.
As a suitable camera for the future, I recommend a robot. Then at least the film and the use of the camera will go hand in hand. And everyone knows in advance what the pictures will look like in the large-format print. State-certified.
15, 20, 30 or even more euros? Bonus points? The first 13 are free.
Franz (today, completely off-topic from the Masterroll back then...)
Wolfgg
There’s a similar discussion here on Yankees about the situation at S/W; interestingly, one of the Yellow Giants has posted the following:
http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00ArYc
Best regards, Wolfgang
RomanJRohleder
Wolfgang,
Ron M. is a former Kodak employee who has been retired for years and has a very ambivalent relationship with the company.
Roman
MirkoBoeddecker
Of course, Maco or we could freeze 30,000 films.
For example, we still have frozen Macocolor slide 127 films.
Something along these lines is also being done (...will be done).
Look, there’s no point in arguing about this. If the minimum production quantity is greater than the expected demand, then inevitably some of the stock will go to waste – namely the residue.
Now there are three options:
1) You throw away this expected residue straight away and mark up the price of the remaining films, which means a film costs four or even X times as much.
2) You freeze part of it, thereby extending the shelf life to benefit the selling price of all films (that’s how I’d do it).
3) You hope for a miracle and sell at cost price plus a small margin in the hope of getting rid of everything; of course, that doesn’t work, and in the end you throw the magazines away, make a huge loss and discontinue the product or even the whole shop (that’s what customers always demand of you).
Regards,
Mirko
SimonWeber
If EFKE, or for that matter Fuji, can use these toxic chemicals, that is beside the point for EK, apart from the fact that EFKE might be able to produce an emulsion that you might consider ‘better’ than a modern EK film.
That’s what’s worrying me now: does that mean that as soon as Croatia joins the EU (which is likely to happen in a few years), EFKE will have to stop film production?! (After all, a ‘reformulation’ is apparently very, very expensive.)
Or are EFKE films technically compliant with EU standards?
Simon
Wolfgg
Roman,
All the better – then the poor chap can speak his mind without fear of being sacked.
Best regards, Wolfgang
MirkoBoeddecker
Who on earth would say something like that?
A Kodak manager?
That can only have been said by someone with an interest in discrediting a company or a film. It’s impossible that it was said by someone who knows what’s really going on.
It’s complete nonsense.
Don’t always believe everything anyone writes on forums.
Best regards,
Mirko
Wolfgg
Is there any truth in the rumour that the APX25 was discontinued because its manufacture requires mercury and the environmental regulations would have been prohibitively strict?
RomanJRohleder
Wolfgang,
In short: "Nothing".
Roman
