Kodak – Putting Your Money Where Your Mouth Is

This entry is part 28 of 38 in the series Shooting Real Film

I posted a brief note on my follies searching for an 8×10 sheet film that was “cheaper” than my favorites from Kodak. I was testing Efke R100/PL100 due to the fact that I can get it for about half what I pay for Kodak. I started with the 120 R100 and also have a small box of 50 sheets of 4×5 PL100. I was not going to shell out $100 just to test. So here is what I have found.

The Efke 100 is workable but I am not going to use it. I am sticking with Kodak. For the most part because I like the Yellow boxes and I do not want them to go away. Not only do I not want them to go away, I want them to bring back some emulsions in 8×10 that are no longer available. The other reasons are that the Efke has no where near the overall quality of the Kodak. Sure it works. Sure if it were the only thing available I would use it with no real “issues”. The 120 film is so cheap an curly I cannot stand it. The paper backing is ill fitting. The PL base is not as bad but it is still more fragile than the Kodak and easier to accidentally destroy if you bump it against anything while processing it.

The reality is that I love the Kodak stuff. I love TRI-X in both the 400 and 320 versions – two completely different and wonderful films. I love PLUS-X in 120. I love TMAX 100 TMX in all it’s formats. TMAX 400 TMY 2 in its latest version I am not sure about yet. PLUS-X in sheet film is gone – for a while now. I cannot let that happen to TRI-X TXP through my own purchasing decisions.

I am not saying that Fuji or Ilford film is not any good – it is fantastic and of the same calibre as Kodak. I just like some of the Kodak film better. What I am saying is that if you shoot film I urge you to put your purchasing dollars into one of these top tier companies. The last thing that we film shooters want is for these pillars of film technology and quality manufacturing to cease doing what they are doing. I personally do not want to be in a world without TRI-X, HP 5, FP 4, TMAX 100, PLUS-X, Neopan 400, etc. I do not want to be at the mercy of boutique manufacturers whose products are over priced and/or do not stand up to the standards set by the giants. Nor do I want to be stuck with substandard second tier mass producers that produce okay but not superlative products.

For my upcoming 8×10 film project I am sticking with Kodak. Yea it is going to cost me $5 a sheet but I rather have TRI-X.

Ps. Note that Kodak was the ONLY film vendor at the last PhotoExpo. People tell me that the line at their display was pretty long. I guess that is good.

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Published:: 12.19.09 / 10am

Category:: Articles, General Photography

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rob 12.19.09 / 11am

Five bucks a sheet; whew. I may yet pull the 8×10 out of the closet, but at those prices, it’ll be a while.

RB 12.19.09 / 11am

Rob,

I just got a new – old lens for my 8×10 and it is fantastic – I cannot wait to get out shooting my portrait project with it. The good news is that you can buy Kodak 8×10 in 10 sheet boxes so the price doesn’t seem as bad as it really is.

The other thing that I have noticed is that I no longer see people dumping expired sheet film for chump change anymore. Heck I can’t find ANY expired 8×10 sheet film anywhere.

rob 12.19.09 / 2pm

Yeah, I saw that article, looks like fun. All I have is old lenses, actually; a Dagor 300, a B&L 183, and a Cooke Convertible, all bought when I was a student and did everything as cheap as possible. I’ve been thinking about picking up some more recent lenses for it, as I see them on craigslist from time to time. But $5/sheet for film, plus I’d have to pay for darkroom time to develop, and I’m not interested in gs printing, but my current computer setup is marginal for dealing with files of the size of a scanned 8×10… I think I’ll just put that idea on the back burner for a while longer

Michael 12.19.09 / 9pm

Kodak was also giving away 2 rolls of the film of your choice to all visitors at their booth.
When you consider all the time & work that goes into a project, going with Kodak’s quality control makes much more sense than saving the bucks.
I’m with you about keeping them in business, even Leica turned to them for the M9 sensor.

RB 12.19.09 / 9pm

Michael,

So… What kind of film did you get??

Michael 12.20.09 / 10am

I have mostly Tri-X in 4×5, 5 x 7, & 8 x 10 & 11
x 14, a few hundred sheets total. Maybe 8 sheets if Ilford 8 x 20.
All stored flat, in a cool dry dark place but not refrigerated and significantly past it’s date. I’ve never tried out of date film, I’m sure it could be reliably tested and used, but that means setting up the darkroom again, and doing all the testing on the old film, & redoing it on the next batch.
The other issue (besides time) is my lack of success with scanning. A while back I had purchased the Microtek i900 with Silverfast Ai Studio HDR software because at the time it was supposed to be (Because of it’s ability to glasslesly mount and scan 35mm through 4×5, & up to 8×10 on glass at up to 3200 dpi optical) the best flatbed short of multi thousand dollar machines.
I don’t know if that was true then, I’m sure it’s not true now, but I’ve never gotten a scan that I thought was usable for anything but record files. So I gave up.
I have limited patience for feeling stupid, so I have never spent the required time.

RB 12.20.09 / 10am

I meant what kind of free film did you get from Kodak when you were at PhotoExpo?

Ps. I will take your tri-x sheets off your hands if you want , well at least the 4×5 and 8×10

Michael 12.20.09 / 6pm

They were not offering Tri-X so I took 2 rolls of T-Max I think (I gave it to my Daughter)
I’m sure folks went multiple times on multiple days, Kodak was very nice about it.

RB 12.20.09 / 6pm

You gave it to your daughter? Man… Now you have no choice but to unload your old leftover 8×10 with me. I really could have used those two rolls.

Only kidding I have plenty of 35mm it is the 8×10 stuff I am scrounging for.

Jason D 12.20.09 / 10pm

RB,

My two cents. You know that less money for an inferior product is false economy. Ask yourself what each image in your project is worth and if it’s worth the extra money for the film.

I thought so.

I also saw in the news last week that Kodak was won it’s patent infringement suit against Samsung while LG settled out of court. Apparently, Kodak is still a very major player behind the scenes on some of the most cutting-edge technologies.

jvo 01.09.10 / 2pm

good article and conversation – yes let’s support kodak!

RB Design

Kodak – Putting Your Money Where Your Mouth Is

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