[ChrisPlatt]

From the NY Times business pages:

Kodak stock dives after credit line is tapped

Chris

[benhai]

It is sentimental to see Kodak's stock went done to $1.74. It is the most respectful company when I was a kid. They had a good camera Kodak P880 some time ago. But too bad my copy got the shutter problem too after 2000 clicks. Not sure what can help them. They got too many opportunities already.

[BillM]

Does it come as a surprise Chris? Money will flow towards pacific rim,cheap
new technology at the fore-front,human conditions be damned.Analog
stuff will still be around for awhile,at a premium of course.A vaccume will
be filled by demand, to lesser extent. Is only inebitable that the candle
be extinguished at some point.To talk about quality control is laughable
when one considers the number of state attorney generals that have been
approached regarding class actions regarding issues with a certain DSLR only recently.

[RioRico]

Is Kodak run by lawyers or B-school grads rather than people with photographic production experience? They show the classic signs of that. They've too long tried to milk cash-cows, selling low-end junk instead of concentrating on the new technologies they've invented (like digital photography). Now is a perfect time for M'Soft or Google or Apple to snap them up for their patents. I HEREBY PREDICT: Kodak will be devoured in 2012. Kiss them bye-bye.

Most of my cameras are Kodaks. My first (and some of my best) cameras were Kodaks -- German Kodaks were pretty superb. I'll be sad to see Kodak go. [/me wipes away tears]

A personal note: I lived awhile during the 1970's in Palmyra NY, about 20mi / 35kmn from Kodak's HQ. (Yeah, I was chasing a girl...) Now, Palmyra is where Joseph Smith founded Mormonism. Smith attracted the adventurous, curious locals, and went migrating. Those left behind were not so brilliant. Or, as I put it, I've never seen so many dumbf*cks in one place anywhere else. KODAK REFUSED TO HIRE LOCALS. I'm a Californian; I could have been hired at the plant. But those who grew up in the area knew better than to apply for a Kodak job.

[BillM]

[/me wipes away tears]

Id offer you a hanky,would be a wet one.Feel the same way.
Agree whole-heartedly,probable demise is mostly self inflicted.
Cmon Rico,cheer up....they aint dead yet.

[tibbitts]

My first camera was a Kodak, and like everyone I used many Kodak products over the year. Kodak photography books and publications were some of their best products, and Kodak had outstanding customer service. You could mail questions or comments to Kodak in Rochester (at least in the 1960s and 70s), and your letters would always be answered by people who were obviously experts and enthusiasts. In the 1990s, I got to work (as a contract employee) at two Kodak facilities in Rochester. Hopefully there can still be some kind of turnaround, although the odds seem to be heavily against that.

Paul

[samtr87]

I haven'thad any experience with high end Kodak stuff, but the few products I've used from them seem substandard. Their point and shoot cameras produce pretty poor quality pictures in comparison with Sony, Canon, Nikon, and Panasonic. When I have prints done at stores I seem to get better quality from a place that uses Fuji equipment than Kodak. It's such an iconic nam that it would be sad to see it die but they don'thave anything going for them. Hopefully someone does something to save them.

[RioRico]

I haven'thad any experience with high end Kodak stuff, but the few products I've used from them seem substandard.

Kodak's professional stuff is some of the world's best, like large MF sensors and spy-satellite optics. Their consumer stuff has too often been utter crap. It's a totally schizoid company. They need to be put out of their misery.

[Clicker]

Kodak got too comfortable with thinking they were king of the photographic industry; they got lazy and didn't look at changing with the times even when Fuji decided to first put it too them with great film offerings all the while developing their digital program not so much at the professional end but at the mass market products, Kodak just watched themselves fall back and started fighting back too late. They lost brand recognition at the film front and never made it too the digital line...yes they're producing digital cameras but who cares? Fujifilm actually has more brand recognition then them right now and only older users from the film era know of kodak the once mighty supplier in the photographic industry. Can they come back to where they once were, i highly doubt it, digital has it's feet firmly planted and Fujifilm has Kodak under their feet with a huge R&D section and money in the bank something Kodak had and squanded.

[artobest]

Kodak make some of the best films in the world right now. Portra is a personal favourite of mine.

[Wheatfield]

Kodak make some of the best films in the world right now. Portra is a personal favourite of mine.

This, in a nutshell, sums up Kodak's problem.
They make some of the best products that virtually no one wants any more.

[redrockcoulee]

This, in a nutshell, sums up Kodak's problem.
They make some of the best products that virtually no one wants any more.

From my understanding the film section makes a profit and as far as virtually no one wants anymore it is true that the vast bulk of the market has disappeared but that does not mean that what is left is not large enough to be profitable, it seems that I read that it has been the digital section that has been a large failure in profits. I just hope they stay in busness or some one else takes over their chemical and film product lines, I still want to use them

[stevebrot]

There is much, much more to Kodak than photography. Their current difficulties are traceable as much to the sick economy in general as to the collapse of the consumer film market.


Steve

[stevebrot]

Their point and shoot cameras produce pretty poor quality pictures

I believe that the Kodak digital consumer cameras share their technology with similar Nikon models.


Steve

[ChrisPlatt]

Indeed, Kodak films are still the finest in the world. Some of their products are irreplaceable for film photographers.
I'd like to see them spin off film and photo products. A smaller company could make a go of it in this now smaller market.

Chris