So with the discontinuation of 100D, the price rises on Super 8/ 16mm B&W and Neg and Kodak's hesitance to keep supplying us with 16mm film (for which they gave no reason) it's fair to say Kodak has dealt us 3 crippling blows in quick succession in little over a month. I would be fibbing if I said I wasn't worried. I built a snow Totoro this week to help calm myself down and consider the future. Please read on to find out where I'm at. Truth be told we're already feeling the effects of the 100D discontinuation and price rises. It's been the first time in a long time that we haven't been able to meet our two week turnaround on our colour developing due to a lack of film to process (usually it's the other way around). Secondly I honestly don't think people will purchase Tri-X or Neg carts at Kodak's new list price of £21,73 so I have refrained from purchasing all Super 8 stock from Kodak. Lastly there will be no new 16mm stock in the store in the immediate future as for what ever reason Kodak don't seem to want to sell it to us and their prices are steep. So in Feb we're back to selling S8 colour reversal only (the stuff we got from Wittner this month). It's fair to assume if colour doesn't sell at the new prices nothing will (fingers crossed it sells). If it does sell I'll look to Wittner for B&W and Neg stock come March. As an optimistic side note the Standard 8 film services will still be going steady but unfortunately not many folks use Standard 8. So what on earth can one do to keep the store up and running throughout these difficult times? A Change of Pace
CONCLUSIONThis isn't really how I imagined this year beginning. Everything was going wonderfully up until last December but alas I love shooting film as much as I love processing it and if my shooting skills can help keep the lab open then so be it. So if anyone requires a camera operator for a particular event I would jump at the opportunity to work with you. If anyone could recommend how much I should charge for my services per job that would be great as well. I'll get to work on "A camera for Hire" section of this website but if anyone needs a primary or secondary film camera operator soon then please drop me a message. Please recommend me to individuals that do this kind of work so they can keep me on record.
All the best Kevin
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AuthorKevin Timmins Archives
August 2015
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