Hello, Kodak?

I noticed lately that a few films I was playing with were hard to find -- most specifically EPT (Ektachrome 160T) and EPJ (Ektachrome 320T) -- and dealers were mentioning that they thought it was discontinued. However, there wasn't an announcement on Kodak's site. Finally, I called Kodak and asked them.

Apparently EPJ has been out of production for over a year. And EPT has been out of production for some months now. I asked the guy on the phone why there wasn't an announcement about the film being discontinued. He told me to go to a URL on the kodak website and that there should be a notice there... and then confirmed that the website didn't contain a discontinuation notice, even though the film was out of production.

Then, I found out something I didn't even realize I needed to ask about.

UltraColor 400, one of my favorite films, is only available from now on in 35mm format. I really love shooting UC400 in medium format and now I can't.

We have reached a new stage with Kodak, and I'm not pleased about it. With prior film discontinuations, Kodak gave advanced warning that a film was going to be discontinued, perhaps with a suggested replacement film.

Now, we're faced with films being discontinued without the courtesy of advance warning so we can calibrate our process for a new film or alternatively stock up to complete a project while there's still film to be purchased. With EPT and EPJ, there isn't any stock left in the warehouse to purchase.

I am very disappointed in Kodak. Even accepting that film is no longer the cash-cow for Kodak, this is bad business.

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