You’ve got to feel sorry for Fujifilm

At the CES this week Fujifilm revealed their mirrorless system camera with 3 prime lenses and on paper, it does look rather good. Sticking to the retro look that made the X100 one of the most desirable compact cameras of last year is a masterstroke that I cannot believe other manufacturers haven’t cottoned on to yet. Prime lenses, a body that looks like a rangefinder, hybrid viewfinder, and image resolution on a par with a full frame sensor look promising. Indeed the sample images show some nice colour and not so much noise, even if they don’t look too sharp. Already people are talking about the X pro 1 as the poor man’s Leica. (They do like to stick pro at the end of their camera’s don’t they!) People are also talking about potential problems such as the price point and the auto focus issues that came with the X100, but I reckon that people will look back at the X pro 1 as one of those landmark cameras. Retro is the new black, or something like that!!
So why feel sorry for them?
Despite the buzz you’d expect, everyone seems to be talking about Canon and Nikon. The D4 has got opinions divided. (Personally I think it looks like a pretty amazing camera and hints at even cooler things for the D800 and D400) But the big star of this week is Canon’s G1 X. An updated G12 with a bigger sensor. Funny really; you unveil your SLR killer with dials and the whole world would rather talk about an updated compact camera with a bigger sensor.
And if you feel sorry for Fujifilm, then really do have to feel sorry for Kodak. With all the troubles they’re having, they released a few underwhelming compacts that no-one even noticed. It really does suck being Kodak right now.
Despite the big two hogging the limelight, I think Fujifilm will be having the last laugh….for a bit.

The End is Nigh…

In what will have been the news of the day for many togs, Kodak announced that they are preparing to file for bankruptcy. From comments on many forums, you’d think Kodak was dead and buried. It may look like it, but they’re only preparing, not filing. The end is not here. At least, not yet. Problem is, whichever way you look at it, it’s easy to think that they’re toast.

What will happen is anyone’s guess, but my guess is that Kodak is simply too good a brand name to pass up and there’ll be vultures in the wings just waiting to pick the corpse apart. By the look of things, Kodak are struggling to find a buyer for their digital patent portfolio, which means either there’s nothing worth having (unlikely) or the vultures are waiting until Kodak stop kicking before swooping in to buy them at bargain basement prices. I would imagine that we would see the various divisions split into separate entities, so Kodak will, I’m sure, live on, but it will be a very different beast to what it has been.

A sad footnote was added to the Reuters story…
“Kodak invented the digital camera in 1975 when one of its engineers developed a prototype that was as big as a toaster and captured black and white images. But it failed to capitalize on that innovation…”

How ironic. They pioneered their own doom. Like many tech companies, Kodak failed to remain at the forefront of digital technology and their attempts to catch up were too little, too late. (Strangely, their strategy seems to have been very similar to Fuji, who somehow managed to pull it off.)

Speaking of Fuji, they marked the day by announcing a slew of compact and bridge cameras. To say they did things the same way as Kodak is a little unfair. Fuji was proactive about keeping it’s film business alive while most people were engaged in the film vs digital battle. it also pulled a rabbit out of the hat with the X100.

It doesn’t have to be bad news either. Most photographers are starting to lament the loss of Kodak film stock, but Ilford have shown you can take a loss making business and turn it into a profitable business. The right vulture could surely do the same with a brand like Kodak, couldn’t they?

Why is Kodak Screwed?

While Kodak moves ever further toward becoming a supplier of cheap Ink-jet printers (was that too harsh?) It’s sad to think how one of THE photographic innovators of the past has fallen so mightily. Then I went shopping for some T-Max 3200 for a Christmas project. With 3 photographic retailers near where I work, I thought I’d see what I could find. One of them doesn’t sell film at all. The second had film but only two rolls of Kodak film, neither of which where what I wanted. The last stocked only Fuji and mostly Ilford.

So why is it so hard to find Kodak film? Why isn’t Kodak taking the initiative, like Fuji, sponsoring websites and competitions, keeping people interested in film – their film? Surely a good place to start would be making sure you got your film where people could buy it?

Thank goodness for ebay!