Eastman Kodak is taking back control and releasing more film stocks. Is film photography about to go mainstream again?

Over the last few months things have been changing when it comes to Kodak film. After the bankruptcy proceedings of 2012, Kodak was split, with Eastman Kodak developing and manufacturing films, while Kodak Alaris marketed and distributed it. Now however Eastman Kodak has started to distribute certain film stocks again, which could be exciting for photographers, with possible price drops and more stability in the market.

It’s a slightly confusing situation though, as Eastman Kodak hasn’t taken back all film stock. As it stands it is now handling development of all stocks, in addition to marketing and distribution of Kodacolor 100 and Kodacolor 200, which were both released last year, with the packaging and branding of Kodacolor, rather than the Kodak Professional that Alaris was using.

Gold 200 and Ultramax 400 have also had the branding update to Kodacolor but, confusingly however Ektar, Tri-X, Portra etc still appear to have the Kodak Professional branding, which Alaris has been selling for over a decade. I know, it’s hard to keep up!

What does this mean for us as photographers? Well, it’s hard to say as both Eastman and Alaris flavours of Kodak are pretty tight lipped about things but my hope is that Eastman Kodak becomes the distributor of all stocks, bringing some stability and hopefully, with fewer cogs in the machine, some price drops.

Whether this will happen or not remains to be seen but Eastman Kodak is clearly being proactive, recently releasing Ektar 100 and Tri-X 400.

Looking at their financial reports for the last year or so it’s clear that revenue and profit are both increasing, making the company more interesting for investors, as well as consumers.

This is very much a case of wait and see but if you, like me, are a film photography enthusiast it looks like the future might just be a little brighter. With the cost of film increasing over the last decade or so, that’s an attractive proposition and my film fridge could well be stocked to capacity again!

At the same time, the amount of film photography showing up on social media, not just in imaging but in celebrity feed is increasing. This has an inevitable knock on effect, as the influence does its job and people rush to ebay to get the gear their heroes use. Of course this could hike the price of the cameras but the expanding user base means a larger market and with that even more possibility for stability and (fingers crossed) reductions in pricing.

Film is dead, long live film!