I got back into film photography about a year ago after an absence of 20 years. Got all my old film cameras repaired. I’m having the time of my life. Kudos to Kodak!
My grandma passed away just over a decade ago, and my parents have had a lot of her stuff just sitting around for most of that time. Money was always really tight for her and it was her dream to go live in the mountains of Colorado, which was a bit of a far cry from Eastern Missouri. I was just recently given her old Canon AE-1 Program, and very quickly fell in love with film. She only got to visit Colorado a few times, and I know this camera would have been by her side at all times. Given these would have cost a decent amount in the '80s, it was probably one of her more expensive possessions and she certainly would have cared a lot about it. So I'm having it professionally restored and I'm planning on taking it with me pretty much anywhere I go, to help keep her wanderlust spirit going
Thank you for that! While I never worked in the Rochester plant, I did work for Kodak in the Swedish development plant there in Järfälla outside of Stockholm, a place that was later called "Kodak Hill", with the development of Kodachrome slide film. What we called "kakor" (cookies) was 50 rolls of slide film in a light sealed roll that came down from the first darkroom where the rolls were taped together, down to the "Kodachromegången" (Kodachrome isle) and were taken into the darkroom by us and riveted together with the roll of film before it through the different baths, first B&W development of the exposed film (yes, Kodachrome is a three-layered B&W film with each layer sensitive to each of the prime colours), removing bath (to remove the negative and leave the positive), then the colour baths (cyan, yellow and magenta to add colour to the three colour sensitive layers) and fixing plus rinse and it came out for drying were we cut the 50-roll of film and sent it off to the people either framing them or just cutting them to a roll, depending on the customers choice. We had a ton of fun together and I especially loved the employee discount of film, Kodak had a small employee-store on the way to the canteen, stocked with the usual and a lot of special stuff too, like Infrared film, Technical Pan etc, loads of fun to play around with as a young amateur photographer, but that was like 40 years ago. Cheers!
Wou, what great times! A relative of mine gave me an exposed Kodachrome film and apparently it can not be developed anymore due to the complexity of the proccess you described!
@@Ununquandio Yes, proprietary development process was unique for Kodak, at the time it was the K-14 process, could only be developed by Kodak. The fine graine as it was B&W and thus smaller individual grain than colour-coupled normal colour emulsion made it very special. Agfa also had a proprietary slide development up until the CT-18 and CT-21 until they switched to E6 with the later CT100, but it wasn't the same thing, lovely colours if you wanted the almost watercolour look but the grain was much larger and not similar to the Kodachrome with more natural colours, skies really popped with blue of Kodachrome.
I own 9 film cameras, from a Kodak Vest Pocket No 1a to a Lomo Lubitel 166b. Right now I'm returning from my vacation to the Chilean Patagonia where I took pics with my Canon Eos 1300D and my amazing Kiev III camera from 1950 using fujifilm and Kodak film
I went for a tour of that place when I was a chemical engineering student at Syracuse, didn't think much about it at the time. 20 years later I'm a hardcore film photographer and I wish I could go back to that day and kick myself in the ass... Repeatedly.
Thanks! Both of my parents grew up in Rochester, NY -- in the 30's/40's. I had an uncle who worked his entire career for Kodak. Glad to see that such an iconic part of Rochester history is still there and has survived into the digital photography era (I shoot 35mm and 120). Next time I head up to the Rochester area I will look to see if I can get a tour.
Great to know film lives on. Although I haven't shot any in years, I still have scanning negs/slides on my to-do list. I taught a darkroom class for 20+ years, 7-12th graders and elementary students as well. Never got tired of the magic.
I loved every frame of this Bill. I can only imagine how much work you put into this, but man, it really paid off. What you’ve created is a beautiful, inspiring film.
Thank you for the informative video ! I'm a pro photographer in Paris; I work in fashion and convincing clients to pay a little extra for film shoots is getting more and more common these days. I've spent so much in film just for fun, too. I sincerely hope it makes an even bigger comeback like vinyls do.
Well done. Thanks for sharing. It’s amazing how things change over time. In the 1980’s we pros called Kodak, “The Yellow Godfather.” Digital surely changed that.
Really enjoyed this! I am shooting on Super 16 mm motion picture film as a hobby. It's all about sharing with fellow film buffs, making the very best of cameras that are 30+ years old and the feeling of having earned each shot. The results with modern Kodak film stock are simply stunning and worth all the effort. The film image is silky smooth, it has depth and it has that organic emotional quality to it which can't be measured. I know that many filmmakers are still fighting to shoot on film. Nothing comes close.
Film is our last connection to real life and to nature, in a society that strives for the digital/virtual interpretation of itself. I can't imagine what will happen if Kodak is gone. The meaning to photography will be gone as well. Film needs to be protected so we could still capture real life & light on it.
i’m 24, i grew up with disposable film cameras .. becoming a photographer as an adult, for my recent trip to spain i bought, for the first time in my life, some film rolls; with the intention that some few, very selective photographs would need to be thought out, wouldn’t be able to be edited, and would just be raw, one-of-a-kinds ☺️💛✌️
4:30 - That's a very bold claim right there, in my 40 plus years of shooting Kodak, the last 10 years have been the worse ever in terms of quality control.
Very inspiring, very well shot, I would really like to visit that factory. Is it open to public for a tour on the manufacturing process ? At the other end of the spectrum we have small on man company like washi film coming in the film market, it evolves from mass produced film like Kodak did to now hand made small batch for artistic purpose ! Cheers from France.
Damn, production value on this is off the charts! Amazing job, I loved every minute of it. Here’s hoping Kodak (and Fuji, and the rest) keep making this stuff for a long time to come!
I was told that Kodak film was out of business and that my Polaroid land camera was obsolete and to throw it away, and here they saying that there still in business and making film? I'm confused
Nice movie, but the creative process of photography also takes place with digital cameras, there is no reason to mystify film photography. The reality is that no camera manufacturer except Leica still makes analogue cameras (real cameras and not plastic toys like the lomo stuff) and it is getting harder and harder to find someone who can still repair cameras from the 70s and 80s and many cameras from that time now have ageing damage. The know-how and spare parts are disappearing. Furthermore, Fujifilm has now stopped the production of the Pro 400H colour film. The film market is getting smaller and at the same time more expensive. If it continues like this, at some point it will only be yuppies who can afford Leicas and films who take analogue photos and elevate it to a ridiculous high art.
I have a Kodak Pony 35 mm camera that has the ability to take multiple exposures if you just reset recock the shutter without advancing the film. There was one double exposure I got that I did not originally intend to take because I forgot to advance the film but I really liked the image I got. With other types of cameras even if they are capable of multiple exposures I would not have thought of putting those two images together in that way.
Frankly the Ilford video was far more inspiring of trust in the product and QC measures in my opinion. They seemed interested in showing who they are. To me, this video seems to show why Kodak has problems -lack of commitment by senior management as evidenced by none being in the video, and kind of half-assed images of stuff. Kind of old shitty equipment. Not complaining about the videography but frankly it is not inspiring of confidence or commitment to the product. Too bad they don't have much much much much better PR with regard to their signature products. Where's the pride? I am a fan of Kodak films by the way, almost exclusively I use their brand. But with the loss of the film to whomever the new owners are, it seems like it is kind of just a free-floating teet from a former cow being used to pay off pensioners (and you know who you are).
You do realize that the Ilford video was made by Ilford? This video was not made by Kodak. Also the "old shitty equipment" is probably better and more reliable, and also easier/cheaper to repair than the new equipment. A company isn't going to spend million and millions of dollars on new equipment if the old stuff is just fine. The last factory I worked in didn't have a machine newer than 1952 but we made parts withing +/- .0001 on those old worn out machines.
@@johnjon1823 I wholeheartedly agree with you here. Kodak is run by bureaucrats looking to squeeze out every single drop of value they can with their practical monopoly on color film now. Like old times, they are making huge mistakes by pricing themselves out in the name of "investments". And when they successfully priced themselves out of the market, they'll bring down a good chunk of the film community with them as many people solely shoot color film only.
@@user-ti9zc1xv2b The brand and company have been tragically mismanaged for decades. They had a very successful business at one point but became a tacit monopoly in the US for film and rested on it as a cash cow. I knew people who worked there, nice jobs, I even had them as a client on one project, they were nice payers. They had the possibility for many things including dominating cameras and even sensors and the like but blew it. They had the resources to change but not the leadership. They would have had to cannibalize some business if they had the guts they would be amazing today. Sadly they are not, and current managers of the film products seem to have exactly ZERO competence and vision. One would be remiss in not laying some of the blame on the business environment created by the state of NY, bad foreign trade negotiations, and an arrogant, even criminally negligent, disregard for strategic manufacturing infrastructure of the nation on behalf of political powers and leaders. Frankly worthy of jail and pages in the history books along with Benedict Arnold. To think of the manufacturing expertise, prowess, and capabilities and jobs lost due to exceedingly great moral turpitude is nauseating. Bausch & Lomb, Xerox, Carrier Corporation, Buffalo, Syracuse, Rochester giant parts of upstate NY tossed to the wind, along with jobs, tax base and the like, supplanted by a ratio of two private sector jobs for each government one, not enough jobs at McDonald's to pull the freight on those giant government employee pensions and benefits. NY state is funded almost exclusively by the rich downstate who are now leaving, the 1 or 2 percent pay like half of all revenue. Doesn't stop people from getting an Emmy. Sorry to go on too long. Best wishes, feel free to to disagree completely with anything or everything I have said. Look at the see through NY site about the state. Best wishes!
Glad I got to share a little piece of this special place with you all!
Hi Matt, how can someone take a tour with you? It's always been a dream of mine to visit. Hopefully that can happen once the borders open again...
The Kodak Center started doing tour but was put on hold due to COVID-19. The Kodak Center has a dedicated site for tours!
Beautiful work !! I love film 🎞 love love 💕
I got back into film photography about a year ago after an absence of 20 years. Got all my old film cameras repaired. I’m having the time of my life. Kudos to Kodak!
My grandma passed away just over a decade ago, and my parents have had a lot of her stuff just sitting around for most of that time. Money was always really tight for her and it was her dream to go live in the mountains of Colorado, which was a bit of a far cry from Eastern Missouri. I was just recently given her old Canon AE-1 Program, and very quickly fell in love with film. She only got to visit Colorado a few times, and I know this camera would have been by her side at all times. Given these would have cost a decent amount in the '80s, it was probably one of her more expensive possessions and she certainly would have cared a lot about it. So I'm having it professionally restored and I'm planning on taking it with me pretty much anywhere I go, to help keep her wanderlust spirit going
Thank you for that!
While I never worked in the Rochester plant, I did work for Kodak in the Swedish development plant there in Järfälla outside of Stockholm, a place that was later called "Kodak Hill", with the development of Kodachrome slide film.
What we called "kakor" (cookies) was 50 rolls of slide film in a light sealed roll that came down from the first darkroom where the rolls were taped together, down to the "Kodachromegången" (Kodachrome isle) and were taken into the darkroom by us and riveted together with the roll of film before it through the different baths, first B&W development of the exposed film (yes, Kodachrome is a three-layered B&W film with each layer sensitive to each of the prime colours), removing bath (to remove the negative and leave the positive), then the colour baths (cyan, yellow and magenta to add colour to the three colour sensitive layers) and fixing plus rinse and it came out for drying were we cut the 50-roll of film and sent it off to the people either framing them or just cutting them to a roll, depending on the customers choice.
We had a ton of fun together and I especially loved the employee discount of film, Kodak had a small employee-store on the way to the canteen, stocked with the usual and a lot of special stuff too, like Infrared film, Technical Pan etc, loads of fun to play around with as a young amateur photographer, but that was like 40 years ago.
Cheers!
Wou, what great times! A relative of mine gave me an exposed Kodachrome film and apparently it can not be developed anymore due to the complexity of the proccess you described!
@@Ununquandio Yes, proprietary development process was unique for Kodak, at the time it was the K-14 process, could only be developed by Kodak.
The fine graine as it was B&W and thus smaller individual grain than colour-coupled normal colour emulsion made it very special.
Agfa also had a proprietary slide development up until the CT-18 and CT-21 until they switched to E6 with the later CT100, but it wasn't the same thing, lovely colours if you wanted the almost watercolour look but the grain was much larger and not similar to the Kodachrome with more natural colours, skies really popped with blue of Kodachrome.
Protect Kodak at all cost!
I own 9 film cameras, from a Kodak Vest Pocket No 1a to a Lomo Lubitel 166b. Right now I'm returning from my vacation to the Chilean Patagonia where I took pics with my Canon Eos 1300D and my amazing Kiev III camera from 1950 using fujifilm and Kodak film
Been shooting film myself since the dawn of the digital age. I just shot a roll of Kodak Tri-X in my Nikon F2 yesterday.
Sooner or later, we're gonna need more film cameras. The prices of even the affordable models from back then have skyrocketed due to demand
Yeah , let’s hope Pentax 67 is being made again :)
And it will all go crashing when Kodak successfully prices themselves out of the market with their obscene prices.
I was in Rochester/Lake evenue from Hungary in 1999. That was my third technical training at my company: KODAK!
I went for a tour of that place when I was a chemical engineering student at Syracuse, didn't think much about it at the time. 20 years later I'm a hardcore film photographer and I wish I could go back to that day and kick myself in the ass... Repeatedly.
Thanks! Both of my parents grew up in Rochester, NY -- in the 30's/40's. I had an uncle who worked his entire career for Kodak. Glad to see that such an iconic part of Rochester history is still there and has survived into the digital photography era (I shoot 35mm and 120). Next time I head up to the Rochester area I will look to see if I can get a tour.
Great to know film lives on. Although I haven't shot any in years, I still have scanning negs/slides on my to-do list. I taught a darkroom class for 20+ years, 7-12th graders and elementary students as well. Never got tired of the magic.
Beautiful video! Thank you for including my photos, Bill!
I loved every frame of this Bill. I can only imagine how much work you put into this, but man, it really paid off. What you’ve created is a beautiful, inspiring film.
Thank you for the informative video ! I'm a pro photographer in Paris; I work in fashion and convincing clients to pay a little extra for film shoots is getting more and more common these days. I've spent so much in film just for fun, too. I sincerely hope it makes an even bigger comeback like vinyls do.
And, here we are, in 2021. Keep on a-rockin' me, Rochester.
Really cool to see the exact origin place of every Kodak roll I've shot, thanks for making this video! Analog photography is not dead.
Well done. Thanks for sharing. It’s amazing how things change over time. In the 1980’s we pros called Kodak, “The Yellow Godfather.” Digital surely changed that.
I've also heard of it referred to as the "Great Yellow Father."
I'm surprised this doesn't have more views. This was really entertaining! And very well put together it felt like I was watching a documentary!
Great work! I would love to make a trip to Rochester for a tour once it's safe to do so.
Bravo!!
Keep it going, Kodak!
Thanks for stirring up a bunch of memories.
Really enjoyed this! I am shooting on Super 16 mm motion picture film as a hobby. It's all about sharing with fellow film buffs, making the very best of cameras that are 30+ years old and the feeling of having earned each shot. The results with modern Kodak film stock are simply stunning and worth all the effort.
The film image is silky smooth, it has depth and it has that organic emotional quality to it which can't be measured.
I know that many filmmakers are still fighting to shoot on film. Nothing comes close.
🙏 🙏
Wow, next time I’m near Rochester, I’ll definitely try to tour this place! Looks so amazing!
This is the greatest thing I’ve ever watched thank you !!!!
Impressed and inspired by the new force, thank you very much for the movie, thank you for being Kodak
Still waiting on the third installment from Smarter Every Day.
This is so great! Thank you for this Bill!
Well done guys! I hope this is the beginning of epic factory tours. Top notch
Imagine how good that plant smells!
Mmm. 39 exposure 800 GT film. Can they not sell that outside of the single use camera please
Great film, Bill! I’m ready for the feature length now ;)
Beautifully done Bill.
I can’t believe I missed this in my feed Bill. Spectacular work. Thanks for all the amazing content that you put out including your podcast. 🍻
Great video, thanks for making it and sharing it!
Love it! Thank you!
Nice! Thank you for putting this together.
That Blonde into the Into looks like shooting the Yashica ML 80-200/F4 or 75-150/F4 ML Zoom...Contax & Yashica Shooter here.
Most Excellent!
Awesome, thanks for the video ! Right now we have options, just that! & I choose film
Film is our last connection to real life and to nature, in a society that strives for the digital/virtual interpretation of itself. I can't imagine what will happen if Kodak is gone. The meaning to photography will be gone as well. Film needs to be protected so we could still capture real life & light on it.
Great video Bill - nicely produced!
"Crafting" a photograph. YES! Great job, Bill! BTW, I have a working mid-50's Signet 40 like the one in the Christmas commercial. 👍😎📷
Really nicely made video ^^
I really enjoyed this! Great content!
i’m 24, i grew up with disposable film cameras .. becoming a photographer as an adult, for my recent trip to spain i bought, for the first time in my life, some film rolls; with the intention that some few, very selective photographs would need to be thought out, wouldn’t be able to be edited, and would just be raw, one-of-a-kinds ☺️💛✌️
This was such a great video! Now I want to go shoot some film! .... dang it.
Awesome! Cinematic and informative.
Great work!
4:30 - That's a very bold claim right there, in my 40 plus years of shooting Kodak, the last 10 years have been the worse ever in terms of quality control.
is it only me, or are they talking about talking about making the Base, ans showing footage of cutting the rolls down to 120?
What do u think about buy the kodak stock?
Here for the learning stayed for the fedora. Awesome video.
I've been , shooting film all my life , way before you did .
Cool story! Loved the ending to that.
Cool story, bro. You do this for a living?
That was great! :)
Very inspiring, very well shot, I would really like to visit that factory. Is it open to public for a tour on the manufacturing process ? At the other end of the spectrum we have small on man company like washi film coming in the film market, it evolves from mass produced film like Kodak did to now hand made small batch for artistic purpose ! Cheers from France.
They started public tours but put that on hold due to COVID-19. Checkout the Kodak Center for details!
Damn, production value on this is off the charts! Amazing job, I loved every minute of it. Here’s hoping Kodak (and Fuji, and the rest) keep making this stuff for a long time to come!
i want the t shirt the dude is wearing
My opinion -
Kodak best film company hands down
Fuji most loyal
Polaroid very inventive but greedy
What's the name of the music track from 6.00 to the end
Taking the North by Cody Martin
@@StudioC41 great, thanks
And yet there is never enough stock available!
I was told that Kodak film was out of business and that my Polaroid land camera was obsolete and to throw it away, and here they saying that there still in business and making film? I'm confused
Far from truth.
@@StudioC41 so are they still in business or what
@@mongoloid1369 very much so!
how is it actually made though
So, I began to shoot on film rather than on digital.
7:03
👍
please reduce the price of film and chemicals.
I thought I would see accountants slowly increasing prices of film...
Nice movie, but the creative process of photography also takes place with digital cameras, there is no reason to mystify film photography. The reality is that no camera manufacturer except Leica still makes analogue cameras (real cameras and not plastic toys like the lomo stuff) and it is getting harder and harder to find someone who can still repair cameras from the 70s and 80s and many cameras from that time now have ageing damage. The know-how and spare parts are disappearing. Furthermore, Fujifilm has now stopped the production of the Pro 400H colour film. The film market is getting smaller and at the same time more expensive. If it continues like this, at some point it will only be yuppies who can afford Leicas and films who take analogue photos and elevate it to a ridiculous high art.
I have a Kodak Pony 35 mm camera that has the ability to take multiple exposures if you just reset recock the shutter without advancing the film. There was one double exposure I got that I did not originally intend to take because I forgot to advance the film but I really liked the image I got. With other types of cameras even if they are capable of multiple exposures I would not have thought of putting those two images together in that way.
Someone needs to tell that guy his hat is to small for his head.
Frankly the Ilford video was far more inspiring of trust in the product and QC measures in my opinion. They seemed interested in showing who they are. To me, this video seems to show why Kodak has problems -lack of commitment by senior management as evidenced by none being in the video, and kind of half-assed images of stuff. Kind of old shitty equipment. Not complaining about the videography but frankly it is not inspiring of confidence or commitment to the product. Too bad they don't have much much much much better PR with regard to their signature products. Where's the pride? I am a fan of Kodak films by the way, almost exclusively I use their brand. But with the loss of the film to whomever the new owners are, it seems like it is kind of just a free-floating teet from a former cow being used to pay off pensioners (and you know who you are).
You do realize that the Ilford video was made by Ilford? This video was not made by Kodak. Also the "old shitty equipment" is probably better and more reliable, and also easier/cheaper to repair than the new equipment. A company isn't going to spend million and millions of dollars on new equipment if the old stuff is just fine. The last factory I worked in didn't have a machine newer than 1952 but we made parts withing +/- .0001 on those old worn out machines.
@@outspokengenius Nonetheless a shitty video and Ilford's was much better.
@@johnjon1823 I wholeheartedly agree with you here. Kodak is run by bureaucrats looking to squeeze out every single drop of value they can with their practical monopoly on color film now. Like old times, they are making huge mistakes by pricing themselves out in the name of "investments". And when they successfully priced themselves out of the market, they'll bring down a good chunk of the film community with them as many people solely shoot color film only.
@@user-ti9zc1xv2b The brand and company have been tragically mismanaged for decades. They had a very successful business at one point but became a tacit monopoly in the US for film and rested on it as a cash cow. I knew people who worked there, nice jobs, I even had them as a client on one project, they were nice payers. They had the possibility for many things including dominating cameras and even sensors and the like but blew it. They had the resources to change but not the leadership. They would have had to cannibalize some business if they had the guts they would be amazing today. Sadly they are not, and current managers of the film products seem to have exactly ZERO competence and vision. One would be remiss in not laying some of the blame on the business environment created by the state of NY, bad foreign trade negotiations, and an arrogant, even criminally negligent, disregard for strategic manufacturing infrastructure of the nation on behalf of political powers and leaders. Frankly worthy of jail and pages in the history books along with Benedict Arnold. To think of the manufacturing expertise, prowess, and capabilities and jobs lost due to exceedingly great moral turpitude is nauseating. Bausch & Lomb, Xerox, Carrier Corporation, Buffalo, Syracuse, Rochester giant parts of upstate NY tossed to the wind, along with jobs, tax base and the like, supplanted by a ratio of two private sector jobs for each government one, not enough jobs at McDonald's to pull the freight on those giant government employee pensions
and benefits. NY state is funded almost exclusively by the rich downstate who are now leaving, the 1 or 2 percent pay like half of all revenue. Doesn't stop people from getting an Emmy. Sorry to go on too long. Best wishes, feel free to to disagree completely with anything or everything I have said. Look at the see through NY site about the state.
Best wishes!
He didn't want the future of his company in the hands of someone else. Ironically Kodak just got bought out