Kodak cautions there's 'substantial doubt' about its ability to stay in business
Kodak cautions on business operations but remains confident it can meet debt obligations
Kodak has been circling the drain for decades. I'm shocked they've lasted this long.
Really sad, but as someone said, they had their chance at digital and blew it.
Along those lines, they were also interested in:
Neutron imaging
Starting decades ago, Kodak had an interest in neutrons, subatomic particles that can be used to determine the makeup of a given material or to create an image of it without damaging it.
A steady stream of neutrons is needed for these purposes. Kodak used small research reactors, including one at Cornell University, and possessed a dollop of californium-252, a radioactive isotope that endlessly sheds neutrons.
But it wanted a more potent in-house system, so in 1974 it acquired a californium neutron flux multiplier, known as a CFX. Small plates of highly enriched uranium multiplied the neutron flow from a tiny californium core.
Kodak used it to check chemicals and other materials for impurities, Filo said. It also was used for tests related to neutron radiography, an imaging technique.
The device was not much larger than a refrigerator and, in the one available photo, looked vaguely like Robby the Robot from a 1950s science fiction movie. To house it, Kodak dug a cavity below the basement level of Building 82, part of the company's research complex along Lake Avenue.
I wonder if that photograph is fuzzy because of radiation, or because of the quality of cameras at the time.
Hopefully that photographer ended up okay
Maybe they shouldn’t have sat on that digital camera for so long
film is having a little renaissance, i've seen other brands selling more 35mm rolls than Kodak, despite their fame, maybe they'll buy the name
Yeah, the tricky thing about the "analog" Renaissance is the folks going for film cameras, typewrites, vinyl, and so on are looking for higher-quality equipment, rather than "mass market" stuff. Kodak could plausibly rebrand itself to appeal to this crowd.
I'm not trying to start a flame war about film underneath your comment here but I've been bothered for hours so I decided to come back.
Kodak is one of the handful of companies left in the world that can still produce film stock. It's almost a lost art at this point. They are the only ones that still produce color positive film - Ektachrome (E100) - and they also have the highest quality color negative film still on the market right now - their Portra line.
I wish it was as simple as not making mass market junk like disposable point and shoots and Kodak would be saved, but unfortunately it's not that simple. They already own the film stock market - even hipster stocks like Cinestill are using Kodak movie film that is modified to shoot in 35mm and medium format cameras. Ilford is trying to make color negative films again after years of only producing b&w and it's getting better and closer to Kodak's cheaper stocks (gold/colorplus) but nothing touches the latitude of their Portra line. And obviously there's nothing like slide film, color positive E100 is truly one of the coolest things you can shoot these days.
For me personally, shooting on film is going back to the physicalness, the manualness of taking a photo. It's the act of using something physical to capture a memory instead of just taking a million photos on my phone that I'll never look at again. Getting my rolls back and looking through them is the highlight of my month haha. Organizing my negatives and getting prints and making memories is so much joy that is just lost when I use digital cameras.
Losing Kodak to financial attrition would be a tragedy to a small but passionate (and growing!) community.
It does appear that they have ideas on working through this debt and buying time though so we'll see.
Thanks for reading!
I bet they just need more ai
They did try to get into crypto, why not AI?
Nothing is permanent. Adapt or die.
You just release a fucking Bluetooth speaker! wtf is wrong with you?!
Have they tried budgeting, making coffee at home?
Less avocado toast?
I think they are boomers instead of millennials. I think for them its great depression stuff, like have you tried eating cat food for protein and growing onions in your garden.