RE: HIE in 120/220

["George L Smyth" <GLSmyth@xxxxxxx>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-infrared@xxxxx [mailto:owner-infrared@xxxxx]On Behalf Of
> Rolland Elliott
> Sent: Friday, March 03, 2000 11:49 PM
> To: infrared@xxxxx
> Subject: Re: HIE in 120/220
>
> I just don't buy this arguement. Why would Kodak need
> to retool?  Kodak already makes 120/220 format in many
> other films.  They already have all the tools to make
> it possible.
>
> As far as the information coming from people who work
> intimately with infrared films; I think you're giving
> them too much credit.

I don't pretend to have a full knowledge of exactly how the film is put
together.  However, Walter Horylev worked exclusively with infrared at Kodak
for over 20 years, and if you took any seminars on the subject from the
company (before about 1985) then he was probably the guy speaking.  Bob
Clemens worked as a Kodak staff photographer for about 25 years, and has
intimate knowledge about how film is manufactured.  One of them (I forget
which) explained the tooling problem to me long ago, and I wish that I could
remember it well enough to repeat it.  Yeah, these are people know what
they're talking about.

> P.S. I really don't believe Kodak looses money on this
> product year after year after year.  Who in Kodak
> would supply such intimate financial records to
> outside consumers?

That was Walter.  I was a friend of his (he passed away), not simply a Kodak
customer.  As of about 1992 Kodak made a very small profit on HIE and lost
more than the HIE profit on HSI.  If you don't think that Kodak loses money
on certain products just so that they can support their customers, why do
you think that they continued making disc film until just a year or two ago?

You have to remember that Kodak's sale of B&W film is probably less than 1%
of the total, and infrared film probably less han 1% of that.  Although this
niche is of great importance to us, it's more like a spit in the ocean to
this large company.

george

---
Handmade Photographic Images
http://www2.ari.net/glsmyth/

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