Kodak Survey Shows that Professional Photographers Remain Ardent Users of Film

Sebzy

http://www.kodak.com/eknec/PageQuerier.jhtml?pq-path=2709&pq-locale=en_US&gpcid=0900688a807b9764

Sept. 19, 2007


Kodak Survey Shows that Professional Photographers Remain Ardent Users of Film
More Than Three-Quarters of Photographers Surveyed Will Continue to Use Film, Even as Some Embrace Digital Technology, “It’s An ‘And’ World Where Digital and Film Co-exist and Complement Each Other”

ROCHESTER, N.Y., Sept. 19 -- A survey of more than 9,000 professional photographers in the U.S. shows that film continues to have an avidfollowing, with 75 percent of photographers saying they will continue to use film, even as some embrace digital imaging technology. The results of the U.S. survey, conducted by the Eastman Kodak Company (NYSE: EK), mirror the results of a similar survey the company recently conducted in Europe, where more than two-thirds of professional photographers surveyed plan to continue using film.

According to the U.S. survey results, more than two-thirds (68 percent) of professional photographers prefer the results of film to those of digital for certain applications including:

* film’s superiority in capturing more information on medium and large format films (48 percent);
* creating a traditional photographic look (48 percent);
* capturing shadow and highlighting details (45 percent);
* the wide exposure latitude of film (42 percent); and
* archival storage (38 percent).

“I find film invaluable because the details and look of the photographs are crucial in re-telling the events playing out in front of me,” said Pep Bonet, international award winning photojournalist and a founding member of NOOR, a new photo agency committed to documenting social issues worldwide. “I do very little research or preparation prior to traveling to location. Instead, I arrive, I observe and ultimately, I trust that my camera and my film will capture the story at hand. The stories may be stunning, disturbing or inspiring. But above all, they are real. There’s nothing like film to capture those realities, particularly Tri-X black-and-white film.”

Many of the survey respondents share Bonet’s passion for black-and-white photography and film. Although professional photographers acknowledge that digital cameras offer certain benefits, they said that film better captures certain images, particularly black-and-white photos. The majority (90 percent) of photographers produce black-and-white images, with 47 percent saying black-and-white photography allows them to create a certain look and feel and differentiate themselves. More than half of them (57 percent) prefer using film to achieve this desired effect.

“First and foremost, photographers are artists, supported by the science of the tools that help them do their job,” said Mary Jane Hellyar, President, Film Products Group and Senior Vice President, Eastman Kodak Company. “This survey indicates that film remains an important tool on which professional photographers rely to effectively create their work, so providing choice is of utmost importance. It’s an ‘and’ world where digital and film co-exist and complement each other.”

Kodak strives to provide this choice through ongoing innovation in its film offering. This year alone, Kodak introduced five new versions of its KODAK PROFESSIONAL PORTRA Films, which have received a strong response from the industry. The new PORTRA film family, comprising 160VC, 160NC, 400VC, 400NC and 800, helps professional photographers create stunning images with finer grain, spectacular skin tones, and improved scanning performance for greater enlargement capability.

In the past year, Kodak has received four industry awards for its PORTRA films, including the American Photo “Editor’s Choice” award, just released last month. Each year, American Photo creates its list of the industry’s best new products and this year, named PORTRA in its “Imaging Essentials” category. Other awards include:

Technical Image Press Association (TIPA) – Best Film in Europe 2007: The award, voted for by TIPA members, recognizes the fine grain, excellent resolving power and superb color precision offered to professional photographers by Kodak’s four color negative professional films: Portra160VC, 160NC, 400VC and 400NC.

Professional Photographer’s 2007 Hot One Award - Color Negative Films: The Professional Photographer Hot One Awards, chosen by a panel of 15 practicing professional photographers, honor the photography industry’s best new products for professional application.

Studio Photography - “2006 Readers’ Choice Awards”: Readers and web site visitors of Studio Photography gave PORTRA Film top honors in the 2006 Studio Photography “Readers’ Choice Awards.” In the first-ever survey, readers overwhelmingly voted for PORTRA as their favorite film.
About Eastman Kodak Company

Kodak is the world’s foremost imaging innovator. With sales of $10.7 billion in 2006, the company is committed to a digitally oriented growth strategy focused on helping people better use meaningful images and information in their life and work. Consumers use Kodak’s system of digital and traditional products and services to take, print and share their pictures anytime, anywhere; Businesses effectively communicate with customers worldwide using Kodak solutions for prepress, conventional and digital printing and document imaging; and Creative Professionals rely on Kodak technology to uniquely tell their story through moving or still images.

More information about Kodak (NYSE: EK) is available at www.kodak.com.

ThOnda

Nice ad. It only shows that americans have restricted access to information.
On the other hand, that is brilliant marketing story. Use the facts you like to promote what you want.
I'll keep on using film independetly from this ad - because I don't have DSLR yet!

Stephen

This is hardly in Kodak's interest is it?

Cabaal

This does seem alittle off, I guess Kodak are desperate to keep there film market alive in the states.....it was always a good money making machine for them

magicbastarder

and the thing is, most people i know who still use film wouldn't use much kodak.

City-Exile

I don't know a single pro sports snapper still using film.
The advantages of digital are too great.

DaireQuinlan

magicbastarder wrote:

and the thing is, most people i know who still use film wouldn't use much kodak.

Ah now ! I use fuji transparency film but I'd swear by my kodak print film. Portra 800 in particular is miles ahead of any of the fuji 800 or 1600 films I think. The various 400 or 160 speed films are pretty indistinguishable in fairness, and I do have a -bit- of a soft spot for Reala, although for me it always seems to turn out grainier than the 160nc/vc portra films.

-edit- the fast film thing, I base all my comparisons on what the resultant scans (nikon coolscan v) look like. Portra films really do scan better than any other film I've tried. The fast fuji films scan like muck, heavy blue speckles in the shadows and really bad what looks like grain aliasing so I've given up on them completely. -edit-

magicbastarder

most people i know who shoot film are like me - negative film for b&w, slide for colour.

Spyral

I use both.. it depends on my humour.. I find digital = snap fest choosing one good one out of a batch whereas film = more careful and controlled.

I don't know a single pro sports snapper still using film.
The advantages of digital are too great.

perhaps in sports photography but medium/large format is still used in stuff like fashion innit ?

DaireQuinlan

magicbastarder wrote:

most people i know who shoot film are like me - negative film for b&w, slide for colour.

To be honest I've only really turned on to slide recently, when I got a 5 pack of fortia from a mate of mine who was in japan. Then I discovered Provia 400x and it was like a revelation of sorts. An expensive revelation it has to be said ...

I shoot MF almost exclusively B&W and quite a bit of B&W 35mm, mainly cos I like developing it myself. The faster negative color films though I'd use a bit, and the slower ones I'd have hanging around in the camera when I didn't want to waste a roll of slide or I wasn't too sure what exactly I intend to do with them. I can always push a roll of color negative by a couple of stops and get it developed normally and still get a perfectly usable image out of it, I'd be loathe to do that with a roll of slide :-)

thefizz

magicbastarder wrote:

and the thing is, most people i know who still use film wouldn't use much kodak.

Not sure about that as I would expect TriX to be the best selling film worldwide.

FinoBlad

magicbastarder wrote:

and the thing is, most people i know who still use film wouldn't use much kodak.

tri-x is pretty unrivaled. i've shot about 50 rolls of 220 since june and about 20 rolls of 120

trishw78

magicbastarder wrote:

most people i know who shoot film are like me - negative film for b&w, slide for colour.

Ditto to that. It depends what look I'm going for on Slide. Fuji is good for Blue and greens kodak is good for Orange and yellows