Kodak Quietly Begins Directly Selling Kodak Gold and Ultramax Film Again
Kodak quietly acknowledged Monday that it will begin selling two famous types of film stock—Kodak Gold 200 and Kodak Ultramax 400—directly to retailers and distributors in the U.S., another indication that the historic company is taking back control over how people buy its film.
The release comes on the heels of Kodak announcing that it would make and sell two new stocks of film called Kodacolor 100 and Kodacolor 200 in October. On Monday, both Kodak Gold and Kodak Ultramax showed back up on Kodak’s website as film stocks that it makes and sells. When asked by 404 Media, a company spokesperson said that it has “launched” these film stocks and will begin to “sell the films directly to distributors in the U.S. and Canada, giving Kodak greater control over our participation in the consumer film market.”
Unlike Kodacolor, both Kodak Gold and Kodak Ultramax have been widely available to consumers for years, but the way it was distributed made little sense and was an artifact of its 2012 bankruptcy. Coming out of that bankruptcy, Eastman Kodak (the 133-year-old company) would continue to make film, but the exclusive rights to distribute and sell it were owned by a completely separate, UK-based company called Kodak Alaris. For the last decade, Kodak Alaris has sold Kodak Gold and Ultramax (as well as Portra, and a few other film stocks made by Eastman Kodak). This setup has been confusing for consumers and perhaps served as an incentive for Eastman Kodak to not experiment as much with the types of films it makes, considering that it would have to license distribution out to another company.
That all seemed to have changed with the recent announcement of Kodacolor 100 and Kodacolor 200, Kodak’s first new still film stocks in many years. Monday’s acknowledgement that both Kodak Gold and Ultramax would be sold directly by Eastman Kodak, and which come with a rebranded and redesigned box, suggests that the company has figured out how to wrest some control of its distribution away from Kodak Alaris. Eastman Kodak told 404 Media in a statement that it has “launched” these films and that they are “Kodak-marketed versions of existing films.”
"Kodak will sell the films directly to distributors in the U.S. and Canada, giving Kodak greater control over our participation in the consumer film market,” a Kodak spokesperson said in an email. “This direct channel will provide distributors, retailers and consumers with a broader, more reliable supply and help create greater stability in a market where prices have often fluctuated.”
The company called it an “extension of Kodak’s film portfolio,” which it said “is made possible by our recent investments that increased our film manufacturing capacity and, along with the introduction of our KODAK Super 8 Camera and KODAK EKTACHROME 100D Color Reversal Film, reflects Kodak’s ongoing commitment to meeting growing demand and supporting the long-term health of the film industry.”
It is probably too soon to say how big of a deal this is, but it is at least exciting for people who are in the resurgent film photography hobby, who are desperate for any sign that companies are interested in launching new products, creating new types of film, or building more production capacity in an industry where film shortages and price increases have been the norm for a few years.
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Kodak Is Selling Its Own Film Again for the First Time in a Decade
Kodak announced two new stocks of color film on Wednesday, in a move that has excited the photography world and which indicates that the photography giant is directly distributing still photography film again.“To help meet the growing demand for film, Kodak is excited to announce the launch of two color-negative films, KODACOLOR 100 and KODACOLOR 200, in 135 format rolls,” Kodak said in an Instagram post. “For the first time in over a decade, Kodak will sell these films directly to distributors, in an effort to increase supply and help create greater stability in a market where prices have fluctuated. These films are sub-brands of existing Kodak films and offer the same high quality you’ve come to expect from Kodak.”
That quote is key—there are various types of Kodak film on the market right now. Those films are all made by Eastman Kodak (the legendary 133-year-old photography company) but they are sold through a totally separate company called Kodak Alaris, which is a UK-based company spun off from Eastman Kodak in 2012 as part of its bankruptcy. Since then, Kodak Alaris has had the sole right to distribute the still film stocks that Eastman Kodak manufactures. The sense in the photography community is that this arrangement is, at best, annoying and that it has perhaps led Kodak to not focus as much on making new film stocks as it should; there was further concern last year after Kodak Alaris was sold to a private equity firm.
What remains unclear is what KODACOLOR actually is; in the photography world, many “new” films are rebranded versions of other films that are on the market, are rereleased versions of film that had been previously discontinued, or are respooled versions of movie film that have been altered for still photography.
The Wednesday announcement of KODACOLOR makes clear that Eastman Kodak will be selling KODACOLOR directly to photography stores itself, which suggests that the company has wrested at least some control over the distribution of its films from Kodak Alaris, and raises all sorts of exciting possibilities about the future of Kodak film. The details of how or why it did this are not yet available and Kodak did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But it is notable that while Kodak manufactures about a dozen different types of film including Kodak Gold, Ektar, Portra, and Colorplus, the only “still film” listed on the Kodak website is now the new KODACOLOR film stocks.
Regardless of the reasoning or specifics behind the news, the announcement of new film stocks from the most important film company in the world is the latest sign of the enduring and resurgent popularity of analog film photography. And it at least shows that Kodak is interested in creating new types of film for the hobby; as Petapixel points out, it is Kodak’s “first new film in a very long time.” In recent years, there has been a handful of new film stocks announced and released, most notably a type of film called Phoenix from a company called Harman, which is made in a new factory in England and, according to the company, has been “hugely successful.”
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HARMAN TECHNOLOGY ANNOUNCES SIGNIFICANT ONGOING INVESTMENT IN THE FUTURE OF PHOTOGRAPHIC FILM HARMAN technology Ltd, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of analogue photographic films, darkroom papers, and photo chemicals, has further reaffirmed…ilfordphoto (Harman Technology Ltd)
