[PRCo] Re: Kodak

Sat Nov 3 11:02:49 EDT 2007

The local dealer only stocks film for me and then only because I come  
in and tell them when I'm going away.

The other option is B&H Photo via the internet if you want slide film.

On Nov 3, 2007, at 10:00 AM, Bob Rathke wrote:

> I 've taken more than 80,000 slide photos over the past 50 years,  
> but last
> Fall I bit the bullet and started using a digital camera. I realize  
> that
> even the highest megapixel digital cameras don't approach the  
> resolution of
> slide film (I have a report that says that ASA100 slide film has  
> resolution
> equivalent to 30 megapixels), but I've really gotten used to using  
> a digital
> camera in the past year, and now I'm taking 2-3X more photos per  
> month than
> I did with the chemical cameras.
>
> Last week I realized that I haven't taken a film photo in nearly a  
> year, so
> I checked my 35mm SLR and found that it contained a roll of slide  
> film with
> 12 exposures made at the end of 2006.  So I snapped off the  
> remaining 24
> exposures around the neighborhood (the leaves on the trees are just  
> starting
> to turn here), and took the film to the photo store for processing  
> before it
> expires.  While there I asked if they still sell much slide film,  
> and the
> store manager pointed to the film rack on the wall - not a single  
> roll of
> slide film was in it, and only about 15 rolls of print film.
>
> He also asked if I take railroad photos.  I was surprised by his  
> question
> and answered yes. He said that most of the slide film they've sold  
> in recent
> years has been to railroad photographers.
>
> Bob 11/3/07
> -----------------------------
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Jim Holland" <PRCoPCC at P-R-Co.com>
> To: "- 1714 PRCo__WP__JTC -" <pittsburgh-railways at lists.dementia.org>
> Sent: Saturday, November 03, 2007 4:50 AM
> Subject: [PRCo] Kodak
>
>
>> This has been mentioned here before -- Digital vs. Film:::::::
>>
>>
>>
>> """Digital PROFITS--[emphasis added] surged to $82 million from $28
>> million..."""
>>
>>
>>  Eastman Kodak Posts 3Q Profit, Sales Dip
>>
>> By BEN DOBBIN, AP Business Writer
>>
>> Thursday, November 1, 2007
>>
>> (11-01) 14:42 PDT Rochester, N.Y. (AP) --
>>
>> Eastman *Kodak* Co., rounding the final bend in a four-year digital
>> overhaul, swung to a $37 million profit in the third quarter  
>> Thursday as
>> digital revenue almost tripled and wider profit margins  
>> overshadowed a
>> slight drop in overall sales.
>>
>> The photography products maker earned the equivalent of 13 cents a  
>> share
>> in the July-September quarter, mirroring a loss of $37 million, or 13
>> cents a share, a year earlier when it also took hefty charges.
>>
>> Sales eased to $2.58 billion from $2.60 billion in last year's third
>> quarter.
>>
>> Excluding one-time restructuring costs of $96 million, or 33 cents a
>> share, operating profits came to $128 million, or 46 cents a  
>> share. On
>> average, analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial forecast a profit  
>> of 27
>> cents a share on sales of $2.49 billion. The earnings estimates
>> typically exclude one-time items.
>>
>> *Kodak* shares fell 90 cents, or 3.1 percent, to close at $27.76  
>> Thursday.
>>
>> Digital profits surged to $82 million from $28 million as sales  
>> rose 1
>> percent to $1.123 billion. In contrast, earnings from film, paper and
>> other traditional, chemical-based products slumped from $110  
>> million to
>> $91 million as sales plunged 16 percent to $986 million.
>>
>> *Kodak* said gross profit margin rose to 26.4 percent for the  
>> quarter,
>> compared with 25.1 percent a year earlier. It also reported a  
>> lower debt
>> level of $1.63 billion at the end of the quarter versus $2.78  
>> billion at
>> the end of 2006.
>>
>> "In my view, all the pieces are coming together," *Kodak*'s chief
>> executive, Antonio Perez, said in a conference call with analysts.  
>> "We
>> have created with all this work a much more cost-effective business
>> model .... from which I believe we can launch and sustain profitable
>> growth."
>>
>> Ulysses Yannas, a broker with Buckman, Buckman & Reid in New York,
>> thinks *Kodak*'s transformation is "coming to a successful end" with
>> increasingly profitable digital businesses "now taking over from  
>> film.
>> They've survived the restructuring not as a second-rate company  
>> but as a
>> first-rate company. That's the important part."
>>
>> But analyst Shannon Cross of Cross Research in Short Hills, N.J.,
>> cautioned that operating profits in the quarter were driven by
>> "leveraging cost-cutting in the film business" and one-time royalty
>> payments from digital-camera technology.
>>
>> "It's still difficult to determine what the long-term, core operating
>> profit of this company will be because ... we're not going to really
>> know for a couple of years the scope of the investments they're  
>> making
>> right now in things like inkjet printers and CMOS (image sensors in
>> digital cameras)."
>>
>> The company reiterated its guidance for 2007 operating earnings of  
>> $300
>> million to $400 million.
>>
>> In 2003, *Kodak* acknowledged its analog businesses were sliding
>> irreversibly and outlined a strategy to become a digital front  
>> runner in
>> photography and commercial printing by 2008. It embarked on a  
>> nearly $3
>> billion shopping spree but also began closing film, paper and other
>> raw-materials plants around the world.
>>
>> Shifting from a shrinking film business into the highly competitive
>> digital arena has proved costly. *Kodak* has piled up nearly $3.3
>> billion in restructuring charges and accumulated $2.1 billion in net
>> losses over the last 12 quarters — nine of which ended in deficits.
>>
>> In February, the photography pioneer said it was eliminating 3,000  
>> more
>> jobs, raising its planned tally of layoffs to 28,000 to 30,000 since
>> 2004. But the company said Thursday that the layoff count will  
>> actually
>> end up between 27,000 and 28,000.
>>
>> By year-end, its work force could slip to around 34,000, less than  
>> half
>> what it was at the end of 2002.
>>
>> Revenues from consumer digital imaging products rose 1 percent in the
>> quarter to $1.23 billion, helped by a 16 percent jump in sales of
>> cameras, retail kiosks and other digital products but offset by its
>> costly foray into a high-margin inkjet-printer market dominated by
>> Hewlett Packard Co. *Kodak* is aiming to sell a half-million inkjet
>> printers this year and reach $1 billion in sales by 2010.
>>
>> Graphic communications revenues rose 5 percent to $928 million,  
>> driven
>> by improved sales of digital plates and software.
>>
>> In the first nine months of the year, *Kodak* earned $461 million, or
>> $1.60 a share, compared with a loss of $617 million, or $2.15 a  
>> share,
>> in the first three quarters of 2006. But sales fell to $7.2  
>> billion from
>> $7.57 billion — reflecting the $2.35 billion sale in April of its
>> 110-year-old health-imaging business.
>>
>> ___
>>
>> On the Net:
>>
>> http://tinyurl.com/24uskl
>> *
>> *
>>
>> http://www.*kodak*.com <http://www.kodak.com>
>>
>>
>>
>> ^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^
>> .
>> .
>> Jim Holland
>> .
>> Studying Pittsburgh Railways Company (PRCo)
>> .
>> ..............................From 1930 -- 1950
>> .
>> Pennsylvania Trolley Museum (PTM)
>> .
>> http://www.pa-trolley.org/
>> .
>> N.M.R.A.
>> .
>> http://www.nmra.org/
>>
>>
>
>