Kodak will shut down its Kodakit on-demand photography service in January

I just stated the facts as many here comment that Kodak failed due to poor management, it wasn't, film, paper and chem use dropped 97% (97% is a made up number, but it's close).
Film use is way down, yes some producers/directors have committed to shooting movies on film, but it's only a fraction of what they used to use.
I still shoot film, 4x5, 2 1/4" and 35mm and yes, I like the slower pace of film and when shooting 4x5, it's a very slow pace and it's great. I use one of my classic Nikon F's with any of my Non Ai lenses 24mm to 500mm mirror. For 2 1/4" it a Yashica Mat 124G and that 4x5 is my Graflex Speed Graphic.
I have a full Color/B&W darkroom with it's own heating/cooling/venting system to keep the chem smell out of the rest of the house; equipped with a Beseler 45MXT (B&W) and a Omega 760 XL Dichroic (Color & B&W).
I shoot digital, a Nikon Df and D750, I use the Df for 95% of my shooting.

Marc - Yes, as someone who as a teenager set up and ran my school camera club and introduced the joys of the darkroom to my fellow pupils, I empathise with the "anticipation" you speak of.

And I still recall the excitement of getting processed Kodachromes back from the lab after a 2 week wait, and finding out that I'd actually managed to get the exposure correct!

But I also remember the fact, that if upon examining the pictures I found that I'd messed up a photo, I would have no second chance at it. And I remember the scratches and tramlines that some of the clumsier labs inscribed on my precious slides.

So it's nice to be able to chimp after taking a photo, just to check that the result is what I was aiming for, and to have the chance to reshoot.

I'll take digital every time.

Whileas i don't have a Darkroom @home, i give my Films away for developing. The fact is, one can't judge the picture based onto a non-colour calibrated, small Camera Screen, vs. your Monitor at home. It's also way to small, for doing so, even if you zoom into, which shows then only a enhanced section.

I can't stand chimping pictures via LCD on Location. I stopped that a long time ago. I load the pictures on my PC @home, and then check them out. There is the histogram for exposure.

Some Labs are being crappy, and not carefully handling your Filmstripes, or -Slides. Digital is way fast, offers most post processing latitude, but i must admit, it seldom makes me smile. It's just a file, if its good, it's okay.... it doesn't give me much emotionally, whileas Film is being a different story.

Into the end shooting digital lets me alter my pictures into a way, i've had them into my minds eye, whileas that doesn't work for Film, because i don't own a decent scanner, yet.

Good Light.

My take is that Kodak was primarily in the business of selling film, chemicals and paper and realized that digital photography would eventually destroy all three markets.

Their biggest mistake was in not fully embracing digital, effectively doing BOTH while one market grew and the other one shrank. Their failure to adapt didn't prevent their competitors from becoming dominant in digital. With 20/20 hindsight, it is easy to see they could be thriving today if they pressed the advantage they had in digital photography 30 years ago.

Successful companies adapt to changing technologies. They always keep reinventing themselves. Like how Apple morphed from being a computer company, to being a mp3 company, to being a smartphone company.

Fujifilm, another film and chemical company, made the transition to digital much more successfully than Kodak did. But in fairness, Fuji had little to lose and much to gain, while Kodak saw it the other way around.

You think wrong.
US and UK optical firms had better returns working for their relative defence industries making sights, image intesifiers et al. German and Japanese optical firms were left to concentrate on the (less lucrative) domestic optics and instruments market.
Kodak made cameras all over the world - not just in the US.

I think you might be a bit late for that. The original Eastman Kodak company left the (consumer-facing) photography business as part of its Chapter 11 restructuring a couple of years ago.

Kodak was a finished business september 13th 2013.
What's left is the name and some leftovers, but none of the initiatives of 'Kodak' have been successful since.

Mariano - I wouldn't be over-worried about the future of Nikon.

The nature of their business (and that of *all* camera companies) will certainly change, but IMO they'll still be producing fabulous cameras and lenses for at least the next 10 years.

I'm very likely to invest in a FF mirrorless system next year, and nothing that I've heard would be sufficient to scare me away from Nikon. I'll be considering Nikon, Canon, Sony and Panasonic and my decision will be based primarily on which lenses are available (or on the roadmap) in 6 months time.

The most likely scenario, *if* their current financial misfortunes become a critical issue, is that another company, and not necessarily a photographic one, will buy into Nikon and provide the necessary cash injection to rescue them.

@Richard Butler
Exactly, but we can still buy Kodak Film nowadays, even into the Discounter, albeit not all sorts of Film, only 135, and not their "Professional" Series - but online. Means Kodak Ektachrome, Ektar, Portra Series, T-Max Series and Tri-X/400TX.

Good Light.

You can buy Kodak film, but you can't buy it from Eastman Kodak (unless you're a Hollywood studio). The photographic film business belongs to Kodak Alaris (though EK still does the manufacturing for them, I believe).

Yes, but anyway, i still can buy Kodak Film in the known flavours, and that's a great Deal nowadays. I've read somewhere, Film was being sold 22% more, than last year.

I literally don't understand the point you're trying to make, so I'm just going to give up.

I stand by my original statement that it's too late to think about (Eastman) Kodak, the company in Rochester, New York, merging with a photo company, given that they have left the consumer photo industry.

Richard - Here, giving up in despair is sometimes the only way.

Richard, i know that Kodak Eastman into that old Form is being dead since 2012.

My Point was only, i could buy my fave Kodak Films online, wheter they've been produced by Kodak Alaris, or something else, doesn't matter. Nothing bad meant. My opinion wasn't about the former Kodak Company, as we do knew it, merging with some other firm. ;-)

@entoman - you did not understood that sense of this topic, what i did want to tell richard, but a opinion to all of it.

Good Light.

@ Richard Butler et al ..... and, where I work, we sell way more film than we do memory cards and leading the way, film wise, is the Kodak Porta 400 ;-) and, then, a variety of Ilford, Fuji, Kodak, Rollei Monochrome and colour films :)