After promises were made last month, by the movie industry to secure the continuation of movie film production, today brings the news that Kodak has produced its last ever BW400CN film roll.
The Phoblographer reports that Kodak has issued a statement confirming that they recently ended production of BW400CN rolls. With the amount of stock currently at wholesalers it is expected that photographers will still be able to buy the film for the next six months, and then it vanishes from stores for ever.
Billed as the worlds finest grained chromogenic film it is another death nail for those who find romance in the pre-digital way of taking photos. Explaining their reasons for discontinuing the film Kodak present an entirely reasonable, capitalist case for doing so:
We empathize with the Pro photographers and consumers who use and love this film, but given the significant minimum order quantity necessary to coat more product combined with the very small customer demand, it is a decision we have to make.
Despite Kodak’s reasoned statement it still seems photography, as the art form, has lost something with the ending of BW400CN. There is something pure and beautiful in the deceptive simplicity of a film photographer which is lacked in the hyper edited digital age.
Will you be stockpiling rolls, or are you glad to see the back of it?
Let’s keep this in perspective, BW400CN is a C-41 processed B&W film that no body really used!