Friday, January 20, 2012

Kodak and Polaroid

Raise your hands - was anyone really surprised that Kodak filed for bankruptcy this week?  A company must really be mismanaged if it can't manage to sell its patents. . . .

On the flip side, here's a company that's done a remarkable job adapting - Polaroid.  During the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas last week, it showed off the Polaroid Z340.  Yes, it gives you instant photos with no ink.  But, it stores the photos in memory, so if you lose the instant photo, you can print it again.  According to the description, it's a full function digital camera and an integrated printer.   http://store.polaroid.com/product/9/356223/Z340/_/Instant_Digital_Camera  It retails for $299 although I would expect deals should be coming down the pike.  Zink paper, with 30 pages per pack, presently runs at $19.99 at the Polaroid site - again shop around for deals.  14.0 MP camera, add borders to your photos before you print, and SD expandable.  I have not seen or tried this camera out, but it does look cool!

Have fun!

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

So, how were the holidays?

Hope everyone got what they wanted?  Any good holiday pictures?

We went out for a drive to see the holiday lights.  We live on the state border, so we went to the next state and drove past one of those places where the entire house must look like Christmas land inside, or else they rent multiple storage facilities to store their display.  It was awesome, and yes, I took pictures.  But, I have been tired and lazy and haven't uploaded to my computer yet.  The folks were truly in the holiday spirit - they even piped in music and had a radio station coordinate the music.  Well worth the 20 minute drive.  :-)

On to photo news.  I'm sure everyone has heard about Kodak's and Olympus' woes.  There are even some reports that Kodak will not survive the year.  I agree that might be the case, but during a bankruptcy sale, I'm sure certain products, such as paper and printing, and, to some extent, even film (yes, some photographers shoot with film still), will survive even if owned by other companies - and the Kodak name will probably be part of the sale of the products.  Given their behavior at the PDN show in October, I can see why Kodak is failing - the employees there were certainly not interested in showing off or promoting their product - they were surly at best.

Now, Olympus, that I will really miss if it goes under.  I haven't paid too much attention, but there seems to be some sort of scandal brewing and accounting problems.  Olympus put out great products, and, if I weren't such a Sony/Minolta fan, Olympus would be my next brand of choice.  Would love to try the Olympus PEN camera - there's an ad that shows Olympus was giving them away on city streets to people to try - why, or why was I not lucky enough to snag one?  :-)  Unfortunately, although there were signs up at PDN 2011 showing Olympus as a sponsor, we didn't see a booth there - perhaps because of the company turmoil.  Hopefully, Olympus can recover.

I even hope Kodak can recover, but it needs better management that will look to the future and not to the past.  Innovation, Kodak.  Seriously!