New Catalog numbers for Dektol and other Kodak Alaris chemistry

[mshchem]

B&H has listings for "new 2019 version" Dektol, and a few other KA chemistry. The only in stock "new" material is Kodak Rapid Selenium toner, the photo of the product says made in USA with Kodak Alaris Rochester. Pretty fuzzy little picture, I don't know what this really means
New Dektol cat. no. is 1058296, old Dektol is cat. no. 5160270.
Might be Alaris has moved production back to USA from Germany. The German material was better than ever. No brown bits in the XTOL.
Best Regards Mike

 

[AgX]

A change of manufacturer would not be a surprise seen the trouble Tetenal was in and finally had gone under though with a buy-out and resurection in part.
What surprises me then is the change in product number. To indicate a new manufacturer the new batch number would be sufficient. There must be more behind it. Or?

 

[mshchem]

A change of manufacturer would not be a surprise seen the trouble Tetenal was in and finally had gone under though with a buy-out and resurection in part.
What surprises me then is the change in product number. To indicate a new manufacturer the new batch number would be sufficient. There must be more behind it. Or?

Yeah, makes me wonder if something else is up???

 

[MattKing]

I wouldn't trust the photos in B&H listings - they don't necessarily update them when product packaging changes. The bottle pictured for HC-110 is an example.
The packaging may be changing - maybe even the quantities!

 

[mshchem]

I wouldn't trust the photos in B&H listings - they don't necessarily update them when product packaging changes. The bottle pictured for HC-110 is an example.
The packaging may be changing - maybe even the quantities!

I agree about the B&H pictures. I wonder if this has something to do with the potential sale of Alaris? Pure speculation obviously. Could be a hundred reasons.

 

[AgX]

I wouldn't trust the photos in B&H listings - they don't necessarily update them when product packaging changes. The bottle pictured for HC-110 is an example.

Especially with the "newer" number being lower than the "older" number.

 

[AgX]

I agree about the B&H pictures. I wonder if this has something to do with the potential sale of Alaris? Pure speculation obviously. Could be a hundred reasons.

If you sell a company you do not change product numbers. After a sale the new owner might change those product numbers to make them fit their own product-number sytem, but such would yield a completely different number.

 

[twelvetone12]

I saw a couple days ago a post about HC-110 "2019 edition" in a new bottle and less viscous, and it appears to be made in the US and not EU as the old one. Anybody has seen that too? I will try to find that post.

 

[mshchem]

I would be very interested to find out what's up.

 

[AgX]

It's time for Sean to install the "Great Enigmas" forum.

 

[MattKing]

It's time for Sean to install the "Great Enigmas" forum.

I thought the time for that was when trendland and Mustafa Umut Sarac were posting .

 

[mshchem]

Freestyle has close date Dektol on sale for 8 bucks and Unique Photo is selling Dektol ,free delivery no minimum purchase for 9.25, cheaper if you take 20 packages. This could be the beginning of the end. Rioting, Dektol black market. D76 cheap too! Oh the Humanity! !!

 

[Kino]

I wouldn't trust the photos in B&H listings - they don't necessarily update them when product packaging changes. The bottle pictured for HC-110 is an example.
The packaging may be changing - maybe even the quantities!

Agreed. Last year, when searching for lens cleaning tissue on B&H, the tissue was listed as Tiffen but when you clicked the associated picture, it changed to a picture of the old yellow Kodak Lens Cleaning Tissue package.
I would assume updating photos is very low priority on some tiers of products...

 

[mshchem]

Still trying to figure this out. Probably no big deal. Maybe they will start making it themselves. How crazy is that?

 

[MattKing]

Still trying to figure this out. Probably no big deal. Maybe they will start making it themselves. How crazy is that?

They would have to buy or create a chemical manufacturing plant to do that.

 

[Kino]

Even thought they are no longer owned by Eastman Kodak, the Eastman Chemical Company COULD (total speculation) manufacture anything required and they ARE very financially stable.

 

[AgX]

But why that company? There are no connections chemicalswise anymore concerning developing agents.

 

[MattKing]

But why that company? There are no connections chemicalswise anymore concerning developing agents.

Actually, I think that Eastman Chemical Company is one of the suppliers that Eastman Kodak uses.
As their premises were formerly Eastman Kodak premises, and their original staff were former Eastman Kodak staff, they probably have some advantages.

 

[AgX]

Actually, I think that Eastman Chemical Company is one of the suppliers that Eastman Kodak uses.
As their premises were formerly Eastman Kodak premises, and their original staff were former Eastman Kodak staff, they probably have some advantages.

These things change in no time, see the Agfa story. Even if they still supply Kodak it does not mean that it would be economical for them to synthesize a certain chemical, unless that would be very tricky and in-house knowledge could make it economical then.
Furthermore: Eastman Kodak is not Kodak Alaris.

Concerning Dektol: it consists seemingly only of middle-of-the-road chemicals. Any plant devoted to blending and packaging fine chemicals could make it.
Tetenal was no chemical plant in the proper sense.

 

[Kino]

These things change in no time, see the Agfa story. Even if they still supply Kodak it does not mean that it would be economical for them to synthesize a certain chemical, unless that would be very tricky and in-house knowledge could make it economical then.
Furthermore: Eastman Kodak is not Kodak Alaris.

Concerning Dektol: it consists seemingly only of middle-of-the-road chemicals. Any plant devoted to blending and packaging fine chemicals could make it.
Tetenal was no chemical plant in the proper sense.

You argue against your own point (and I agree).

Eastman Chemical Company has about a hundred years of history being tied to Eastman Kodak. I'll bet some lingering ties yet exist; even if informally.

 

[AgX]

Obtaining chemicals is a endeavour of economics, not of family ties. As I indicated in certain situations could a former relationship be economically helpful.
But, in what way could Eastman Chemical be helpful to Alaris in obtaining ready to sell Dektol etc.?

 

[Kino]

Obtaining chemicals is a endeavour of economics, not of family ties. As I indicated in certain situations could a former relationship be economically helpful.
But, in what way could Eastman Chemical be helpful to Alaris in obtaining ready to sell Dektol etc.?

By making it in the USA for the US market and not having to ship it across the pond?

Has anyone confirmed that the catalog numbers have changed in Europe?

 

[AgX]

But Eastman Chemical is a manufacturer of certain chemicals they specialized on, in bulk, not for blending most common chemicals and filling them into consumer package.

 

[Grim Tuesday]

I have a bottle of HC-110 that I bought a month or two ago. Thinner than the one I got in 2017. Both were made in Germany. If this is the beginning of the end for Kodak chemistry which ones are the ones to stock up on? Is there anything special in any of the devs that someone like Freestyle or Photographer's Formulary can't copy?

 

[AgX]

As said above, from a change in the last figures at a product number one hardly can deduce on an end of production for good.