Harl-Man

I apologize if this has been posted before, I don’t get to read all past UHH articles.
I’m from Rochester NY - Kodak Country and many of my friends are/were Kodak retirees and have left to retire in other states.
This of course would be of great interest to them.

https://www.popsci.com/inside-kodak-factory-photos/

LFingar Loc: Claverack, NY

In the late '70's, as a trucker, I used to haul loads of gelatine into Kodak in Rochester. Off of highway 104 which was Ridge Rd at that time, as I recall. Gelatine is used in making the film. It is made from the hooves, horns, and other assorted parts of cattle. Much of it came from overseas although I did bring in loads from Nebraska and Colorado.

Harl-Man

Thanks for your note. Ridge Road (Route 104) is much less congested today.

LarryFitz Loc: Beacon NY

Thanks, I worked in digital area< use the DCS 200 and most of the early consumer digital cameras.

LFingar Loc: Claverack, NY

My first digital camera was a DC4800. Came with an 8MB CF card! That was in 2001. A very decent camera in it's day.

Blair Shaw Jr Loc: Dunnellon,Florida

That was interesting and thank you for sharing it. They are an amazing company and their history is fascinating.Thank you Harl-Man.

E.L.. Shapiro Loc: Ottawa, Ontario Canada

it's still difficult for me to believe that Kodak is mostly gone from the photographic industry.

I wrote my first letter to their Sales-Service Division on State Street in Rochester when I was 10 years old seeking information onf photograhy and photographic materials. Each time I sent a letter asking a specific question, they sent me a Kodak Data Book- this was my early photographic education.

As a student and eventually a professional photographer, Kodak materials and technical assistance were always omnipresent in my education, workplaces, and in my own business. Problems in the darkroom or color lab? The Kodal TR was always a welcome guest at the shop and a source of practical solutions. Of course, there were competitive products but the Kodak materials- films, chemistry, and papers always had better consistency, quality control and technical backup. .

The army sent me to Rochester for special courses in aerographic inferred photography given at R.I.T. in cooperation with Kodak. Requred reading at the school was the "Theory of the Photographic Process" by Charles Edward d Kenneth Mees (1882—1960). If any of y'all still wanna learn about how film emulsions were made, that book is still available.

Kodak also made and markented all manner of professional equipment- great Ektar lenses, large format cameras, all kinds of graphic arts materials, autofocus enlargers, automatic printers and more.

My shop was one of the first studios on the black to go digital in my city. Sadly, Kodak did not go alog with us but I still miss the YELLOW BOXES.

Harl-Man

You’ve had a lot of experience to share!
Thanks for your reply

medphotog Loc: Witness protection land

Did they send you to the downtown RIT campus or had they moved to Henrietta? (Not sure of your timeline) Did you have Doc Francis as an instructor?

E.L.. Shapiro Loc: Ottawa, Ontario Canada

It was 1963. I went from boot camp to A.I.T. and then to Airborne training at Ft. Benning. Then off to the Pictorial Center at Astoria, N.Y. The big "new technology" was inferred color photograhy for aerial recconinance to detect subterranean bunkers. So one night (hush-hush) it was "classified" bac then, they flew us to Rocherter, we landed at the airport and a bus took us to a building on the RIT campus. It was an older building but I understand a new one was either in progress or perhaps still under construction. There were 6 of us- we bunked at a nearby motel and were told not to discuss the course with other students or any persons.

I don't recall the name of all the instructors. There were engineers form Kodak, some "brass" from the Pentagon, and two resident professors. We just called everyone "Sir"! The cameras were manufactured by Fairchild and the film was the "new" Aerographic Ektachrome. We were there, 6 of us, for 3 week learning how to operate and install the gear, set up a processing units in the field, and how the system was to be employed in reconnaissance and cartographic applications.

Nowadays it's no big deal. What we did hanging on-off of gunships, getting shot at by the unfrinedly folks in Vietnam can be done via satellite from an air-conditioned office in the Pentagon. The old technology is still kinda used in agricultural land and crop assessment.

Basically-when land is undermined or when there are burried explosive devices, the foleage that land shows on the film in a different color form the undisturbed land. We would shoot and process and the next day the Agent Oraneg was sprayed out and the tract we photographed and was defoliated or burned out. Anoter group nicknmaned "Tunnel Rats" wold go in a claan out the bunkers.

Nightmares!