Kodak Personal Imaging becomes Kodak Alaris — but don’t worry, your film isn’t going anywhere

 

 

Yesterday, Kodak exited bankruptcy, leaving behind the world of consumer products to instead focus on its commercial services. But where does that leave Kodak Personal Imaging, which was sold to Kodak's UK pension plan earlier this year? That sale officially went through today, and what was Kodak Personal Imaging is now Kodak Alaris — and, thankfully, it sounds like not much will change for photographers.

Kodak Alaris has the rights to use the Kodak brand in perpetuity, a representative told us, and with no plans to alter film offerings, that means you should see Kodak film stock still on the shelves for the foreseeable future. And since the new company is free of old obligations, hopefully it'll be a bit more flexible with new offerings.

Alaris will have four core businesses:

• Film Capture, which includes some of the world’s most popular and recognizable award-winning still film for professionals and consumers;
• RSS, a worldwide leader in instant printing with the retail instant photo kiosks offering consumers personalised photo products and the industry-leading APEX dry labs;
• Paper and Output Systems, the broadest portfolio of high quality media, including traditional photographic paper, for a variety of professional print operations and workflow solutions for photo specialty retailers, professional and wholesale labs; and
• EIS, the leading provider of digital souvenir photography services and solutions  at theme parks, iconic destinations & resorts

Kodak Alaris is completely separate from the Kodak licensed cameras, and isn't related to the oft delayed Micro Four Thirds Kodak S1 which bizarrely surfaced earlier this year.

For most photographers, what this boils down to is that those familiar yellow film rolls, kiosks, and papers will still be available for you to use. And fingers crossed, they're not going anywhere soon.