In October last year, the Eastman Kodak Company, the producer of all those Kodak films we know and love, started to press the reset button.
Since 2012, when it was facing bankruptcy amid falling film sales, the US film giant had offloaded distribution of its stills films to a third party, called Kodak Alaris. Kodak Alaris was at first owned by Kodak’s UK pension fund, and then ended owned by a private financial investment company.
The films all still sported the Kodak name, so most customers probably had no idea. Eastman Kodak effectively outsourced its film distribution to an outside agency, albeit one with strong links to the film’s manufacturer.
Last October, that all started to change.
As of March 2026, Eastman Kodak has brought distribution of its stills films back in house – in redesigned boxes and in some cases with new names. What does this mean, and what are some of the likely (or potential) implications down the line?
Staggered announcements
First, a little timeline of what has happened so far.
Eastman Kodak released, with almost total surprise, two colour negative films called Kodacolor 100 and 200. The films were not, it appears, new emulsions but rebadged versions of Kodak Pro Image 100 and ColorPlus 200, two of the longstanding consumer colour films. Both news featured packaging dominated by yellow and black, harking back to Kodak’s heritage branding.
These films’ surprise announcement became one of the biggest film photography stories of the year. But Eastman Kodak had only just got started.
Over the following six months gradually started releasing the rest of their range. Some of the films kept their name – like UltraMax 400 and Tri-X and Gold 200 – but trade marks demanded others change their names.
One of the effects of this new Eastman Kodak distribution era is the end of perhaps the most valuable line-up in the Kodak range: Portra
That’s why we now have Ektapan black-and-white films instead of T-Max (which Kodak Alaris owns the rights to) and, most significantly, the new professional range of Ektacolor Pro films – replacing the ever-popular Portra Film range.
The Ektapan and Ektacolor films in 135 and 120- formats were the last to be announced in March. (It is not yet known if a full range of film formats like additional sheet films will be available.)
There’s been a lot of speculation over the past few months, but little in the way of solid information coming either from Eastman Kodak or Kodak Alaris. And, at least for now, Kodak Alaris continues to distribute its films (recently repackaged in a bold new colour-coded scheme) as if nothing has changed.
Farewell Portra and T-Max?
One of the effects of this new Eastman Kodak distribution era is the end of perhaps the most valuable line-up in the Kodak range: Portra. Kodak Alaris still owns the rights to this name, (as well as the fine-grained T-Max range) which is why Eastman Kodak has had to come up with the Ektacolor branding.
The “Ekta” prefix has long been associated with the premium end of Eastman Kodak’s offerings, right back to the days of Kodak’s high-end Ektra rangefinder in the 1940s before being revived for branding again in the 1970s. In the 1970s and 1980s, Ektapan Film was a black-and-white sheet film companion to Vericolor Film, former Eastman Kodak Professional film manager Robert Shanebrook told Kosmo Foto. “It had the same speed as Vericolor sheet film so they could be exposed at the same camera settings,” he said.
Eastman Kodak has obviously taken the gamble that customers will eventually learn that the films starting with an “E” will be the professional ones. Given the “Ekta” prefix’s storied place throughout Kodak’s history, perhaps that will be a relatively easy sell. But Portra’s high profile within the modern film photography ecosystem will be missed.
Cheaper film?
When the Kodacolor 100 and 200 films were announced, they were priced around $1 cheaper in the US than their Kodak Alaris-distributed equivalents. Some commentators were quick to claim that the end of the Alaris deal would lead to cheaper film by as much as 25 to 30% – a welcome move after consistent price rises in the last decade or so.
It will take a while for the “new” Eastman Kodak-distributed prices to settle, but here in the UK, pricing for the new films seems to be around the same as when Alaris had the sole rights to the film. Some of this is no doubt due to the effect of tariffs brought in by the current US administration, which makes US-made film more expensive on this side of the Atlantic.
Price drops? Perhaps, but most likely not in the short term. While Kodak Alaris will no longer be adding their percentage on top of the cost of the produced film, Eastman Kodak will now have to add the cost of getting their film out to retailers and distributors onto their bottom line. An in-house network that effectively disappeared for 12 years will have to be built up again.
Photographic film, which requires lots of chemicals and lots of energy to produce, remains vulnerable to price shocks. Silver, the heart of any photographic film, has yo-yoed in price over the past few years, and energy costs have spiked following the fighting the conflict in the Middle East. Things like this might help prevent price reductions, at least in the short term.
But the film market of 2026 and ahead is very different to that of 2012. Three of Eastman Kodak’s major colour film-producing rivals – Germany’s Agfa, Italy’s Ferrania and Japan’s Konica – had disappeared as the analogue photography market crashed in the mid-2000s. Only Fujifilm remained, and they have at times felt like a company with only a couple of toes left in the market.
Now? A rash of companies have produced colour films in the last few years, chiefly the UK’s Harman Technology and China’s revived Lucky Film. While their films don’t yet rival Eastman Kodak’s quality, the American giant suddenly finds itself with lots of new competition. At the consumer end of the market, at least, there’s new films to choose from.
New films?
Let’s imagine that Eastman Kodak doesn’t reduce the price of its films, and pours some of that extra revenue into its R&D. According to Shanebrook (who also wrote the book ‘Making Kodak Film’), in its heyday R&D hoovered up a billion dollars per year (6% of sales) of Kodak’s revenue.
The past decade has seen only the occasional “new” product released, but some of that R&D impetus hasn’t ended; when Eastman Kodak brought its Ektachrome slide film back to life in 2017 it had to significantly change the recipe compared to the old Ektachrome to bring it into line with more stringent environmental legislations. That requires chemical engineers and plenty of time – and as we all know, time costs money.
Eastman Kodak showed in the past that it could be convinced to bring discontinued films back from the grave – not only Ektachrome, but T-Max P3200 as well, a favourite for low-light photographers. Reviving previously axed stocks would be a welcome move, and there’s plenty to choose from; a quick glance through this list on Wikipedia shows you just how many have been made over the years. There’s plenty of candidates for revival, if they’re willing.
I'm a New Zealander who has been living in London since the mid-1990s, shooting film seriously since the year 2000. Kosmo Foto was launched in 2012 and has since become a film brand, with the release of my first films Kosmo Foto Mono 35mm (2017) and Kosmo Foto Mono 120 (2019).
I’m doing everything I can to promote film photography in the 21st Century, and help it survive and thrive. If you want to write something for Kosmo Foto, please drop me a line at foto.dowling@gmail.com.
Sure, the name “Portra” has massive recognition in the film photography world, but photographers tend to be pretty clued in, no? I think it will be an easy psychological switch going from Portra to Ektacolor Pro. Anyone not clued into the name change, and who goes looking for Portra, will get told pretty quickly about it.
Also, the point on tariffs is backwards I think. US tariffs affect the price of goods _imported_ into the US for US consumers. Tariffs are used as a tool to scare countries who want to sell into the US market – if US consumers are put off by tariff-induced higher prices, foreign companies sell less. US tariffs don’t affect US exports. Though of course, other countries apply their own customs duties to imports – but that’s always been the case.
Thanks for the summary Stephen, that’s really useful. The ones I use most are the T-MAX range, do you have any insight yet what they might be called going forward ?
No problem – yep, it’s in the article. They’re the Ektapan films.
Eastman Kodak films are slowly replacing Alaris Kodak films on Canadian camera store shelves and fridges, at least in Toronto. I think other parts of the world depends on wholesale channels because Eastman Kodak might be using different distribution channels than Alaris.
As to the why, partly Eastman Kodak is in a better spot to distribute their own photographic films “in house”, two, and I’m wildy speculating here, there might be a sunset clause with Alaris now owned by a private equity firm in the US after being unloaded by the Kodak UK Employee pension fund, which was underwater in terms of finances.
Overall, I’m happy Eastman Kodak took their film back in house for distribution even if Portra and T-Max had to be renamed. I think the vast majority of people can figure out the new names.
If Kodak brings anything else back, my #1 ask would be for a 400-speed slide film. Getting reversal film color and contrast, but without having to be tied to a tripod, would be amazing. Maybe they could resurrect E200, which was designed to be pushed to various speeds.
The other obvious candidate for revival is Plus-X, which would give Kodak a slow-speed (ASA 125) traditional grain companion to Tri-X, and neatly parallel TMax (ahem, “Ektapan”) 100.
Both very good suggestions
I guess that I will keep my box of Portra 400 (qty 5) in the freezer and save them for important events. Thank you for the article.