Kodak Press Release 04/03/04

Kodak Professional’s Venerable TRI-X Black-and-White Film Celebrates 50 Years of Unparalleled Popularity and Quality Film Revered by World?s Elite Photographers, Industry Experts, and Students

FOCUS ON IMAGING, 22nd February 2004 - TRI-X Film has, in the fifty years of its existence, achieved iconic status in the photographic industry crossing boundaries of all applications and types of photographers - commercial, nature, fine art, portraiture, editorial students - and remains Kodak?s largest-selling black-and-white film.

“Fifty years ago, TRI-X Film created a class of its own with its speed and unique look. Today, it stands alone,” said Myriam Quinones, Product Manager, Professional Film Capture Products. “Whether a photographer wants to convey power, beauty, intensity or grace all in the absence of colour, TRI-X Film captures it like no other. The look of TRI-X Film is unparalleled, and it is the black-and-white choice of many professional photographers.”

Introduced November 1, 1954, as TRI-X Roll Film ? in 135 and 120-sizes - it was considered faster than any other film available, which changed where photographers could take their camera and what they could shoot.  Low-light situations and action/motion could now be captured with outstanding results.  Professional photographers and industry experts have heralded TRI-X Film for its incredible tonal range, wide exposure and processing latitude and its distinctive grain structure. TRI-X Film has travelled the world with some of the world?s most esteemed photographers ? including such luminaries as Sebastiao Salgado, Alfred Eisenstadt, Mary Ellen Mark, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and John Sexton ? during the past fifty years. 

?Just about everything I have done with photography in my life has been recorded on TRI-X Film,? said Sebastiao Salgado.  ?I am so linked with TRI-X film that even when imagining all the possible shades of gray, I materialize all my thoughts in generations of TRI-X Film.?
It has been shot in arctic and desert conditions, as well as many other adverse shooting environments, and consistently produces outstanding prints.  It is regularly used in photography courses and hundreds of aspiring photographers continue to learn the fundamentals of black-and-white photography with TRI-X Film.

?TRI-X is one of the ?icons? in our film portfolio,? said Quinones. ?Professional photographers have depended on TRI-X Film for 50 years and will be able to rely on it for years to come.?  To mark the fiftieth anniversary of TRI-X Film, the film?s packaging will carry a special ?50 years? seal throughout 2004. 

About Eastman Kodak Company and infoimaging
Kodak is the leader in helping people take, share, print and view images ? for memories, for information, for entertainment.  The company is a major participant in infoimaging, a $385 billion industry composed of devices (digital cameras and flat-panel displays), infrastructure (online networks and delivery systems for images) and services & media (software, film and paper enabling people to access, analyze and print images).  With sales of $13.3 billion in 2003, the company comprises several businesses: Health, supplying the healthcare industry with traditional and digital image capture and output products and services; Commercial Printing, offering on-demand color printing and networking publishing systems; Commercial Imaging, offering image capture, output and storage products and services to businesses and government; Display & Components, which designs and manufactures state-of-the-art organic light-emitting diode displays as well as other specialty materials, and delivers optics and imaging sensors to original equipment manufacturers; and Digital & Film Imaging Systems, providing consumers, professionals and cinematographers with digital and traditional products and services.

(Kodak, Kodak Professional and Tri-X are trade marks of Eastman Kodak Company.)