Kodak loss continues

Eastman Kodak reports a fourth quarter loss of $52 million. The company`s fifth consecutive quarterly loss was said to be affected by numerous restructuring items. The Street reports that this loss indicates a narrowing from last year`s sum of $59 million.

According to Kodak, they have entered this year "with solid momentum and a stronger emphasis on profitable growth". Their focus for 2006 will be "expanding the margins of our digital businesses, now that we`ve amassed the scale necessary to be a market force". Kodak also announced that Robert Brust, their 62-year-old chief financial officer, will retire next January.

Fuji Photo Film announced its intention to cut 5 000 jobs, according to Bloomberg. This number will be reduced from the 75 638 workers worldwide, reported as of March 2005. The Japanese based company will also move some of its production to China.

These changes are expected to impact heavily on the company`s net income. It is forecast that full-year profit will be reduced by as much as 77%. The company stated that, in implementing these restructuring steps, they "hope to reduce fixed costs and secure stabile profits in our imaging solutions division".

Adobe announced the non-beta version of the Camera RAW 3.3 plug-in. According to Digital Photography Review, the new release supports an additional 17 camera models. These include the recent releases such as the Canon EOS 5D, Nikon D200, Olympus E-500 and Sony DSC-R1.

Other new features include improved redraw speed at certain zoom levels, and added warning dialogues when attempting to cancel or reset the dialogue when there are changes to non-selected images. The RAW importer/converter has become indispensable to many photographers who prefer to shoot with this file format.