I can sympathize with your views on using Kodak products. I'm a five-year Kodak employee, and in that five years, Kodak has gone through quite a change (though this change has been occurring for more than five years!). Jobs are being eliminated or moved overseas at an incredible rate, and as a result, the morale is pitiful. I'm actually a target in this next round of job cuts (6000 jobs), so I may not be a Kodak employee much longer...

I wish things were different. Kodak used to be a company that you could be proud of patronizing. Now, whenever you buy a Kodak instant camera, for example, you are helping fund factories and workers in China and Mexico. Whenever you buy a Fuji instant camera, you are helping fund factories and workers in South Carolina. Where would you rather send your money?

I'll be honest - I mostly buy products for quality reasons. Sometimes these products are American, sometimes they aren't. I still buy Kodak for this reason. I personally find better results with Kodak films, though I haven't tried some of the newer films from other companies yet. I suppose I should try them soon.

I thought I'd but my $0.02 in.

Ryan

Well we agree there. I may be able to find good films, but I'll sure miss my Tri-X and Plus-X. I grew up with and learned photography with them. But I've had a bug with Kodak ever since they made Microdol X difficult to find. Couldn't possibly be all the distributors... I know it can still be had (a year ago anyway), but it is hard, especially the replenisher. And then they started dropping films. Then they started changing the 35mm color films every week (or so it seemed). They just don't care about film any more. Only a corporate bottom line and dividends.

I didn't even know Fuji had American plants? I've never liked their films, but may have to give them another try. It's been a good 35 years or so since I last gave them a chance...

The funny (sad) thing about "buying American" is that when I started getting serious about photography was about the time Japan took over the 35mm market. There was no such thing as an American 35mm SLR. So I bought Mamiya, then Minolta. At that time, Graflex was still in business, but no longer owned by Kodak. I could have bought one new, but the swing was strongly against them and large format even though that's the way I wanted to go. Now, almost 40 years later, I'm buying and using Graflex products. They are so popular that I still think they could be put back into production... As usual, I'm a bit late and/or behind... But at least I've fullfilled an old dream and quite happy about it! Well, except maybe for not having the time to go out and use all this stuff I've aquired...