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Posts Tagged ‘shuttered’

DynaLite Lighting company shuttered after 50 years over struggle to remain competitive

23 Jan

DynaLite Lighting, the New Jersey-based company founded in 1970, has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and will shut down operations. The company’s CEO Peter Poremba revealed in the news in a statement on the DynaLite website, saying, ‘It is with sincere regret and heavy heart that I announce that DynaLite…has closed its doors.’

Poremba cites the ‘decline in the photography market’ as the reason for shuttering the company. His full statement reads:

It is with sincere regret and a heavy heart that I announce that DynaLite Inc. has filed for chapter 7 bankruptcy and has closed its doors.

For over 50 years, DynaLite has been providing lighting solutions for photographers. We are extremely proud of what we have accomplished and the careers we have helped. Unfortunately, due to the current decline in the photography market, we have found it difficult to remain competitive.

I want to thank you all for the years of support. It has been a pleasure servicing the photographic community.

DynaLite sold a large variety of products during its time, including power packs, mono lights, heads, lighting kits, portable lights, light modifiers and more. The photographic lighting industry has seen a large uptick in companies offering affordable products over the years, no doubt making it harder for some businesses to stay afloat.

Though many products are still listed on the DynaLite website, it doesn’t offer a way to directly purchase them. However, existing inventory remains available to buy from third-party retailers like Adorama.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Facebook’s photo sharing app Moments is being shuttered due to lack of user interest

26 Jan

Facebook is shuttering its image sharing app Moments, the company announced on Thursday. The product, which was announced in June 2015, allows multiple Facebook users to privately share images they’ve taken with the people who are featured in them. The app transforms Facebook’s facial recognition technology into a convenient tool, but few users are actually using the service.

The premise behind Facebook Moments is simple: many people snap images at a gathering. Those images can be manually shared with other individuals who attended the same event, but there’s a chance someone may miss out on photos they were featured in.

By using its facial recognition tech, Facebook is able to scan the user’s camera roll, identify other Moments users in the images, and issue an alert suggesting the user share those particular images with the other people featured in them. Google Photos offers a similar feature.

Moments was launched as a standalone app, and it’ll be officially shuttered on February 25, according to an email Facebook has sent to users. CNET reports that Facebook Moments’ demise is partly due to a lack of interest from users.

In addition to the email, users were given an alert within the Moments app, and any Facebook user who utilized the service within the last year will see an alert about the closure within the main Facebook app. Facebook Moments will be inaccessible starting on February 25. Users who wish to keep their images can use Facebook’s new ‘Export Your Moments’ tool to save them.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Flickr Marketplace image licensing program shuttered

24 Sep

Flickr Marketplace, the property’s image licensing service, is being shuttered, with the company citing feedback about subpar service as the reason. Per the email being sent to existing Marketplace licensing program users, the full shutdown will take place over the next few months, with appropriate royalties still being paid out to contributors during that time. 

Flickr confirmed to TechCrunch that the email is legitimate. In it, the company encourages users to complete an included survey that ‘could help shape possible decisions for any licensing opportunities in the future.’ However, no future plans have been stated, and Flickr Marketplace is effectively closed.

Via: TechCrunch

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Oh Snap! 15 Abandoned & Shuttered Fotomat Film Kiosks

09 May

[ By Steve in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

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Rendered obsolete by technology, hundreds of abandoned Fotomat drive-thru photo development kiosks still stand in suburban shopping center parking lots.

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Founded in the mid-1960s, Fotomat specialized in drive-thru, “One Day Photo Service”… that’s right kids, people once had to wait until the next day to see photos (presumably of dinosaurs) they took with their clunky analog cameras. By 1980, over four thousand yellow & blue, pyramid-roofed Fotomat kiosks were scattered across suburban parking lots from coast to coast. Built to last on cast-concrete berms, hundreds of abandoned and re-purposed Fotomat kiosks still stand, reminding us of better days and good times cast in Kodachrome.

Wooden It Be Nice

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Fotomat Corporation sold out to Konica in 1986 – a timely move to be sure, considering the late-1980s advent of film processing minilabs that reduced photo development time from a day to just an hour. Now that’s progress! The subsequent introduction of digital cameras and then, camera-equipped smartphones were the final nails in Fotomat’s coffin.

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While some Fotomat booths were re-purposed into key-cutting kiosks, coffee drive-thru’s and so on, others were reborn in wholly unexpected ways. Flickr user Patrick Cummins (collations) brings us this odd ex-Fotomat located in a shopping center parking lot in northern Toronto, Canada. The kiosk appears to have been made over as some sort of naturist art project before being abandoned for good.

Unloved In Lovington

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When you’re a Fotomac or Fotomate (as male and female staffers were cutely called) staffing a Fotomat kiosk in Lovington, New Mexico, your worst nightmare would be when the air conditioner conked out. At least one could compare miseries with whomever staffed that curious windmill booth in the near background. Flickr user Luis Capwell captured the poignant essence of this roofless abandoned Fotomat on March 5th of 2011.

A-Peeling

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This faded & abandoned Fotomat kiosk in Dayton, Ohio lost its appeal long ago – even the OPEN/CLOSED sign has seen better days. “Yes, We’re Open”? No, you’re not.

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A weathered coat of desultory grey/brown paint grudgingly reveals the booth’s original sky-blue walls through cracks encouraged by numerous bitter Ohio winters. Even the concrete is peeling. Flickr user Rob Anspach (Circa71) visited the decrepit former Fotomat at the Linden Shopping Center in April of 2009, if only to take photos – not leave them.

Forlorn & For Lease

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“The cute little hut with the big yellow roof”… now there’s a Kodak moment for ya! On August 21st of 2007, Flickr user Joe Balynas (muledriver) photo-documented the above ex-Fotomat (most recently, a drive-thru coffee shack) looking for a further reincarnation. The jumbo add-on fluorescent sign should help.

Next Page – Click Below to Read More:
Oh Snap 15 Abandoned Shuttered Fotomat Film Kiosks

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[ By Steve in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

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Kumamoto earthquake keeps Sony sensor factory shuttered

21 Apr

The major earthquakes that struck Japan on April 14th and 15th have closed Sony’s Kumamoto factory, which primarily manufactures sensors for digital cameras. Due to ongoing aftershocks and inspections of the buildings and manufacturing equipment, it’s not clear when the Kumamoto factory will be back in business.

The company’s factories in Isahaya City and Oita City were shuttered briefly, but have since resumed normal operations. Sony says that the impact on its financials is ‘currently being evaluated.’

Nikon says that it too is affected by the earthquakes due to damage at their component suppliers (Sony is a known supplier of Nikon’s sensors), which has greatly delayed the release of its three DL enthusiast compacts, the KeyMission 360 action cam and a pair of Coolpix cameras. 

Press Releases:

Status of Sony Group Manufacturing Operations Affected by 2016 Kumamoto Earthquakes

(Tokyo, April 18, 2016) Sony Corporation (“Sony”) extends its deepest sympathies to all those affected by the earthquakes in Kumamoto.

Due to the earthquake of April 14 and subsequent earthquakes in the Kumamoto region, the following Sony Group manufacturing sites have been affected:

Operations at Sony Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation’s Kumamoto Technology Center (located in Kikuchi Gun, Kumamoto Prefecture), which primarily manufactures image sensors for digital cameras and security cameras as well as micro-display devices, were halted after the earthquake on April 14, and currently remain suspended. Damage to the site’s building and manufacturing lines is currently being evaluated, and with aftershocks continuing, the timeframe for resuming operations has yet to be determined.

Although some of the manufacturing equipment at Sony Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation’s Nagasaki Technology Center (located in Isahaya City, Nagasaki Prefecture), which is Sony’s main facility for smartphone image sensor production, and Oita Technology Center (located in Oita City, Oita Prefecture), which commenced operations as a wholly-owned facility of Sony Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation on April 1, had been temporarily halted, the affected equipment has been sequentially restarted from April 17, and production has resumed. Sony Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation’s Kagoshima Technology Center (located in Kirishima City, Kagoshima Prefecture) has continued its production operations after the earthquakes, and there have been no major effects on its operations.

Sony has confirmed the safety of all of its and its group companies’ employees in the region affected by the earthquakes.

The impact of these events on Sony’s consolidated results is currently being evaluated.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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