Leica M is a film camera system

[Ko.Fe.]

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I think by 2054 all 35 mm film cameras will essentially be desk paperweights due to the lack of film or the lack of places to get film processed.

I think a seismic shift is currently underway and our generation and perhaps the one behind us will essentially be the last to use film and any mechanical camera.

 

I have seen pictures taken with self-made emulsions, including 135 frame format. And with Leica Barnack with glass negative.

This is how mechanical cameras came to this world. It is all mechanical (plus chemical then you take it on the plate.

 

And the only place I'm using to process my film is in my home. E-6, C-41 and BW...

[semi-ambivalent]

I think by 2054 all 35 mm film cameras will essentially be desk paperweights due to the lack of film or the lack of places to get film processed.

I think a seismic shift is currently underway and our generation and perhaps the one behind us will essentially be the last to use film and any mechanical camera.

2018: Digital imaging industry's contribution of rapid obsolescence and feature-chasing continues to pollute clear thinking...

 

Black and white film is so easy to process at home, and it's not impossibly difficult to self-coat a simple emulsion, to the point that a big difficulty is nothing more than figuring out how to perforate the stock.

 

If film photography is gone by 2054 it will be more likely to have been because all photography was made illegal. Or it was found that the pandemic of the relentless digital selfie has rendered the population uncaring for lasting historical records of any and all experiences.

 

Memories will be, like reality, purely, and exclusively, the now.

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[Gregm61]

I do wish someone would pick up the consumer film scanning technology baton and give us better quality scanners. If that technology had moved as fast since 2004 as digital camera tech and we had scanners as advanced since then compared to the Nikon and Minolta scanners available 12-13 years ago, we'd be in much better shape than the retrograde step it's gone since then.

Edited January 4, 2018 by Gregm61

[Nevik]

I just bought a WWII glass negative of Winston Churchill, I have the technology to either print it or scan it. I wonder if the same will be possible for todays photographic technology in 80 years time.

It still might be easier getting a neg printed then.

Edited January 8, 2018 by Nevik

[Pyrogallol]

Yes, today’s digital photo technology will be unreadable in 80 years time, unless the pictures have been upgraded to every new storage medium over the whole 80 years.

On the other hand, I have printed Victorian glass plate negatives for a collector friend that had probably never been printed since the photographer made prints over 100 years ago. With traditional negatives all you need to do is shine light through them to see the pictures, not rebuild them from a mass of noughts and ones !

[pgk]

For archival storage purposes we obviously need a digital to analogue converter which allows digital files to be printed onto film ..... anyone?

[wattsy]

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For archival storage purposes we obviously need a digital to analogue converter which allows digital files to be printed onto film ..... anyone?

 

 

I'm not sure what you are asking. Printing digital files to film (to make medium and large format transparencies and/or negs) was commonplace 15 years ago and is still available from some labs. I don't think archiving digital files to film makes a great deal of sense (other than for perhaps a small number of prized photographs) but the technology is out there for anyone so inclined.

Edited January 9, 2018 by wattsy

[Doc Henry]

2018: Digital imaging industry's contribution of rapid obsolescence and feature-chasing continues to pollute clear thinking...

 

Black and white film is so easy to process at home, and it's not impossibly difficult to self-coat a simple emulsion, to the point that a big difficulty is nothing more than figuring out how to perforate the stock.

 

If film photography is gone by 2054 it will be more likely to have been because all photography was made illegal. Or it was found that the pandemic of the relentless digital selfie has rendered the population uncaring for lasting historical records of any and all experiences.

 

Memories will be, like reality, purely, and exclusively, the now.

 

... words of wisdom and experience

From someone who used 8 years of digital M and who comes back to the grandfather film

not better elsewhere for the moment

You said "programmed obsolence"

 

I'm not sure what you are asking. Printing digital files to film (to make medium and large format transparencies and/or negs) was common place 15 years ago and is still available from some labs. I don't think archiving digital files to film makes a great deal of sense (other than for perhaps a small number of prized photographs) but the technology is out there for anyone so inclined.

 

Ian , all my negatives and slides are archiving in folders with no dusts , no scratches , no mushrooms and since 1970

I lost recently all my digital pictures in 2 failing hard drives Western Digital 500 Mo each , no way to recover them , even by WD

Rg

Henry

Edited January 12, 2018 by Doc Henry

[rrdiaz30]

I'm not sure what you are asking. Printing digital files to film (to make medium and large format transparencies and/or negs) was commonplace 15 years ago and is still available from some labs. I don't think archiving digital files to film makes a great deal of sense (other than for perhaps a small number of prized photographs) but the technology is out there for anyone so inclined.

 

 

Here is an excerpt from an interesting interview with Peter Turnley that I found on the web:

 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

"Q: When it comes to printing your work, how do you handle the mix of digital and traditional originals?

 

A:  I am very fortunate to have a wonderful printer that prints and all of my prints are traditional silver gelatin prints. I use a very exciting technique for files that were made with a Leica Monochrom or Leica Digital M-P camera. When I have a digital photograph I like enough to be seen in a book or as an exhibition or collector print, I take the file, and have a 4 x 5 negative made from the file, and then my printer can continue to make traditional silver gelatin prints, helping me maintain a continuity with all of my life’s work. I use a very good laboratory in the north of Paris, Central Dupon, to have these 4 x 5 negatives made from digital files."

 

Regards,

 

Rick

[Martin B]

I'm not sure what you are asking. Printing digital files to film (to make medium and large format transparencies and/or negs) was commonplace 15 years ago and is still available from some labs. I don't think archiving digital files to film makes a great deal of sense (other than for perhaps a small number of prized photographs) but the technology is out there for anyone so inclined.

 

It exists and is called digital negative. I do it often with my digital infrared photos of which I make 4x5" digital negatives from on transparency foil. This negative I use in my 4x5 enlarger to make silver gelatin prints. 

[wattsy]

It exists and is called digital negative. I do it often with my digital infrared photos of which I make 4x5" digital negatives from on transparency foil. This negative I use in my 4x5 enlarger to make silver gelatin prints. 

 

 

I know. Why are you repeating my point?

Edited January 12, 2018 by wattsy

[Martin B]

I know. Why are you repeating my point?

 

Cited the wrong post - I clicked by accident on your quote button instead of #46. 

[pgk]

..... but the technology is out there for anyone so inclined.

 

For full archival requirements you would need 3 x B&W separation negatives. Its been done but is hardly commonplace.