Feeling bullish about film

[abrewer]

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There's reason to feel good about the future of film.

 

Many young pros are using film as a means of separating themselves in the marketplace from "just another photographer with a digital camera"

 

If you click around the internet you see more websites and blogs dedicated to film, like 35mmc and Emulsive.org and others

 

At least in my neighborhood, all the drugstores have stopped one-hour processing in-house, giving market share back to the small private shops that have survived 

 

And they have also stopped selling film, giving another profit center back to the mom and pop stores

 

Lastly, even if you live remotely or have no convenient local alternative, there are good mail-in houses that will post your pictures online for downloading and printing at home

 

Just like vinyl records, I think we may have weathered the storm and are entering into a new day of smaller is better for the medium

[plaidshirts]

There's reason to feel good about the future of film.

 

Many young pros are using film as a means of separating themselves in the marketplace from "just another photographer with a digital camera"

 

If you click around the internet you see more websites and blogs dedicated to film, like 35mmc and Emulsive.org and others

 

At least in my neighborhood, all the drugstores have stopped one-hour processing in-house, giving market share back to the small private shops that have survived 

 

And they have also stopped selling film, giving another profit center back to the mom and pop stores

 

Lastly, even if you live remotely or have no convenient local alternative, there are good mail-in houses that will post your pictures online for downloading and printing at home

 

Just like vinyl records, I think we may have weathered the storm and are entering into a new day of smaller is better for the medium

 

Very well put. I wholeheartedly agree.

I grew up with film and recently have rediscovered it. (The old mechanical cameras are so much cooler!)

It's been really encouraging to see the younger generations embrace this movement.

Search #35mmfilm or variations of it on Instagram or Facebook and you can see it in real time.

I hope this will make enough of a financial impact to force film manufacturers to reverse recent decisions to stop production of certain iconic films.

 

https://www.japancamerahunter.com/2018/03/film-news-hasta-la-vista-baby-another-fan-fav-takes-dirt-nap/#at_pco=smlwn-1.0&at_si=5ae3196d4c415877&at_ab=per-2&at_pos=0&at_tot=1

Edited April 27, 2018 by plaidshirts

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[mikemgb]

I am starting to see people out and about with film cameras again, there was a period of several years where you just didn't see any. One of my local camera stores recently doubled the amount of film they have in stock and added formats they hadn't carried in years.

[Ambro51]

We will know it’s happening when generic common Leicas begin to strongly appreciate in price.

[Herr Barnack]

Perhaps the resurgence of film use will also lead to a resurgence of at home film developing and - dare I say it?  A resurgence of wet darkroom printing.

 

Looking back, I recall the day I was told by another photographer, "Film photography is dead.  It won't be long before you won't even be able to buy film.  Digital is the way of the future."  It was 1997.    

 

21 years later, we are seeing a resurgence of film photography.

[Ambro51]

Who knows? Maybe Niepces Asphaltum of Judea on a pewter plate developed with lavender oil process will become popular again! After all, it’s only an 8 hour exposure time!

[earleygallery]

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Hi Allan,

 

Your post is odd, I mean what motivated you to post it now?

 

Film has never gone away, those of us who use film have continued to do so. There are still labs of all types out there, depending where you live. I have a few 1 hour type minilabs within 15 minutes walk from where I live. Then there's the postal labs. Not unlike how it was when we all used Kodachrome! I process my own B&W film as it's easier than bothering with a lab.

 

Yes some films have gone, but there's still a good range of options available.

 

Records never went away either. Many singles and albums were always availble on vinyl, it's just that the high street stopped selling it, so you had to buy from specialist shops or the internet. I can now go into Sainsbury's (one of the UK's largest supermarket chains) and find a rack of vinyl albums on sale!

 

Makers of high end turntables have been doing business all along. Again, you wouldn't see any on sale in the typical electrics superstore but they were still very much a thing, and selling for huge price tags.

 

The difference with photography is the few manufacturers who are left that still make film cameras, Leica being one of them of course.

Edited April 28, 2018 by earleygallery

[Ko.Fe.]

 

Just like vinyl records, I think we may have weathered the storm and are entering into a new day of smaller is better for the medium

 

Wrong comparison and assumptions, it seems to me, sorry. 

This is what I know as today film shooter and darkroom printer:

 

While film manufacturing is OK, at least for bw film, here is next to none new film cameras are made. Leica selling only few due to huge price, few not very expensive on lomography factories in China are still made and some LF cameras are made. Here is no regular film cameras are made anymore of Canon/Nikon SLRs type and in price range of 200/300$. Not enough market for it. Cosina which was making them for Nikon and its Bessa line quit some years ago. Due to low demand.

 

And less and less shops for CLA and service are available. In Toronto which is fourth largest city in NA, it is next to impossible to find shop like this and if you want to develop slide film in the lab... they ship it to Montreal.

In USA where are some very harsh restrictions for shipping of chemicals. BH doesn't want to send C-41 Telenal kit anymore, only local store pickup.

 

In the opposite, vinyl is printed in huge numbers and new small turnkey factories are recently been invented, made and sold. Not to mention made new and many TT. 

 

Until I will not see affordable, not toy film cameras made again (a.k.a. P&S and SLR), it is self-hypnosis about film doing great, IMO.

[ianman]

I'm not sure that the availability or not of new film cameras is a big part of the equation. There are bucket loads of good, working and very cheap film cameras available online, in shops and garage/car boot sales.

 

I am astonished at the number of 20-something people I know who are interested in and using film cameras. They don't need new. They know its not digital and hence are not bothered with an ISO 128.000 or 120 megapixels.

 

That being said, I am not so sure it's enough to generate much interest in film manufacturing companies. Just look at what Fuji decided recently.

[earleygallery]

Indeed, with so many used film cameras available for silly money it would be a brave manufacturer who decided to bring a new to market 35mm camera, although saying that there was some Kickstarter SLR on offer a while ago (has it happened I wonder?).

 

As I said, for anyone who wants to use film, it's always been there, it's just that for some people it takes a bit more effort to buy and process it, and for the vast majority the convenience of digital has been too hard to resist.

[Ko.Fe.]

It just incorrect to compare film to vinyl. 

 

But if people are willing to recycle many available film cameras, it is very good.  

[CSG123]

I don't think it will be a significant format in the future.  Film is mostly a college thing, some geezers who grew up with film, and the artsy-fartsy types who find some sort of magic in film.

 

I'm 67 and shot film until the mid-2000's.  I will still shoot some B&W now and then (I've got about 15 rolls of Tri-X in the freezer) because I can develop it at the local college but otherwise, film is pretty much behind me.

 

No "For Sale" posts on the general Forum, please.

ABr

[Ouroboros]

I don't think it will be a significant format in the future.  Film is mostly a college thing, some geezers who grew up with film, and the artsy-fartsy types who find some sort of magic in film.

 

I really don't know what we'd do without photography experts.

[CSG123]

Let's see, I've got over a half century of photography under my belt.  I may not be an expert but I can read the writing on the wall regarding the future of film.    

 

Please respect opinions of other members

 

There also is a "Buy and Sell" sub-forum. The link to it is at the top of this page.

 

Thank you.

Edited April 30, 2018 by abrewer

[Mark II]

Film will always have a significant role in photography.

 

The vast majority of photographs are taken to enhance individual social status, either by showing off the resources used to obtain the camera gear (think Leica), or by showing off the supposedly enviable life that the individual has (think Instagram).

 

Professional photographers and enthusiasts are a very small portion of the overall market for both equipment and images, and are finding it increasingly difficult to differentiate their work from what is possible for the mass market - particularly now that there are emerging AI systems that automate even the “artistic” part of photography by automatically picking and editing a notional “best” photograph from a video stream.

 

For this group, shooting film is a way to differentiate work from the torrent of images that are produced daily. The number of people who choose to shoot film will be small compared to the overall market, but it is clearly large enough that companies are re-introducing films to the market.

 

Fuji are an exception to this largely because they took the decision many years ago to exit the market, before the direction was clear. They may regret this: Fuji’s Instax product division is consistently more profitable than their digital cameras.

 

And as to analogue cameras disappearing, this is clearly not the case on the streets here. Yesterday I saw someone with a Plaubel Makina around their neck, and older Canon, Olympus and Pentax SLRs are an increasingly regular sight on the streets in Barcelona.

[otto.f]

Wrong comparison and assumptions, it seems to me, sorry. 

This is what I know as today film shooter and darkroom printer:

 

While film manufacturing is OK, at least for bw film, here is next to none new film cameras are made. Leica selling only few due to huge price, few not very expensive on lomography factories in China are still made and some LF cameras are made. Here is no regular film cameras are made anymore of Canon/Nikon SLRs type and in price range of 200/300$. Not enough market for it. Cosina which was making them for Nikon and its Bessa line quit some years ago. Due to low demand.

 

And less and less shops for CLA and service are available. In Toronto which is fourth largest city in NA, it is next to impossible to find shop like this and if you want to develop slide film in the lab... they ship it to Montreal.

In USA where are some very harsh restrictions for shipping of chemicals. BH doesn't want to send C-41 Telenal kit anymore, only local store pickup.

 

In the opposite, vinyl is printed in huge numbers and new small turnkey factories are recently been invented, made and sold. Not to mention made new and many TT. 

 

Until I will not see affordable, not toy film cameras made again (a.k.a. P&S and SLR), it is self-hypnosis about film doing great, IMO.

I don’t see many high-end turntables on the market, do you? You seem to compare camera’s to vinyl LP’s. Kodak relaunched the TMZ3200. Now that’s a sign, especially while Kodak was withdrawing more and more since 2008. I don’t see any use in bringing out new film camera’s; the old ones are perfect!: a Rolleiflex, an M4 and a LF with Schneider lenses are all you need.

[Ko.Fe.]

I don’t see many high-end turntables on the market, do you? You seem to compare camera’s to vinyl LP’s. Kodak relaunched the TMZ3200. Now that’s a sign, especially while Kodak was withdrawing more and more since 2008. I don’t see any use in bringing out new film camera’s; the old ones are perfect!: a Rolleiflex, an M4 and a LF with Schneider lenses are all you need.

 

I was not comparing film to vinyl. OP was comparing vinyl to film. One more time, film has nothing to do with vinyl. 

 

But since you asked:

Where are very many high-end and even insane high-end TT on the market. And those are made up to date.

https://www.whathifi.com/best-buys/hi-fi/best-high-end-turntables

 

This is TT store in Hamilton, Ontario:

https://www.project-audio.ca/turntables/

 

Automated presses from Ontario:

http://www.viryltech.com/#about

 

Vinyl is sold in big quantities here surprisingly.

https://nowtoronto.com/music/canada-bought-more-vinyl-than-ever-in-2017/ 

 

TT needles and cartridges local stores:

https://www.visions.ca/Catalogue/Category/ProductResults.aspx?categoryId=1051&menu=955&gclid=Cj0KCQjw2pXXBRD5ARIsAIYoEbewt7uCiaK86ZsJmmz1XxUhs0JrCKxLzDcQq6Nq6fVspJ3bmvbQ2ZgaAvz8EALw_wcB

 

 

BTW, I ditched LF and TLRs, I'm into RF cameras. But I still have 4x5 Omega D5 EX enlarger. Just not using it, I have small Vivitar enlarger, was printing couple of hours ago.

Edited April 30, 2018 by Ko.Fe.

[jaapv]

Wrong comparison and assumptions, it seems to me, sorry. 

This is what I know as today film shooter and darkroom printer:

 

While film manufacturing is OK, at least for bw film, here is next to none new film cameras are made. Leica selling only few due to huge price, few not very expensive on lomography factories in China are still made and some LF cameras are made. Here is no regular film cameras are made anymore of Canon/Nikon SLRs type and in price range of 200/300$. Not enough market for it. Cosina which was making them for Nikon and its Bessa line quit some years ago. Due to low demand.

 

And less and less shops for CLA and service are available. In Toronto which is fourth largest city in NA, it is next to impossible to find shop like this and if you want to develop slide film in the lab... they ship it to Montreal.

In USA where are some very harsh restrictions for shipping of chemicals. BH doesn't want to send C-41 Telenal kit anymore, only local store pickup.

 

In the opposite, vinyl is printed in huge numbers and new small turnkey factories are recently been invented, made and sold. Not to mention made new and many TT. 

 

Until I will not see affordable, not toy film cameras made again (a.k.a. P&S and SLR), it is self-hypnosis about film doing great, IMO.

i would suggest that comparisons are useless. Oil and canvas are being sold next to watercolours and photographic equipment. Simply different media. As long as there is sufficient interest, it will be sold.

[ianman]

i would suggest that comparisons are useless. Oil and canvas are being sold next to watercolours and photographic equipment. Simply different media. As long as there is sufficient interest, it will be sold.

 

By "sufficient interest" I suppose you mean "significant profit for the manufacturer" ? It would seem fo example that Fujifim don't give a hoot about the current apparently rising level of interest.

Edited April 30, 2018 by ianman

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Hallo,

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[wattsy]

i would suggest that comparisons are useless.

 

 

Comparisons are rarely useless if you understand what it is you are comparing.