When they no longer make film...

[mawz]

The thing to consider with Kodak and Fuji's dropping film sales is how much of that was in disposable cameras?

Disposable camera sales were huge until recently, probably the majority of consumer C41 sales. They survived the advent of digital P&S's due to low cost and ubiquitous availability. You could always buy one when your batteries died or you forgot your camera. They were also a large driver of chemistry and paper sales.

They're also in freefall. The cell phone camera has killed them off. Why buy a disposable when your phone takes pictures anyways and damn near everybody has a cell phone these days and carries it with them.

 

[Traut]

The $37 for .45 isn't too bad. There is no .380 to be bought period. The Obama paranoia is the product of right wing radio. It has ostensibly killed the 2nd amendment - you can bear arms but without bullets. (Don't misunderstand me, I like and voted for Obama) I see a larger conspiracy. If I was a manufacturer I would be producing 24/7. Yet there is almost none in the pipeline between factory to warehouse. Very strange business model in a down economy. It's not the price that concerns me it's the dearth of inventory.

 

[JohnTF]

And if they can get $10 or $20 a roll, maybe they could afford those Mercedes. 🙂

Seriously, they were making money when it was $1 a roll, retail, with discounts for buying a brick, including VAT.

SkodaFoto also gives me 10%, "Gold" customer from the days I bought a Bessa R with three lenses, and I always managed to leave a chunk of money with the used department. My Avatar is from SkodaFoto.

Foma got a bit greedy when they approached the US market, they forgot I was working with Misha, and when I approached them to make a run of sheet film for the US market, they quoted me wholesale and bulk prices more than their retail.

I called them on it, and they asked where I got my prices, when I replied their retail shop on Wencelas Square, they gave up.

I think they got better dealing with Paterson? and eventually set something else up here after Kodak sued them for their use of the letter T in their film names. Same film was sold under four names.

I wonder if the Gray market still exists, a smart operative there could buy up lots of the more well known films and end up with their own Mercedes. I planted a few seeds, nothing came of it.

Well, I did try to get Roger to buy Neobrom 😀, they produced wonderful papers, at least a dozen or more kinds, including a silver iodide contact paper, and the wonderful Chamois.

There were a lot of papers on the market then.

There could have been a Rogertomic XXX film.

Regards, John

 

[JohnTF]

The $37 for .45 isn't too bad. There is no .380 to be bought period. The Obama paranoia is the product of right wing radio. It has ostensibly killed the 2nd amendment - you can bear arms but without bullets. (Don't misunderstand me, I like and voted for Obama) I see a larger conspiracy. If I was a manufacturer I would be producing 24/7. Yet there is almost none in the pipeline between factory to warehouse. Very strange business model in a down economy. It's not the price that concerns me it's the dearth of inventory.

Am way out of the loop these days, but I knew lots of folks who would reload and sell reasonably at the shows. Shooting 44 Special I almost had to load, it was $.50 a round 30 years ago for factory fodder. Much easier than making film ;-)

I got the feeling that much of the lower cost stuff was imported, and surplus.



J

 

[Al Kaplan]

I've got plenty of "inventory", plus reloading equipment, primers, and powder. My problem is that I rarely shoot anymore. There's no place close by to shoot a rifle, and I don't like shooting a pistol at an indoor range. I think that one reason for the increased price of ammo is that all of that surplus WW-II ammo is long gone! No more boxes of 50rounds of Czech 9mm for $2.00. Those, it turned out, were steel jacketed sub-machine loads with hardened steel penetrators inside the lead - armour piercing! - and loaded HOT, with lots of kick.

WW-II was fought with 30 caliber and 8mm but by the time 'Nam came along the projectiles were down to 5.56mm and weren't exactly suitable for shooting deer, nor did the guns lend themselves to "sporterizing".

It's great practice for holding steady and not flinching at loud noises. It sure makes for sharper photos at slow shutter speeds.

 

[Pickett Wilson]

You can't even find ammo at gun shows anymore. It's being hoarded. The ATF busted a middle class guy with a family and nice home in a small town near ours recently. He had 475,000 rounds of ammo and 800 guns.

Crazy stuff.

 

[Dave Wilkinson]

You can't even find ammo at gun shows anymore. It's being hoarded. The ATF busted a middle class guy with a family and nice home in a small town near ours recently. He had 475,000 rounds of ammo and 800 guns.

Crazy stuff.

....indeed! - lock 'im up, and throw away the key! 😀
Dave 😉

 

[Kent]

You can't even find ammo at gun shows anymore. It's being hoarded. The ATF busted a middle class guy with a family and nice home in a small town near ours recently. He had 475,000 rounds of ammo and 800 guns.

Crazy stuff.

800 guns, 475.000 rounds of ammo?
Does he want to start a war on some smaller country?
Can we just calculate the amount of money he has spent for that?
He could have bought another nice house for that, perhaps...

 

[Pickett Wilson]

Or a bunch of M9's! 😉

 

[Keith]

"I think some company somewhere will always be making film."

O.K. Assume that is so. How much more expensive would film have to get before we quit using it? Not much, actually.

Say the cheapest we could buy 36 exposures of 400 speed black and white film were just $10. How much film would most of us actually shoot? I know in my case it would be very little. I suspect that would be the case for most folks who now enjoy using old film cameras. How many people would buy old film cameras on Ebay to shoot $10 a roll film?

It's glib to say that someone will always make film. But if few people can or will buy it at the price they have to sell it, they aren't going to make film for long.

Welcome to Australia! 🙄

 

[Keith]

Good grief ... you lot 'stateside' talk about guns and ammo the way us lot 'down under' talk about beer and prawns! 😱

No wonder so many of you wind up with holes in your carcases! 😀

 

[Roger Hicks]

Good grief ... you lot 'stateside' talk about guns and ammo the way us lot 'down under' talk about beer and prawns! 😱

No wonder so many of you wind up with holes in your carcases! 😀

Come on, mate: you couldn't eat 475,000 prawns before they went bad, though you might be better placed with 800 stubbies. Even so, it would be getting on for a month's supply of beer for one person.

Cheers,

R.

 

[JohnTF]

You can't even find ammo at gun shows anymore. It's being hoarded. The ATF busted a middle class guy with a family and nice home in a small town near ours recently. He had 475,000 rounds of ammo and 800 guns.

Crazy stuff.

What did they bust him for, excessive consumerism? Or did he foolishly venture in to the realm of the Class III?

Does seem a bit much, but I am shopping for a new freezer to put film in, though I do not have a half million boxes of Foma, yet ;-).

Perhaps he should have opened a museum?

j

 

[Pickett Wilson]

Apparently he had a few M14's in the mix and was not licensed to own them. Probably wouldn't have attracted attention to himself had he not decided to discourage some guy trying to break into his house by strafing the ground with one of the M14's. Made the neighbors a little nervous. 🙂

 

[bmattock]

Apparently he had a few M14's in the mix and was not licensed to own them. Probably wouldn't have attracted attention to himself had he not decided to discourage some guy trying to break into his house by strafing the ground with one of the M14's. Made the neighbors a little nervous. 🙂

Not too surprising. However, I'll bet it was a rather effective deterrent.

 

[Pickett Wilson]

Yeah, I'm guessing the perp hadn't encountered .30-06 in full auto before! 😱

Different experience than the varmint guns the military uses these days.

 

[Chris101]

I hear that once ray guns are a consumer item, they will stop making bullets.

 

[Dave Wilkinson]

Anyone comin fishing?

 

[JohnTF]

Yeah, I'm guessing the perp hadn't encountered .30-06 in full auto before! 😱

Different experience than the varmint guns the military uses these days.

In the interest of gear nit picking, when did they shorten the 30-06 to 308?

I would say a few lights would go on, I normally feel if someone breaks in to steal the TV, just make sure he does not trip on the way out and sue you. Whatever you do might cost you much more in legal bills than what the guy steals.

Life and Limb are another thing.

I did shoot a guy who had just stolen my wallet, but it was with a Leica Mini-- chased him through a few metro stations, and he complained there was no money in the wallet, so he sold it back to me for $25. He had four "assistants"

 

[Al Kaplan]

30-06 was was WW-I and 308 was in use for Korea but I'm not sure when the switch took place. 'Nam was 5.56mm (.223 caliber) on "our" side while North Vietnam used AK-74's which also used 5.56mm bullets, but a different cartridge. Of course all the older weapons from both sides were sold or given to poorer countries. There's an unbelievable number of surplused weapons and ammo out there, and nobody really knows where it all is or how much of it there still is. And then there are millions of rounds of 9mm pistol and submachine gun ammo, along with 9mm pistols, plus the 45 cal. pistols and ammo...