Are we the last remaining users of film?

[dmr]

Depends on where you live and what you mean by "locally". I live in a small city (about 175 000 people) and have no problem getting high quality C41 processing locally.

I work in, and live outside of a city of 400,000+ and a total metro area of just under a million. There are so many places to get C41 processed, it's impractical to count. Now if you qualify that with "high quality", YMMV! 🙂

Getting E6 processing is a bigger problem in some places,

Just about any of those C41 places will send it in for you, but I'm aware of three places locally that do regular E6 runs. There may be more. I just learned of the third one from a user on another board.

There's also one other factor in there that doesn't get much discussion, and one user here went as far as to say "let's not go there" when I brought this up last.

It's been speculated that military usage has been keeping Kodachrome alive, and that in addition to Dwayne's, there are indeed some military labs that do regular K14 processing that we don't hear about. If that is true, there are probably military labs that do other processes as well, maybe E6, C41, even B&W. I really don't know, and probably don't want to know. 🙂

 

[mhv]

Last films users, let's see... Have you heard of Hollywood?

 

[tkluck]

10 Gazillion existing film cameras out there.

note:
You can still buy:
wind-up clocks
fountain pens
broad swords
hand saws
cross bows
wooden boats
slide rules
kerosene lamps
and you can build an entire Model A Ford from after market parts.

 

[tkluck]

Last films users, let's see... Have you heard of Hollywood?

Xrays will sustain base and emulsion lines for a long time too.

 

[Bill V]

I believe Hollywood has gone digital. Smaller and lighter cameras and computer generated images.

However, when I travel, I take two camera, D2x and F6 (with B&W or Slide film). They have simalar controls and use the same battery and lenses. Long live film!

 

[Dr. Strangelove]

I believe Hollywood has gone digital. Smaller and lighter cameras and computer generated images.!

Hollywood is starting to go digital, but in 2006 most Hollywood productions were still shot on film and then scanned for post-production. No statistics from this year are available yet, but I doubt digital shooting will surpass the 50% mark yet. However, it has been projected that by 2010 major Hollywood studio productions will be shot more tha 90% digitally. Time will tell if that becomes a fact, but in any case Hollywood will switch to digital sooner or later.

It is easy to forget though that most of the motion pictures in the world are shot outside Hollywood. India and China are major movie producers for their respective local markets, which are of course huge, and European film production is not insignificant either. My prediction is that it will still take at least a decade before more than 50% of movies are shot digitally on a global scale.

 

[Steve Bellayr]

I was on another site and a camera repairman wrote in that he had more work now than in the past. Other people commented on the fact that prices for analog cameras and lens are increasing.

 

[traveller]

Maco sells a lot of film for radar surveillance on the streets (I love the picture showing me in the car :bang: ) and electron microscopy, looks like 35 mm is, in term of production quantities, a niche product to them. X-Ray needs a lot of film too and don't forget air reconnaissance.

New films and new film cameras, I don't think we are the last remaining users of film 😀

 

[bottley1]

film, wot dat?

 

[jimmygcreative]

I am sure the eco-nuts will shut us down first with the chemicals we use.

I was told that a large manufacture of E-6 equipment will install and service their last machine in china for the olympics after the games are over they will close shop.
Maybe its the color that will go to digital and the B&W will stay in brand name production for a few more years.

After that it not looking so good for us. I am willing to pay 25.00 for a roll of 35 or 120 black and white of course.

 

[Socke]

Maco sells a lot of film for radar surveillance on the streets (I love the picture showing me in the car :bang: ) and electron microscopy, looks like 35 mm is, in term of production quantities, a niche product to them. X-Ray needs a lot of film too and don't forget air reconnaissance.

New films and new film cameras, I don't think we are the last remaining users of film 😀

A friend of mine works at the local branch of the "Fraunhofer Institut für Materialforschung", They scrapped their darkroom last year, everything is digital now.

 

[traveller]

A friend of mine works at the local branch of the "Fraunhofer Institut für Materialforschung", They scrapped their darkroom last year, everything is digital now.

I know, we sold them some stuff 🙂 , but there are a lot of labs who can't afford digital or won't use it for their kind of application.

Has the weather improved in Bremen? Last Tuesday it was raining cats and dogs

 

[Harry Lime]

No statistics from this year are available yet, but I doubt digital shooting will surpass the 50% mark yet.

50% is way to high. You see more digital in the indie field these days, but with very few exceptions the big studio movies are still shot on film.

Fincher and Cameron have probably shot their last movie on film. Gibson shot 'Apocalypto' digital, but who knows if he'll stick with it. Supposedly David Lynch is also going digital, but the vast majority of Hollywood still shoots film and has no plans to switch. A lot of the producers are scared to death of longterm storage issues in digital. They know that a Kodak Estar based neg will out last them.

You also have to take the ASC guys into account. Until you get a majority of cinematographers endorsing digital, it won't happen.

However, it has been projected that by 2010 major Hollywood studio productions will be shot more tha 90% digitally. Time will tell if that becomes a fact, but in any case Hollywood will switch to digital sooner or later.

I think digital projection is going to grow much faster than digital capture. The new Christies projectors are amazing. I had one at my old job and it was really impressive.

It is easy to forget though that most of the motion pictures in the world are shot outside Hollywood. India and China are major movie producers for their respective local markets, which are of course huge, and European film production is not insignificant either. My prediction is that it will still take at least a decade before more than 50% of movies are shot digitally on a global scale.

Exactly. Bollywood shoots a gazillion movies a year. It's all film over there. 🙂

 

[Socke]

I know, we sold them some stuff 🙂 , but there are a lot of labs who can't afford digital or won't use it for their kind of application.

Has the weather improved in Bremen? Last Tuesday it was raining cats and dogs

Saturday was fine, luckily as we had 1/4 Fest from Friday to Sunday. But now it's cold, I've seen the first autumn leaves and the local grocery store sells gingerbread and marzipan(?). Time to go shopping for winter tires.

 

[aad]

If I believed fim manufacture was going away, I'd invest in film manufacturing equipment.

 

[raid]

"We" are not the market; there are millions of film users all over the world.