Digital Rev does film SLR's

....
And the "all the cameras of our childhood were crap" comments, no idea where that came from, and there were plenty of people who managed to get better than crap results from them, and of course the "film just isn't viable" comments, based on what? they all seemed to go out and manage to take photos.

Yeah, those comments definitely had me scratching my head too. They had a fun video going until they crapped on everything made in the 1980s-90s.
 
Isn't C-41 processing being shut down almost everywhere?
Where are they getting parts for aging machines?
How long can even chains like Walgreen's and CVS keep their lines open?


To me this seems like the big hurtle to shooting color film.


B&W on the other hand can easily be done at home with just minimal equipment. You should be able to set up for less than $100 and that ain't bad.
 
B&W on the other hand can easily be done at home with just minimal equipment. You should be able to set up for less than $100 and that ain't bad.

Some say processing C-41 at home is comparable to or easier than B&W. This gives me hope for a little while.
 
Funny video.. and great to see that film SLRs still have value. One of the main advantages that they didn't mention though, is (lack of) weight. An F65 with a 50/1.8 is so incredibly light, that it's absolutely no burden to carry it along for a day.
 
Funny video.. and great to see that film SLRs still have value. One of the main advantages that they didn't mention though, is (lack of) weight. An F65 with a 50/1.8 is so incredibly light, that it's absolutely no burden to carry it along for a day.
 
Isn't C-41 processing being shut down almost everywhere?
Where are they getting parts for aging machines?
How long can even chains like Walgreen's and CVS keep their lines open?


To me this seems like the big hurtle to shooting color film.


B&W on the other hand can easily be done at home with just minimal equipment. You should be able to set up for less than $100 and that ain't bad.

Well you can buy new processing machines and 5 year maintenance contracts today.
http://www.fujifilmusa.com/products/photofinishing/digital_lab_solutions/frontier_FP363SC/index.html
Parts for machines are easy to get, whole machines can be bought for a few dollars failing that just go to one of the many minilab part suppliers?
http://minilab.com.ua/shop/?language=en
or
http://serranorey.com/64-minilab-parts
or
http://www.aaaimaging.com/minilab-parts.html

Not hard to find parts for all those 'old' machines....

Failing that C41 colour is very simple, I process my own with a Tetenal kit, works out about £1.00 per film couple that with the masses of cheap colour film and cameras means my cost per shot is around 5 pennies per frame.
Easy, almost no brainer if you do mono at home you can do colour also:
http://photo-utopia.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/processing-your-first-colour-negative.html
Put that film in a £25-50 Oly Om1 and you do have a viable FF camera!
 
Nobody just shoots a digital camera the equivalent of a roll a week for just a few years.

Let's do some math, shall we?
Let's shoot us some Arista Premium 400... It's re-badged Kodak Tri-X. It's $2.59 for a 36-exp. roll. Shipping from Freestyle is $5.99 for a small order. If you buy 4 bricks of film, that's about $0.15 for shipping per roll.

-One roll of 36-exp. B&W film : $2.74

I've found it costs me about $2.50 to process a roll by myself (a bottle of HC-110 processes a hell of a lot of film)

-Developing costs for one roll: $2.50

-Total cost to process one B&W roll: $5.24
-Cost per exposure: $0.14½.

By comparison, buying color film and developing it at my local Walgreens is about $16 per 24-exp. roll (try finding 36-exp. film in a drug store in rural America).

-Total cost to process one color roll: $16
-Cost per exposure: $0.67.

Now, let's look at some digital cameras:
Nikon D3200… 14.2mp DX format, $476.95
Nikon D600… 24mp, $1,996 at B&H
Leica M9… 18mp, $6,495 @ B&H
Now, it's time for some more math.

How many frames would I have to shoot to “break even” — i.e.: How many frames to see a cost savings in not developing my own film?

Nikon D3100: 91 rolls, or 3,275 frames.
Nikon D600: 381 rolls, or 13,719 frames.
Leica M9: 1,239 rolls, or 44,622 frames

Now, how about color film at Walgreens?
Nikon D3100: 29 rolls, or 715 frames.
Nikon D600: 125 rolls, or 2,995 frames.
Leica M9: 406 rolls, or 9,742 frames.

If you shoot one "roll" of color a week, the Leica will pay for itself in about 8 years. In black and white, that's 24 years.

That said, let's look at a realistic load of digital images... I can shoot 100 frames in an afternoon without problem. Let's say I shoot 250 frames a week. That's just shy of 7 rolls a week in B&W and 10 rolls of color.

In B&W, that's 3 years and five months. In color, that's a year and two months.

I'm not even touching lifespan, even though a MTBF of 250,000 frames means a Leica M9 will "die" after $167,000 in color film.
 
I find that I don't shoot any more frames with digital than I do with film, except in studio situations where the ability to see different lighting effects immediately is extremely useful.
 
Back
Top Bottom