Film to die in June

Well, I've actually seen a few minilabs in my neck of the woods close, but one or two have actually opened. I'll note that the ones the closed down offered little to no digital services, which was likely the reason. You have to serve both types of snapshooters to get by.


- Barrett
 
I think he'll eventually be right.
The Ritz where I bring my film tells me that they process only one or two rolls some days. When his current equipment breaks expensively, it's unlikely to be replaced.
I'm going to guess that it will gradually become more difficult to find a mini-lab till it becomes necessary to either drive across town for one of the few remaining labs, or mail the film in.
At that point, I'll have to switch to B&W and soup my own.
 
I think that film developing is going to become a niche industry but I don't think it will die out altogether. I expect the high street photo shops will evolve to cater for the digital printing market and agree that as their film equipment breaks many businesses won't replace it if the market is not there.

The other side of this is that the remaining film processing market will be divided between fewer specialist businesses, so these will get enough trade to keep going, but I expect we'll need to mail the films in unless lucky enough to live close to one of them. I expect the price of P&P services will increase - so there will be a good reason to develop our own films in the future...

dan
 
antiquark said:
Thought this was a funny quote, made in June 2003 by a National Geographic photographer:
"I predict that four years from now, you're going to see one-hour photo shops closing."

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/0306/q_n_a.html

As far as I can tell, one-hour labs are still going strong.
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Mini-labs in our country have virtually disappeared from the high-street and what is left is down to : pop-your-cellphone-card-in-the-slot type of printing :(
 
dazedgonebye said:
<cropped>
At that point, I'll have to switch to B&W and soup my own.
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Yup,

OR

I hope at that point there'll be a film-canister-sized CCD that you can purchase to keep using our vintage cameras. Come to think about it, why hasn't anyone produce one of these??
 
Just look at what has happened to slide processing. Only a couple of major labs in the U.S. left. If the business isn't there, they disappear. It will be a nich business, just not as soon as predicted.

Hopefully, we can still get B&W materials (go Freestyle!).
 
The Pro-Am lab I use is putting in a second printer, Agfa-lab2, it’s first machine runs 24 hours a day and often don’t have the capacity to offer their express service, they say about a third of their business is from film at the moment.
 
My local lab doesn't turn on their machine every day anymore, they used to do 100-150 per day. Another lab in the past year has dropped their volume in half to about 100 a day.
 
well, everywhere I go they are still selling film, and the local one hour places always have aline, so I highly doub film is going to disappear.

However, along the lines of the poster that claims "I think he'll eventually be right." I predict in four years gas stations will have entirely disappeared. Even if it doesn't happen in four years, I'll eventually be right :/
 
The local minilabs are booming. At least in my town they are. Every time I go there's a number of people dropping off film or picking it up, and the same applies to those who go to the Fuji machines to order digital prints.

So, the picture may be gloomy in larger places, but not so here.

However, I can expect some kind of film death in the next years... when the large chains no longer develop stuff. In the meanwhile, I'm set to enjoy the ride! :)
 
shutterflower said:
I was scared to open this thread. Feared I might read something about how Fuji has decided to exit the film business.

I'm still shaking.

That was mean.
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Sorry, didn't mean to scare anybody. Although all the reports of minilabs closing or cutting back sounds gloomy.
 
Film will never go away. Vacuum tubes didn't, analog audio didn't, horses didn't, swords are still around, as are blacksmiths. Now analog video, that may be doomed.
 
40oz said:
well, everywhere I go they are still selling film, and the local one hour places always have aline, so I highly doub film is going to disappear.

However, along the lines of the poster that claims "I think he'll eventually be right." I predict in four years gas stations will have entirely disappeared. Even if it doesn't happen in four years, I'll eventually be right :/
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If electric cars were outselling fosil fuel cars right now, that'd be an appropriate comparison.
I'd be surprised if we are not seeing problems in the next 5 to 10 years.
 
dazedgonebye said:
I think he'll eventually be right.
The Ritz where I bring my film tells me that they process only one or two rolls some days. When his current equipment breaks expensively, it's unlikely to be replaced.
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I make it a point to buy one roll of tri-x every six months or so from my local Ritz.

About 2 years ago a local Ritz employee told me that they were going to discontinue all film sales and developing in 6 months. Then he gives me a sales pitch on how the latest (Canon, Nikon, Panasonic, Sony whatever is on sale) digital is so much better than my film camera. I'll stand there and nod sagely, the last time I was able to get him to show me over 12 different digital cameras, I really like to make a day of it, and then just walk out with my one roll of tri-x.

The fun will stop when they do stop stocking film, but then again I never buy film (except my one box of tri-x) from Ritz.

I am becoming a spiteful, mean, old man. <sigh>
 
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No problem in Munich. Here I can get everything from 1 hour labs to handmade prints, developing and printing from 24x36 mm to large format in BW, colour and slides and if they are not piled up with work I get it the same or next day.

But outside of Munich it is a completely other story. Enough places to bring your film but you have to wait 2-3 days.
 
kmack said:
I make it a point to buy one roll of tri-x every six months or so from my local Ritz. About 2 years ago they told me that they were going to discontinue all film sales and developing in 6 months. Then he gives me a sales pitch on how the latest (Canon, Nikon, Panasonic, Sony) whatever on sale is so much better than my film camera. I'll stand there and nod sagely, the last time I was able to get him to show me over 12 different digital cameras, I really like to make a day of it, and then just walk out with my one roll of tri-x.

The fun will stop when they do stop stocking film, but then again I never buy film (except my one box of tri-x) from Ritz.

I am becoming a spiteful, mean, old man. <sigh>
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I'm afraid I don't even buy film from them...they don't carry kodak 400UC.
They also charge $4.50 for development only compared to Target's price of $2. They are more convenient though, so I use them.
 
In the last few years I can think of 4 24hr labs that have closed in my neighborhood. The one remaining opens only 6 days a week. A part of the reason is the digital revolution but there is also the increased rents put on stores by landlords. Many landlords nowadays don't even want to renew a minilabs lease, they would rather rent to a big chain like "Subway" or "Starbucks" so that their rents are assured for x amount of years.
 
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