Hanoi viewed through Leica M

Dear Trung Nguyen,

thank you very much for this excellent thread and the wonderful photos!
Makes me feel to visit Vietnam soon 🙂.

May I ask a question:
You said film is making a revival in Vietnam. Interestingly on facebook where more than 100 (!) different film photography groups are active from all over the world the by far biggest film photography group is "FILM PHOTO CLUB" which is a Vietnamese photography group! Thy are growing very fast and already have more then 77,000 members. At the end of the year they will be even bigger than photrio (!).

So do you know which people in Vietnam are starting with film? The younger ones? Or those with good jobs and higher income?
Is it driven by good labs, or online communities like the FILM PHOTO CLUB?

Thanks in advance!

kiemchacsu said:
Film photography is revival in Hanoi (Vietnam in general)
Last week, I went to the opening of Hanoi Darkroom, which provides all kind of services for black/white photography

Do Hoang Hung, the owner
Hanoi darkroom opening by Trung Nguyen, on Flickr

Hanoi darkroom opening by Trung Nguyen, on Flickr

Hanoi darkroom opening by Trung Nguyen, on Flickr

Hanoi darkroom opening by Trung Nguyen, on Flickr

Hanoi darkroom opening by Trung Nguyen, on Flickr
Click to expand...
 
Dear Skiff,

Thank you for your comment.
Regarding the question, I think younger people are interested in film even though i have no clue. The labs owners might know better, I will ask when I meet them.
I think both reasons you quoted are both right. Photo labs in Vietnam (actually Hanoi and Saigon only) are reasonable good and process price is super cheap. I know many foreign folks get their film developed in Vietnam before coming back to their country after visiting. It's less than $2/roll C41 developed and scanned high resolution, B/w film is a bit higher about $3-4/roll.
And yes, online Facebook like "FILM PHOTO CLUB" is also a driven force for Film community in Vietnam. It's so popular that recently the admins decided that photos need to be approved before they can appear on group. About this point, I was among people who against this policy, i think it will not encourage people to shoot film. But let's see how this policy will affect the labs and community in long term.

Skiff said:
Dear Trung Nguyen,

thank you very much for this excellent thread and the wonderful photos!
Makes me feel to visit Vietnam soon 🙂.

May I ask a question:
You said film is making a revival in Vietnam. Interestingly on facebook where more than 100 (!) different film photography groups are active from all over the world the by far biggest film photography group is "FILM PHOTO CLUB" which is a Vietnamese photography group! Thy are growing very fast and already have more then 77,000 members. At the end of the year they will be even bigger than photrio (!).

So do you know which people in Vietnam are starting with film? The younger ones? Or those with good jobs and higher income?
Is it driven by good labs, or online communities like the FILM PHOTO CLUB?

Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
 
kiemchacsu said:
Dear Skiff,

Thank you for your comment.
Regarding the question, I think younger people are interested in film even though i have no clue. The labs owners might know better, I will ask when I meet them.
I think both reasons you quoted are both right. Photo labs in Vietnam (actually Hanoi and Saigon only) are reasonable good and process price is super cheap. I know many foreign folks get their film developed in Vietnam before coming back to their country after visiting. It's less than $2/roll C41 developed and scanned high resolution, B/w film is a bit higher about $3-4/roll.
And yes, online Facebook like "FILM PHOTO CLUB" is also a driven force for Film community in Vietnam. It's so popular that recently the admins decided that photos need to be approved before they can appear on group. About this point, I was among people who against this policy, i think it will not encourage people to shoot film. But let's see how this policy will affect the labs and community in long term.
Click to expand...

Thank you very much!

I am aware of the new group rules of the the "FILM PHOTO CLUB". I am also a bit skeptical, but as you say, let's see how it will evolve.......
Maybe the group administrators were so much overwhelmed by the success of the group......

Please ask the lab owners about their assessment. They most likely have the best information on the current situation.

Do you know whether there are also labs in the other bigger cities Da Nang, Can To, Hai Phong, Bien Hoa and Hue?
Again: Thank you very much for your information and efforts.
 
I am afraid that you won't find any other film labs in the other region except Hanoi and Saigon. The stories are similar, they were all dead about 10 years ago.

The current labs in Hanoi and Saigon now are really the big efforts of small group of film enthusiastic and entrepreneurs

Skiff said:
Thank you very much!

I am aware of the new group rules of the the "FILM PHOTO CLUB". I am also a bit sceptical, but as you say, let's see how it will evolve.......
Maybe the group administrators were so much overwhelmed by the success of the group......

Please ask the lab owners about their assessment. They most likely have the best information on the current situation.

Do you know whether there are also labs in the other bigger cities Da Nang, Can To, Hai Phong, Bien Hoa and Hue?
Again: Thank you very much for your information and efforts.
Click to expand...

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
kiemchacsu said:
I am afraid that you won't find any other film labs in the other region except Hanoi and Saigon. The stories are similar, they were all dead about 10 years ago.

The current labs in Hanoi and Saigon now are really the big efforts of small group of film enthusiastic and entrepreneurs
Click to expand...

Thank you!
Are the film shooters in Vietnam buying their films (or photo chemicals if they develop themselves) at these labs, or in local camera stores?
Or is there already a kind of online distributor like Ag-Photographic or Fotoimpex who have completely focussed on classic film photography?
 
Mostly from labs as there's no more camera shops which are dedicated to film photography anymore. Another source is from some people who run small online shops via Facebook. They buy stuffs from B&H or Adorama , imported to Vietnam and resale. That's why film price in Vietnam in general is more expensive than US. That said, because of developing cost is kept as low hence film photography is still affordable.

Skiff said:
Thank you!
Are the film shooters in Vietnam buying their films (or photo chemicals if they develop themselves) at these labs, or in local camera stores?
Or is there already a kind of online distributor like Ag-Photographic or Fotoimpex who have completely focussed on classic film photography?
Click to expand...

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Skiff said:
Are the film shooters in Vietnam buying their films (or photo chemicals if they develop themselves) at these labs, or in local camera stores?
Or is there already a kind of online distributor like Ag-Photographic or Fotoimpex who have completely focussed on classic film photography?
Click to expand...

I moved to Saigon a month ago and 35mm is easy to find in the labs and film cafes, but 120 film is scarce and chemicals are non-existent. Now, I've only visited six of the more popular (based on google search, and number of reviews) places so perhaps there's somewhere better to go, but it appears that I'll have to order chemicals from Germany (macodirect) if I want to continue developing b/w while I live here.

Kiemchascu -- great photos. Looking forward to making my way north at some point and exploring this beautiful country.
 
Colin G. said:
I moved to Saigon a month ago and 35mm is easy to find in the labs and film cafes, but 120 film is scarce and chemicals are non-existent. Now, I've only visited six of the more popular (based on google search, and number of reviews) places so perhaps there's somewhere better to go, but it appears that I'll have to order chemicals from Germany (macodirect) if I want to continue developing b/w while I live here.

Kiemchascu -- great photos. Looking forward to making my way north at some point and exploring this beautiful country.
Click to expand...

Dear Colin, dear Trung Nguyen,
I thank you both very much for your very useful information! For quite a long time I am very fascinated by Vietnam and its people, and I would like to visit it for a longer time in the future.
Would you be so kind to make a list of the labs and film-cafes in Hanoi and Saigon? I guess it would be not only helpful for me, but also for some other forum members if I look at the great response and interest in this thread.
Maybe a new, different thread for that topic would be optimal, so that this thread remains focussed on the wonderful pictures (but that is just a suggestion).
Thank you very much in advance!

P.S.: Colin: AFAIK Fotoimpex is also shipping to Asia, so you have another option.
 
kiemchacsu said:
it's funny!
don't know if anyone is still active on flickr nowadays,
but my old photo (posted above) was featured on explore today
Link: https://www.flickr.com/photos/kiemchacsu/42948362835/in/explore-2018-08-05/
Actually happen to me twice when a photo was discovered from old archive.
it's good to look through your old stock to find out what you may bypassed in the first time.
Click to expand...

While on the subject of Flickr, I for one still use Flickr. I had an odd thing happen to me yesterday that I have never experienced before. I normally get perhaps a few hundred to maybe 1000 hits per day tops no matter how many new photos (or how good I think they may be).

But yesterday, for no apparent reason I had 12,000 views in one day. And there seemed to be a pattern - all were hits to my photos (ie none to albums etc) and many views on many photos had similar hit counts - none of them huge (e.g 52 hits on multiple photos). Just a moderate number of views of many many photos including the old ones which seldom get viewed much anymore.

It seems to me it was some kind of bot being run over the images to harvest then perhaps??????? But if so, why the multiple views of images? Or were Flickr admin artificially boosting numbers (keeps punters happy when hit totals increase).
 
I do still use flickr,
one of the major reasons is to link the images into forum
about flickr explore, I dont know the algorithm behind neither, sometimes just totally surprised when a photo was featured. quite random actually.,

peterm1 said:
While on the subject of Flickr, I for one still use Flickr. I had an odd thing happen to me yesterday that I have never experienced before. I normally get perhaps a few hundred to maybe 1000 hits per day tops no matter how many new photos (or how good I think they may be).

But yesterday, for no apparent reason I had 12,000 views in one day. And there seemed to be a pattern - all were hits to my photos (ie none to albums etc) and many views on many photos had similar hit counts - none of them huge (e.g 52 hits on multiple photos). Just a moderate number of views of many many photos including the old ones which seldom get viewed much anymore.

It seems to me it was some kind of bot being run over the images to harvest then perhaps??????? But if so, why the multiple views of images? Or were Flickr admin artificially boosting numbers (keeps punters happy when hit totals increase).
Click to expand...
 
Head up:

The Leica meet event in Hanoi will be organized in 28 September this year.
If you happen to be there , feel free to join.
Link here https://www.facebook.com/events/2073081559686110/?ti=ia

96ac28c5ffab0f9d3537fc2396c747cc.png



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