How long do >>YOU<< think film will be commonly available?

[ed1k]

In my understanding of commonly available as freely available at Wal-Mart, No frills and other groceries I think 5 years. For special photo stores, mail orders etc. I think it will be available longer than I need. Actually I think real photopaper will pass away first, and from that point I'm not really interested in film.
Long live classical photography!
Cheers,
Eduard.

 

[ch1]

In my understanding of commonly available as freely available at Wal-Mart, No frills and other groceries I think 5 years. For special photo stores, mail orders etc. I think it will be available longer than I need. Actually I think real photopaper will pass away first, and from that point I'm not really interested in film.
Long live classical photography!
Cheers,
Eduard.

Eduard,

You bring up a very valid point. I have a so-so Epson color printer at our house in Tucson. Last week I printed a couple of images on so-called "High Quality digital photo paper".

It looked like crap.

The "problem" with digital is not in the image taking - they've got that part down real good.

But the final output is dismal! Maybe the digi photo kiosks give better prints (at least at the 4x6 level) but I'm skeptical if they match traditional prints.

It is another example of technological advance resulting in a decline in quality! There's no stopping "the future" but it is increasingly evident that much of the future is qualitatively behind the past - which is really weird....

 

[jan normandale]

dmr.. who knew this spritely nature was buried in your heart? Not me. I shot 7 rolls this afternoon. I'm buying! So I think if I keep up this volume I may jumpstart the whole industry again. Whaddya think? ;- )

cheers, Jan

 

[RML]

For me "commonly available" would mean either regularly available in (semi)specialised shops or over the internet. In that light I think it'll be another 20-30 years before film will no longer be commonly available, only available through specialist shops, probably only over the internet.

 

[julianphotoart]

A part of me perversely looks forward to the labour that will one day be involved in ordering exotic ortho B&W film from little ma-and-pa boutique factories in the Czech Republic or such. Yes, I know I could do that right now but I'm too lazy.

In the future, when film is no longer "generally" available, we'll collect it, treasure it (i.e. freeze it), share it and discuss like they do fine wine today.

So, whether or not generally available to the masses, I am confident that B&W film at least will be available from little far-flung places that will gladly ship to us, and we'll all have a better time brewing it up to develop our own negatives anyway. I'm seriously assuming that there will be no big companies making film.

That leads me to something else: What I'm preaching to both friends and professionals is the future disappearance and/or degradation of digital files and images created by regular people that will leave society without a visual record of popular culture. So much of the visual record from the last 100 years or so was not created as art or anything serious. Those interesting old photographs were just a family's private record or a meaningless snapshot. But today, they are treasures. Not long ago B&W Magazine did a piece about vernacular photography. This type of photography is the kind created by regular people. It may be a snapshot now but in 50 years it could have real meaning historically or culturally or artistically.

What will be the case 50 years from now for all those digital files or quicky digital prints made today?

Sorry for rambling; I have the day off tomorrow. Is this a thread-killer??

Julian

 

[vincentbenoit]

Adding some fuel to the fire ... 🙂

Film won't die in our lifetime.

 

[John]

Why did I guess 20 years or more? Because you drop off your film and pick up your prints. I have to wait a week to get mine back, but they are cheap now. No kiosk. No photoshop. No megabyte storage. You have pictures to show, keep, give. People will get tired of fooling with digital, memory, rechargeables. 🙄

 

[Andy K]

According to Kodak film will 'likely never disappear'.

 

[thafred]

I´ve Voted for 20 or more years......

Coming from serious Hifi gear love (Tubes) to Rangefinder obsession i find it quite amusing how much those hobbies have in comon. Like in the 1970ies, transistor amps took over all the world, just like Digital does now with film. Trans amps had higher power than tubes and lower (but uneven) distortion...then, the industry followed with crappy mass produced low sensitivity Loudspeakers (in the 50-60 LS-prod. quality peaked with hand made speakers well above 94db/1w) and now mini Stereo speaker, CD and mp3 and all the other compressed standards exist and make the public believe it´s the best there ever was (and the public doesn´t need more ...like every happy chap with it´s digital p&s)...but ethusiasts exist and they keep the ball rolling...the industry even started to produce Tubes again in the 90ies and many folks all over the world enjoy .... I myself have new produced Type 45 tubes in my Amp (type 45 was an american pre-War standard..they started to manufacture them again in 2k!)
you can even buy needles for your old Grammophone!!! (as long as those are around I think film will be here, seriously 😀 )

Funny...the more I think about this HIFI vs. FILM the more similarities come to my mind....i think this deserves another thread 🙂

Don´t worry....keep shooting

 

[dmr]

I'm buying! So I think if I keep up this volume I may jumpstart the whole industry again. Whaddya think? ;- )

Well, I'm buying too, and so are 99.9% of the people here and the people on APUG and all of those non-web people and yes, with the cumulative demand for film from all over the world, the supply should (continue to) support the demand.

 

[Socke]

Yesterday a friend, who is a painter, complained that Hahnemühle Aquarell Paper is made from shorter fibres today and can't be used for wet in wet painting, paper for drawing has 40% plastics in it and faber pencils contain so much polymeres that they are closer to wax crayon. She can't get half tones with pencils on paper like she got two years ago.

OTOH, she buys her brushes at a store specialised on cabinet makers. The brushes they use to touch up veneer and such are very good for watercolor.

 

[hth]

I voted for 100 years or more.

I thought about myself and while I can see that I use both film and digital capture now, I cannot see that I will ever give up film. It is so wonderfully low-tech for mechanical cameras and it is a must for pinhole photography. If I will not give up film, I figure that there are a healthy number of people thinking in similar ways, so I think it is here to stay.
I guess I will have to buy it by mailorder, but I often do that today to get better price compared to the shops.

/Håkan

 

[Socke]

As I just found out, Efke produces enough R50 in eight hours to satisfy worldwide demand for two years.
The coating mashines run at a fixed speed, Efkes are very old and run at 100 meters a minute. One meter is enough material for nearly 1700 36exp 135 films. Newer mashines, like those Agfa had, run at 200 meters a minute.

I don't know what maintenance of 50 year old mashines cost and if there are still spareparts.
The same with raw materials, the problems people have with todays R50 over that from last year indicate that the emulsion changed. It needs increased development times of about 20 to 30%. The film base is different, too.
All in all some photographers ended up with shots intended for negs at 0.65 but got only 0.53.

That's not a problem for me, but I don't shoot white dresses alongside black suits and have to have the faces properly exposed, too 🙂

For those who need great tonality while conserving very small grain and high acutance this means extensive testing for every batch of film bought.

 

[Andy K]

Having an engineering background I would say a 50 year old machine is a lot easier to maintain than a new machine. Purely because the older machine is likely to be a lot simpler and less reliant on electronics. My Voigtlander Vito CLR or Zorki 4K are a hell of a lot more reliable and easier to repair than any modern camera stuffed full of circuit boards.
There is an old adage in engineering 'Simple machines work best'.

 

[Socke]

Andy, as the old adage goes
"With ductape, JB Weld and big enough a hammer you can fix anything!"

We just did this with a Heidelberg offset press which is older than I am 🙂

Edit:

The press is from 1957 and we need it for small production runs, the modern 5c presses put out 25000 B3 an hour and sometimes you just need two or three thousand.

 

[nemjo]

Really don't know, however voted on 'ten or so'.
When I was young I bought LPs, a little later CDs ... and now I converted all of them into mp3s.
Also have some nice films from the past on VHS... and a lot of DVD... and a few most important (to me) converted to DivX...

Really don't know...

nemjo

 

[dmr]

We just did this with a Heidelberg offset press which is older than I am 🙂 The press is from 1957 and we need it for small production runs, the modern 5c presses put out 25000 B3 an hour and sometimes you just need two or three thousand.

I've never operated a Heidelberg, but I've seen one operating up close. When I was in my teens I worked in a smaller shop and we sent our large runs out to a shop which had a Heidelberg offset and a Miehle (sp?) letterpress.

Unfortunately I'm older than your 1957 press. 🙁

Impressive machines. (pun intended) 🙂

 

[Pherdinand]

i am sure on my last day i will be able to shoot film. That should be enough (i don't plan dying soon).

Really, there are so many things that could influence this, "going digital" is not within the top ten of the factors. Energy problem, overpopulation, environmental catastrophes, and general human stupidity, to name a few that can really play a role.

 

[Sonnar Brian]

I think for quite a while. Much longer than my newest Digital camera will be operating.

Maybe longer than CCD's.

Maybe longer than Digital.

When's the last time you saw a new LED watch for sale?

 

[Pherdinand]

the fact that the 100+y wins, reflects a certasin kind of optimism and in the meantime, need for the medium, among rff'ers. This is good, and should be the reason why dmr started the thread🙂