Interesting Conversation with Local Lab Tech...

Personal experience here in Los Angeles is obviously pretty good. The movie industry buys a ton of film, and there are a number of excellent places here to get film developed and scanned - both low and high end. The Walgreens near me does good business because I live in an area with a lot of older folks who will likely never switch to digital.

I do agree that if movies go digital that presents a problem for the film industry. Hollywood keeps us still photographers alive. Sure, studios are still going to print an archival copy to film - it's the best for preservation over the long term without having to worry about keeping specialized equipment on hand. But if people stop shooting on film, that's a problem, as that's just a massive chunk of business for Kodak. One 400ft. roll of Kodak 500T is over $300, and 400ft of 35mm film at 24fps is only a little over *four minutes* worth of footage. Just imagine how much people are spending on film to shoot a two-hour feature.
 
I hope the decline of film in movies takes a long time, not simply because of the impact on still photography stock, but also because of the different quality of movies. I think that it is frequently possible through post processing to confuse the eye as to the origins of a still photograph, but a digital movie is so unmistakable. (Think "Gladiator") It is an expensive indulgence, but I am sure some movie producers of the artsy type are apt to hold-out on converting. Making an art movie in the states on film or digital is a bit akin to deciding how much money you want to lose; so why not go for the gold. (#^.^#)/
 
patrickjames said:
It only takes one hard drive crash for people to realize that digital has its problems. I have lost images in my life to file corruption but every negative I have ever made is still going strong. All the major studios in hollywood archive their digital movies onto film. There is a reason for that.
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All it takes is having a back-up drive to realize how safe digital can be...
 
jsrockit said:
I just don't buy it. Film is still a niche product and probably always will be at this point. Any resurgence is negligible.
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And we´re not supposed to talk about film here anymore because its "negligible" or what is your point?

If you dont care why do you join the discussion at all? 😕
 
What I find most interesting is how it seems that many digital photographers do not want film to survive, much less to be popular again. This whole attitude makes no sense, why do we as photographer want to doom another medium that we can work with.

Artists have many mediums to work with oil paints, water-colors, pastels, charcoal, just to name few, to produce images. While photographers have been limited to film until the advent of digital. Now as photographer I have more choice than ever. It makes no sense to me to deliberately remove an option for no apparent reason.

As much as I like film, I also shoot many digital images. In fact, my iPhone has become one of my favorite cameras and have a whole album of 5x5 prints that I created with it. But my iPhone will never replace my Nikon F. Two different tools that the end product is a print.

I want to see film survive and see digital thrive. And I am glad to know that at least in my local area that other photographers are continuing to use film as well as digital.
 
As you say, for you it seems like many digital photographers do not want film to survive..... What the socalled 'film bashers' are saying is that they do not believe that film is gaining, and the main reason is the decline in film sales. That does not equal to 'I want film to die', it equals to 'if the film producers report a gain in sales of film more people is using film'

So to me it seems that film is getting more and more a expensive and difficult medium to get and use. And even if my mum still uses film (my dad has changed to digital) it does not mean that 50% of the market is film (and if my dad dies it will be 100%)
 
P. Lynn Miller said:
What I find most interesting is how it seems that many digital photographers do not want film to survive, much less to be popular again. This whole attitude makes no sense, why do we as photographer want to doom another medium that we can work with.
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Agreed. But it's also an internet thing, IMO. Meaning, opinions are strong, etc.

sig said:
So to me it seems that film is getting more and more a expensive and difficult medium to get and use.
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It might be harder to get, depending on where you live. Also, recently some films have been discontinued (to my dismay Reala 100).

On the other hand, new films were released. And, counter intuitively, film is as cheap as it never was if you order on-line, in particular in the US.
 
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ferider said:
The survival of film (mass production, that is) depends primarily on the movie industry, not on us.
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What is that based on? I'm not saying it isn't true but I'd be
surprised if it was. It doesn't seem that they really use that much
film. Even with, say, shooting 10-20X ( a high estimate) it
doesn't seem that would amount to all that much. I worked as
a PA and in other capacities in Hollywood for a number of years
and worked on many, many sets and I don't see that they use
all that much film. And, it's also not the same film we use, not
even the same processes. They also don't use much non-35mm
film at all.

Exception: they used to use lots of Polaroid film. Wardrobe, Makeup,
Hair, Props, Art Dept and others used lots and lots of Polaroid film
for matching purposes. But, now that's gone digital.

P. Lynn Miller said:
What I find most interesting is how it seems that many digital photographers do not want film to survive, much less to be popular again. This whole attitude makes no sense, why do we as photographer want to doom another medium that we can work with.
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Yes, I see this too. Personally I suspect these people tried
film photography but found it too difficult. So, they now see
film as an invalidation of themselves and want it dead.

PS - I had a powder blue TR4 in the early 70s. When it ran it
was a blast.
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Remember, when stores started to give free plastic bags - what happened? People used them excessively, and also stores packed each bit into plastic bag. People are like gulls - is there is enough food, then no need to think about tomorrow.

Similarly I have a feeling that short-cycled technologies do impact human nature in similar way. People are forced to replace things over shorter periods of service for price which seems low to them, so they quickly learn not to care much. Why should I repair TV or digicam if I can buy new for price of repair + 10-20% on top? Right, industries making new and new models do not want people repairing old things and arrange costs for repairs accordingly. Once it's out of warranty, just dump it as soon as it doesn't works. Or seems not to work 🙂

I'm terribly assuming people have learned not to care to such degree that they are happy if current/old technology moves, and they are morally free to buy next big thing. The less old things around us, the better we live. That's why some would see film gone - maybe.

I drive car, but I do not mind if someone rides horse. If it works for him, and he doesn't slows down freeway, it's his pleasure to ride and my pleasure to see something different.
 
I agree that there are relentless film bashers out there as there also relentless digital bashers but they seem to come from very different tacks IMO.

The film bashers tend to be sceptical about film's survival but respect it's qualities though choose not to use it ... the digital bashers seem to take great delight in denigrating the medium itself with constant references to plastic looking images etc!
 
Keith said:
I agree that there are relentless film bashers out there as there also relentless digital bashers but they seem to come from very different tacks IMO.

The film bashers tend to be sceptical about film's survival but respect it's qualities though choose not to use it ... the digital bashers seem to take great delight in denigrating the medium itself with constant references to plastic looking images etc!
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Once one has bashed the sensor range, which in truth is littke different to Kodachrome, there's only the plastic thing to go at that hasn't got a counter argument, a bit like cv gets it for the Bad Bokeh thing from the faithful ...
 
personally I have no problems in getting film or development. I can go down to the CBD and get a 5 roll color fuji 120 film thingi for 139 Australian dollars. Cheap as smiths (the chips).

And from a finance economical future view.... do you think that 'it has never been so easy and cheap to buy film ' and at the same time the film sales goes down 2 digit percent every 3 months is a good thing?

There is a thread (Keith thanks, my wife would probably kill me if i bought a film loader) here about ordering film from the west coast of the USA to Australia. Is that because of the easy cheap delivery of film around here?
 
sig said:
personally I have no problems in getting film or development. I can go down to the CBD and get a 5 roll color fuji 120 film thingi for 139 Australian dollars. Cheap as smiths (the chips).

And from a finance economical future view.... do you think that 'it has never been so easy and cheap to buy film ' and at the same time the film sales goes down 2 digit percent every 3 months is a good thing?

There is a thread (Keith thanks, my wife would probably kill me if i bought a film loader) here about ordering film from the west coast of the USA to Australia. Is that because of the easy cheap delivery of film around here?
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OK it seems like my wife would kill me for nothing at all.... you do not know my wife
 
sig said:
personally I have no problems in getting film or development. I can go down to the CBD and get a 5 roll color fuji 120 film thingi for 139 Australian dollars. Cheap as smiths (the chips).

And from a finance economical future view.... do you think that 'it has never been so easy and cheap to buy film ' and at the same time the film sales goes down 2 digit percent every 3 months is a good thing?

There is a thread (Keith thanks, my wife would probably kill me if i bought a film loader) here about ordering film from the west coast of the USA to Australia. Is that because of the easy cheap delivery of film around here?
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Are you being serious about that price?
 
Yes, that is the sad part (the price). every time I see the price tag I think 'I need to take a photo of that' and that can not be correct. I will try to get a photo tomorrow.
 
That would have to be for chromes surely ... I saw 35mm Fujichrome in a store in CBD Brisbane a while ago for $20.00 per roll! 😱
 
Could be, I will try to bring 'proof' tomorrow. All I remember from it is ' frock you have to be kidding'.... and if I am wrong I will let you know

And according to the wife I am wrong all the time
 
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