P. Lynn Miller
Well-known
I know that Pickett Wilson has made it his life's mission to remind us of the impending doom of film... but I had a very interesting conversation with my local photo shop today... Charing Cross Photo in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney.
I picked up a developed/printed roll of C-41 and dropped off 2 rolls to be developed/printed today. As I was leaving they mentioned that I could pick-up on Thursday, in two days time. I commented in passing that they must only run their C-41 line one or twice a week.
'Oh, not any more... we run everyday now', was his reply. He then told me that their film developing had been in steady decline until in mid-2009 they were only receiving 2-3 rolls of film per day and then one day there was no film dropped off, the first time in the 20-plus year history of the shop. After a few months of sporadic film drop-off, the volume slowly started to pick-up until they are now running at least 20 rolls per day, nothing set the world on fire, and their film sales have went increased several fold as well. And he sees this trend continuing for the foreseeable future.
He told me the biggest trend has been among mother's returning to film, they are tired of spending time trying to get nice family photos from digital files and never getting anything printed, while they can drop a film off and return the next day to pick up an envelope of beautiful photos. Apparently these mum's are buying up the top-end point-n-shoot cameras, Contax T3, Nikon 35TI, Ricoh GR-1, and even Leica was on the list, considering them cheap compared to the next big digital thing.
Hmmm... sounds familiar... had a big conversation over coffee early this morning with my wife and her frustration of having over 1000 unprinted photos on her digital point-n-shoot and how she wishes that I would just get her a really good film point-n-shoot camera let her return to the good old days of dropping film off at the 1-hour lab... and this is not first time this conversation has come up in the past few weeks.
I picked up a developed/printed roll of C-41 and dropped off 2 rolls to be developed/printed today. As I was leaving they mentioned that I could pick-up on Thursday, in two days time. I commented in passing that they must only run their C-41 line one or twice a week.
'Oh, not any more... we run everyday now', was his reply. He then told me that their film developing had been in steady decline until in mid-2009 they were only receiving 2-3 rolls of film per day and then one day there was no film dropped off, the first time in the 20-plus year history of the shop. After a few months of sporadic film drop-off, the volume slowly started to pick-up until they are now running at least 20 rolls per day, nothing set the world on fire, and their film sales have went increased several fold as well. And he sees this trend continuing for the foreseeable future.
He told me the biggest trend has been among mother's returning to film, they are tired of spending time trying to get nice family photos from digital files and never getting anything printed, while they can drop a film off and return the next day to pick up an envelope of beautiful photos. Apparently these mum's are buying up the top-end point-n-shoot cameras, Contax T3, Nikon 35TI, Ricoh GR-1, and even Leica was on the list, considering them cheap compared to the next big digital thing.
Hmmm... sounds familiar... had a big conversation over coffee early this morning with my wife and her frustration of having over 1000 unprinted photos on her digital point-n-shoot and how she wishes that I would just get her a really good film point-n-shoot camera let her return to the good old days of dropping film off at the 1-hour lab... and this is not first time this conversation has come up in the past few weeks.
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cnphoto
Well-known
interesting. my fiancee has been at me for a month to get a stack of digital point and shoot photos printed or looking better etc.
i keep playing with the idea of getting her a point and shoot, slapping in some Kodak Gold and letting her go for it. she has my Minolta Sr-T 100x I gave her, but it's just to big for her to carry around each and every day.
i keep playing with the idea of getting her a point and shoot, slapping in some Kodak Gold and letting her go for it. she has my Minolta Sr-T 100x I gave her, but it's just to big for her to carry around each and every day.
pachuco
El ****
I don't understand why people find it difficult to print digital images. If you have iPhoto it is super easy. Just select the ones you like, click "order prints" and in a day or two you have all the prints you want, and it costs cents! I'm sure it is just as easy with snapfish or some other service. Not to take away from film, I hope your lab continues to process at the rate they are.
sig
Well-known
There could be other explanations than 'people is returning to film' E.g. all the competition has gone.
1948nikon
Established
Good news.
Good news.
Thats the best news any of us on this forum could read. Its also good for the Photographic Industry.
Good news.
Thats the best news any of us on this forum could read. Its also good for the Photographic Industry.
Keith
The best camera is one that still works!
"One swallow does not a summer make." ... the devil made me say it! 
Seriously though ... that's good news if it becomes a trend. I must ask the owner of my locak Kodak one hour if he's getting any increased business because I remember last time I asked he was down to a couple of rolls a day and wasn't bothering to switch the C41 machine on until after lunch!
Seriously though ... that's good news if it becomes a trend. I must ask the owner of my locak Kodak one hour if he's getting any increased business because I remember last time I asked he was down to a couple of rolls a day and wasn't bothering to switch the C41 machine on until after lunch!
WalterM
Established
This makes me smile. COUGH*bringbackkodachrome
P. Lynn Miller
Well-known
I have to agree... tell that to my wife... she hates computers with a passion... sitting in front of a computer for any time at all editing photos is not for her. Plus she keeps asking how it is possible that she used to get 30 great photos from a 36 exp roll and now it takes her 4 shots from her digital to get a decent photo. My wife is no stranger to photography, but is mostly concerned with good photos and a simple way to get them.
Possible... but many of the new film user's are familiar faces... customers who used Charing Cross for their digital printing and now have switched to back to film... because I had the same query... who just stopped developing film.
This post was not to provoke a digital vs. film debate... just a report from a someone at the 'coal-face' of the industry.
P. Lynn Miller
Well-known
Keith,
I was as surprised as anyone, since one of the best C-41 labs on the north-side, C-41 in Brookvale, now only runs their C-41 line once a week. But one has to remember... Charing Cross is in the heart of the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney, where for many people money is no object, so if shooting film is perceived as more convenient with better results, so it is. In fact, knowing the Eastern Suburbs, it could be 'trendy' to show up at a 'Mother's Group' with an envelope of beautifully printed 5x7's where as bringing your iPad to show-off kids would be so yesterday!
I was as surprised as anyone, since one of the best C-41 labs on the north-side, C-41 in Brookvale, now only runs their C-41 line once a week. But one has to remember... Charing Cross is in the heart of the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney, where for many people money is no object, so if shooting film is perceived as more convenient with better results, so it is. In fact, knowing the Eastern Suburbs, it could be 'trendy' to show up at a 'Mother's Group' with an envelope of beautifully printed 5x7's where as bringing your iPad to show-off kids would be so yesterday!
Keith
The best camera is one that still works!
Before we know it they'll all be driving restored MG's and Jags and tootling off home to listen to a bit of Bob Marley on vinyl ...... on the gramaphone!
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bgb
Well-known
News is not so good in NZ as everyone but me and a few other nutters seems to have gone digital, bugger that I don't want to leave my film cameras on the shelf.
All a bit of a surprise really as NZ is at least 20 years behind the rest of the world
All a bit of a surprise really as NZ is at least 20 years behind the rest of the world
btgc
Veteran
I agree that moms and pops wake up after they loose hundreds of files from their travel of decade or anything on hard drive. Not that digital itself is bad, they just have had no clue that media cards and disks may fail. Sometimes they carelessly push buttons until card is formatted before files are downloaded. Sure, film strips can get flooded or burn down, that's another case.
Yet another issue is keeping proportions when printing. Many spell out dark words after their batch of 500 pictures comes back with white borders because unmotivated staff at minilab didn't care to double check if customer wants resize or borders option. And that staff easily can say to customer - you have to know this, and now pay for reprints or go to hell. I know people who realize they hadn't issues with film. Sure, this is human/administrative issue, not technical - but people aren't strong at logics like computers do. That's why people make emotional decisions - first they move digital because it's free, then they come back to film because it seems easier. Given choice, people choose what is easier.
Yet another issue is keeping proportions when printing. Many spell out dark words after their batch of 500 pictures comes back with white borders because unmotivated staff at minilab didn't care to double check if customer wants resize or borders option. And that staff easily can say to customer - you have to know this, and now pay for reprints or go to hell. I know people who realize they hadn't issues with film. Sure, this is human/administrative issue, not technical - but people aren't strong at logics like computers do. That's why people make emotional decisions - first they move digital because it's free, then they come back to film because it seems easier. Given choice, people choose what is easier.
pakeha
Well-known
These are all points from btgc that i think many disregard, and the mother/emotional point is also a big player.
I was at a Winery last weekend and there was perhaps 20-25 woman at a workshop regarding how to build a digital photo album. I spoke to a few and the concensus was that it actually used to be easier and less time consuming to drop of some negs in the morning and pick up your prints in the afternoon.
They off course all have hundreds of images on their computer, on their phone, on a stick, but they all recognised that no one had a photo `album'.
So perhaps the answer to the other thread running at the moment concerning `lack of gear for sale' is because it is all being snapped up by mums
regards
CW
Ranchu
Veteran
So perhaps the answer to the other thread running at the moment concerning `lack of gear for sale' is because it is all being snapped up by mums
regards
CW
I like that thought. I was at a photo store a couple years ago and got chatting with a woman who was complaining that she liked 'the pictures I used to take' of her son much better than the ones from her digital. I told her shoot film, it is better! It hadn't occured to her I don't think, but she seemed to like the idea. Maybe she's doing that now. Hope so.
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akremer
Established
Wow that's cool. Unfortunately, here in Brisbane most of the film business comes from the Lomo people using the horrible lab that sells the cameras. I wonder how much film business my lab does..
iwaki
Member
well.... I live in a very small city in Japan and even here i can get normal C-41 developed and printed within 30minutes-1hour. So film is definitely still going strong in japan.
And in Stuttgart Germany you can get E-6 slides developed within 2 hours.
And in Stuttgart Germany you can get E-6 slides developed within 2 hours.
Chris101
summicronia
Looking at your avatar, this line makes perfect sense! Ah luv et!
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Lynn, I know it's anecdotal, but my friend the photo teacher tells me that she has a very full summer class for Photo I. She had recently restructured the class so that it was a combination of film (which it traditionally has been) and digital (which the newer colleges are offering in place of a film centered class.)
When she announced the class would incorporate both film and digital, the class rebelled. It turns out that the class filled to capacity (first time in 5 years that she's been teaching it) with people who expected to take a film based class!
This is summer school! There are no photo majors in the class, as they all take it during the year! these are interested folks from the community. I'm amazed, as I encouraged her to offer the hybridized class.
Sparrow
Veteran
Before we know it they'll all be driving restored MG's and Jags and tootling off home to listen to a bit of Bob Marley on vinyl ...... on the gramaphone!
Triumph! ... hell will freeze over before you get me driving a bloody MG!
Keith
The best camera is one that still works!
Agreed ... TR4A IRS My dream car ... I did an apprenticeship as a motor mechanic on Triumphs Rovers and Vanguards in NZ when young!
Sparrow
Veteran
I was just trying to get a brand argument going ...
I ran a TR6 for 18 years, selling it when we had kids was one of my poorer decisions ...
it was a cr engine the 150hp-148lb/ft version with the Lucas MKII petrol injection, same suspension as the TR4A IRS but with a front antiroll bar
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