Bill Pierce
Well-known
Is film becoming a luxury? Equally important, are those archives of negatives and slides going to become impossible to print well in any way unless you own a top of the line scanner that costs between 10 and 20 thousand dollars?
http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/culture...982226&goback=.gde_3503915_member_276755485#!
http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/culture...982226&goback=.gde_3503915_member_276755485#!
Boris Stupak
Well-known
Are many people still making images on metal plates and developing them with mercury fumes, for example?
kbg32
neo-romanticist
Yes, unfortunately it is. Film prices will continue to skyrocket. It will be a niche market. You're only kidding yourself if you don't see. We here on RFF are just an extremely small percentage of film aficionados.
I find it funny, the amount of people who are practicing what is now called "alternative processes" - daguerreotype, tintype, etc.. The number of workshops that are beginning to spring up everywhere. Traditional darkroom printing will eventually fall under that moniker as well.
I find it funny, the amount of people who are practicing what is now called "alternative processes" - daguerreotype, tintype, etc.. The number of workshops that are beginning to spring up everywhere. Traditional darkroom printing will eventually fall under that moniker as well.
zauhar
Veteran
The latest 'big new thing' is micro fabrication, but so far the emphasis has been on making parts, not media. Maybe custom fabrication of media will become easier in the future. (Don't diehards already experiment with coating their own printing paper?)
One thing I am missing here - I thought that photosensitive paper was still used for high-quality digital prints, why has the market completely dried up? Or was the Ilford paper only for darkroom use?
Randy
One thing I am missing here - I thought that photosensitive paper was still used for high-quality digital prints, why has the market completely dried up? Or was the Ilford paper only for darkroom use?
Randy
kbg32
neo-romanticist
Boris, yes. There are quite a number of people, young people too, who are learning traditional 19th century methods.
I like this quote:
“The difference between a digital photo and an analogue one is less important than what is common to them,” he said. “They're both images, and the photographer is still taking a picture. It's not the end of the world, rather it's the end of a world.”
This is how I feel, though many here do not. Since photography is important to me, I'll use what is the tool of my time. I'm not married to a process.
“The difference between a digital photo and an analogue one is less important than what is common to them,” he said. “They're both images, and the photographer is still taking a picture. It's not the end of the world, rather it's the end of a world.”
This is how I feel, though many here do not. Since photography is important to me, I'll use what is the tool of my time. I'm not married to a process.
Boris Stupak
Well-known
Not as a mass market. Of course, there is a hobbyist/arty/niche group. You can find people recreating almost any vintage process, and not just in photography.
kbg32
neo-romanticist
Boris, seems to be more popular lately. Maybe I am just hearing/reading about it more.
I agree with you wholeheartedly John.
I agree with you wholeheartedly John.
redisburning
Well-known
probably.
I have made a promise to myself not to invest in cameras, but in lenses. film is getting to a point where the market for cameras may bottom out because many people who want to shoot film simply can't.
and while I personally will be able to at almost any price, physical items are where I store a fair bit of money and I prefer for them to not lose value too much lol.
I have made a promise to myself not to invest in cameras, but in lenses. film is getting to a point where the market for cameras may bottom out because many people who want to shoot film simply can't.
and while I personally will be able to at almost any price, physical items are where I store a fair bit of money and I prefer for them to not lose value too much lol.
Godfrey
somewhat colored
Film became a luxury, or rather an "alternative photographic process," some years ago. You are surprised by this? I'm surprised.
It costs a fortune to maintain a volume film production facility and keep it running. Film use world wide is a tiny fraction of what it once was. The economics of the situation have long since tipped the market to digital capture as the primary recording medium.
I applaud the efforts of folks like The Impossible Project to keep film alive. It will be alive in niche markets for years to come. But it is going to become more expensive, and choices are going to continue to become more constrained. Which, in a way, is all just fine. Constraints generally tend to expand creativity.
My Nikon Coolscan V and Super Coolscan 9000 cost much less than 10-20 thousand dollars, and scan anything I'm going to want to scan at quality levels that are good enough for me. Government and museum institutions are the ones that are using the five-digit class of scanners to archive their collections, and more power to them if they are on the stick and moving forwards in that effort. It makes the collections and the data much more accessible to be seen, used, enjoyed than just having storage shelves full of slowly decaying gelatin on plastic.
G
"Equipment is transitory. Photographs endure."
Snapper_uk
Well-known
A luxury? No. A roll of 35mm is about the same price as a pint in the UK.
If we are talking about printing black and white, I have this old-fashioned thing called 'an enlarger'. Seems to do the trick.
As for colour, I'll pay someone else to have an expensive scanner and to do that for me.
If we are talking about printing black and white, I have this old-fashioned thing called 'an enlarger'. Seems to do the trick.
As for colour, I'll pay someone else to have an expensive scanner and to do that for me.
arseniii
Well-known
Out to Lunch
Ventor
It's not only about money. Without the inter net film would already be dead, at least in some countries. So you go online and buy supplies elsewhere and struggle with the logistics ... customs, import duties etc... On the scanning side, I use what I can afford and live with the consequences. Not that I think film is the only way...not at all ... but as long as it is still possible to use film ... why not?
timor
Well-known
That's right, here is one small proof:
http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/...10-my-first-tin-type-wet-plate-collodion.html
I guess more and more people is interested in doing something totally on their own without any automated help.
doolittle
Well-known
Luxury? I don't think so. Luxury for me would be something like a nice whisky or a cigar, a pleasure in itself. Black and white film is more of a consumable, like tyres or petrol. A necessary price for the result I want to achieve. I guess if the price rises to an unacceptable level for me, then I might consider it a uneconomical and look at alternatives. To some extent this is already the case for me and slide film, which I do keep only for special occasions, digital now being the main stay for my colour photography.
As for scanners, I am perfectly happy with the results I get from my Epson V700* or for that matter wet printing with traditional photo paper (which isn't much different cost wise from ink jet paper and ink).
*especially for TriX film. For slide or other finer grained films, for the rare shot that warrants it, I rent out use of an Hasselblad Flextight scanner (which would fit in the 10k price range, so agreeing with the premise of the thread!).
As for scanners, I am perfectly happy with the results I get from my Epson V700* or for that matter wet printing with traditional photo paper (which isn't much different cost wise from ink jet paper and ink).
*especially for TriX film. For slide or other finer grained films, for the rare shot that warrants it, I rent out use of an Hasselblad Flextight scanner (which would fit in the 10k price range, so agreeing with the premise of the thread!).
Takkun
Ian M.
This article just seems like more alarmist worries to pad an already sad story.
Film may be on the decline, but I don't see it going away anytime soon, especially the larger formats.
I can't speak for the more remote corners of the world, but I can still drive 100 miles out of Seattle and find a Walgreens that still sells Kodak Max, if not some BW film, and probably has a working Frontier printer in the back.
It was scary when Polaroid, Ilford and Kodak filed for bankruptcy, but the underlying cause was that they were huge companies with a lot of capital tied up in a particular technology when the market changed drastically, and they were too big to keep up. Sometimes the small guys get swept under, and sometimes the big guys fall.
But look at the fact that ADOX is introducing new emulsions, and Kodak recently reformulated a number of theirs. That's a pretty good sign. My only wish is that there were more options for midrange scanners.
I personally think the only thing going obsolete is motor drives...
Film may be on the decline, but I don't see it going away anytime soon, especially the larger formats.
I can't speak for the more remote corners of the world, but I can still drive 100 miles out of Seattle and find a Walgreens that still sells Kodak Max, if not some BW film, and probably has a working Frontier printer in the back.
It was scary when Polaroid, Ilford and Kodak filed for bankruptcy, but the underlying cause was that they were huge companies with a lot of capital tied up in a particular technology when the market changed drastically, and they were too big to keep up. Sometimes the small guys get swept under, and sometimes the big guys fall.
But look at the fact that ADOX is introducing new emulsions, and Kodak recently reformulated a number of theirs. That's a pretty good sign. My only wish is that there were more options for midrange scanners.
I personally think the only thing going obsolete is motor drives...
Photo_Smith
Well-known
I'm paying the same for a roll of film as I did in the early-mid 1980's. At the moment the only film type looking expensive is E6 which is about 25% more.
For sky rocketing prices try petrol, in the same timeframe it has gone from 30 pennies per litre to £1.50 and a pint of beer from 60p to £3.50.
Considering the tiny volumes compared to the 80's its a miracle we are paying the same.
Boris Stupak
Well-known
I'm an idiot.
Back in the early 1990's I met with some major media execs and basically pitched the idea of eBay.....except I wanted to do it on live TV. I wanted to do hundreds of local programs where people could show what they had to sell live on camera, and then use a 900 number type thing where people could bid.
I just about had the whole eBay thing down pat. Private auctions, feedback, payment system, the works.
Except I didn't include the internet in my scheme, mainly because it barely existed yet.
I almost made a deal but it was finally determined unfeasible.
If I was a little smarter or timelier I might have had Pierre Omiydar's billions.
Back in the early 1990's I met with some major media execs and basically pitched the idea of eBay.....except I wanted to do it on live TV. I wanted to do hundreds of local programs where people could show what they had to sell live on camera, and then use a 900 number type thing where people could bid.
I just about had the whole eBay thing down pat. Private auctions, feedback, payment system, the works.
Except I didn't include the internet in my scheme, mainly because it barely existed yet.
I almost made a deal but it was finally determined unfeasible.
If I was a little smarter or timelier I might have had Pierre Omiydar's billions.
konicaman
konicaman
Luxury - no not really in the early 60'ies a colour negative film, developing and 36 prints was app. 100 Danish Kroner. It still is app. 100 Kroner today. In the early 60'ies a skilled worker (carpenter say) would make app. 6 Kroner an hour - today he makes around 200 kroner an hour...
How about compared to the 1990s though?