Is now the time to start stocking up on film??****

[flipflop]

Hi,
Just wondering what people think? Is now the time to start buying film? How much longer will it be availible? It seems as though digital is at the point of film in terms of quality...I have dreaded this for a long time.

Is film dead...I hope not...digital sucks

 

[dmr]

Is now the time to start buying film?

Yes, if it's on sale at a good price. 🙂

How much longer will it be availible?

Probably longer than I am.

Is film dead

Some seem to think so.

 

[Flyfisher Tom]

Alex Majoli

 

[pesphoto]

Still cant duplicate the look of a nice b/w neg and print in my opinion.

 

[jaapv]

Digital doesn't suck, but film is great as well and won't die. It wiil turn into a "noble process" though.

 

[planetjoe]

Baloney (Bologna?).

Baloney (Bologna?).

Oh, for Pete's sake.

It's always time to stock up on film. Just the other day I went to the fridge and discovered I was out of Tri-X. It was like realizing you had no coffee in the house; I wanted to cry and creak something at the same time.

Hey - maybe I'm kinda high-strung. Time for more coffee.


Cheers,
--joe.

 

[Silva Lining]

Yes,yes buy film...but not because it is going anywhere soon. It'll become a more niche product for sure, but my suppliers are introducing 'new' films all the time! At the end of the day, market forces will dictate, so keep buying and enjoying!!

 

[gareth]

It seems as though digital is at the point of film in terms of quality...I have dreaded this for a long time.

Is film dead...I hope not...digital sucks

Eh? I don't understand your point of view. You say that digital is equivalent to film in terms of quality, yet apparently digital sucks.

For me, while I've now had my first digital camera (Canon 5D) for almost a year I still frequently shoot b&w film. I love the look of b&w film, b&w digital can't touch it as far as I am concerned.

I recenty bought a Bessa r2a, and shot a roll of colour neg just to check it out. Wow I'd forgotten how good colour film can be. I shot a roll of superia 200asa, it may be lower res than my 5D, but the punch and beauty of the colours, as well as the dynamic range blew me away.

So while the bulk of my work will be done on digital, whenever I can I'll be shooting some b&w film, and perhaps a few rolls of colour now too.

Stock up? I carry enougth stock so I'm not left short at any time, but I've nowhere to stick a large stock of film, nor do I see any need to.

 

[gareth]

"Just the other day I went to the fridge and discovered I was out of Tri-X."

That's a worrying situation. One film I try never to run out of is tri-x. And I would guess that if Kodak wanted out of the film buisiness altogether, tri-x is one film that would re-emerge under another manufactuerer. I'd like to think so anyway.

While there is a smaller market for stuff like tri-x, there is still money to be made. Note the re-emergance of many of the Agfa chemicals.

But quite what you're tri-x is doing in the fridge I don't know. I like to keep milk, butter, meat that kinda thing in there.

 

[lynn]

Wow I'd forgotten how good colour film can be. I shot a roll of superia 200asa, it may be lower res than my 5D, but the punch and beauty of the colours, as well as the dynamic range blew me away.

Lower res? Perhaps, just barely, if at all. But there are other factors:

http://www.clarkvision.com/imagedetail/film.vs.digital.1.html

I am "hamstering", as we say here, seizing every opportunity to stock up. I figure that, when scarcity hits, with what I have in my little fridge, I will still have one roll a week to shoot for six years.

I do hope it doesn't come to that, though.

 

[Bromo33333]

It seems as though digital is at the point of film in terms of quality...I have dreaded this for a long time.

It is always a good time to stock up on film! 🙂

Film has not yet been surpassed as a quality medium.

For instance, a typical digital output is a JPEG and current "high standard" is 10Mega-pixel.

WHile film is losing mass appeal in a lot of cases, there is a lot of untrue hype as well.

So, here is a quick back of the envalope calculation that can be skimmed without :

Digital -- 10Mpix -- 8 bits per RGB color (and per pixel) -- 10Mb of information (without interpolation)

The following have 3 colors per pixel, so the # of bits multiplied by 3)

FILM
8mm "Minox" film -- 3.3Mpix -- ~24 bits/color -- 29.7Mb of information
35mm film -- 22Mpix -- ~24 bits per color (72bits per 'pixel')-- 198Mb of information
Medium format 6x4.5 -- ~60Mpix -- ~24 bits per color -- 540Mb of info
Medium format 6x6 -- ~80Mpix -- ~24 bits per color -- 720Mb of info
Medium format 6x7 -- ~100Mpix -- ~24 bits per color -- 900Mb of info
Large format 4" x 5" -- ~328Mpix -- ~24 bits/color -- 2952Mb of info
Large format 5" x 7" -- ~574Mpix -- ~24 bits/color -- 5166Mb of info
Large format 8" x 10" -- 1312Mpix -- ~24bits/color -- 11808Mb of info

So, for resolution, 8mm Minox film is inferior.
The rest has more resolution assuming it is fine grained film.

Grain is the big bugbear and prevents large magnification of film - and because of the aggressive noise reduciton, it will allow very large magnifications before it looks "bad." I don't think anyone has published anything about applying the same routines to film and the results?

Also a lot of digital photographs use high amounts of "sharpening" which people think looks good now, but looks terrible under scrutingy. This will "boost" the apparent resolution by emphasizing edges, but in many cases distors details int he pictures.

Anyway, this is kind of long, but this is kind of a hot button with me - and I am not sure why as I have both digital and film cameras - though I do prefer film due to the better shading and subtlety of coloration and lack of artifacts.

 

[Magnus]

Film will not run out soon, but it' going faster than I ever thought it would.

Expensive ... Increasingly

B&W film vs. Digital .... try the Ricoh GRD or the Fuji F30 they offer good alternatives to film. GRD has an almost perfect resemlence to Tri-x, shoot it at 400, 99% of the viewers will not see any difference.

 

[Ash]

Although some film is becoming very expensive or scarce, bargains can still be found. Especially since china are picking up the slack with Lucky/Era film. For us amateurs it'll be ok for a few years.

I can't stock up on more film until I buy another freezer. The 100 odd films and 5 or more bulk tins just isn't enough

 

[Nachkebia]

B&W film vs. Digital .... try the Ricoh GRD or the Fuji F30 they offer good alternatives to film. GRD has an almost perfect resemlence to Tri-x, shoot it at 400, 99% of the viewers will not see any difference.

Will pass this, as if I have never read it....

 

[jaapv]

Will pass this, as if I have never read it....

Here I agree.(Don't be shocked by that Vladimer 😀) I think 99% of RFF members belong to that 1%...

 

[gb hill]

I personally don't believe film will die in our lifetime. I was in a camera store the other day & the guy behind the counter asked, have you tried digital yet? and I said no, and everyone proceeded to explain what was so great about digital. The biggest reason being if you don't like the shot you just delete it, and you don't have to buy film. I got to thinking about that and came up with this conclusion! A decent digital camera will cost around $1500. A memory card is around $70. Another $60 for software to fix your pictures,{why do ALL digital cameras,Nikons included,you have to fix your photos}?I would think for this much money the photos would be great right out of the camera.😕 Oh well" Lets continue. You have to have a computer, $600 I'll cut some slack on that. I can't think of anything else you need to get you started but that comes to a whopping, oops! one more thing, though not a necessity, A photo printer $110. That comes to$2340.00. That will buy me a lot of film and processing for my old, less than $100 rangefinders and one more thing, by the time it takes to shoot that much film you can bet that digital camera will be fried or so outdated you'll have to do it all over again. Bottem line is that more & more photogs I talk to anyway, either try digital,get frustrated,and return to film,or shoot both. Plus i've never seen the lab guys at WalMart sitting around waiting for some one to drop off a roll of film!!🙂

 

[Nachkebia]

jaapv 😀 I just love M3 on top of the list and M8 at the end of it but I guess that will change soon 🙁

 

[raid]

I have always stocked up on film since 15 years maybe. Ilike to open on refrigerator and choose a B&W film and then move to the second refrigerator's freezer and choose a color film. No chance/time to go out and find locally the right film. I predict that I will eventually become a collector anyways, so by that time I will be looking at my cameras and lenses. Digital photography is not to my liking.

Raid

 

[jaapv]

jaapv 😀 I just love M3 on top of the list and M8 at the end of it but I guess that will change soon 🙁

Why? It has been there since 1976...

 

[rxmd]

Sometimes I wonder if it's that economical to keep a three-digit number's worth of film in a freezer or fridge. Don't you folks have an electricity bill to pay?

Philipp