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

[raid]

The refrigerators are used anyways, so placing film in them will not significantly increase the bill.

Raid

 

[ffttklackdedeng]

.. and you don't buy so much fresh fruits etc. because you know you have no place left to store.. 🙄

What about that cosmic thing, doesn't this affect all the rolls, too? If I knew my favourite one and only film gets discontinued, then yes, I'd stock some up, but well it doesn't look like that for now

 

[Uncle Bill]

Film is not going to die anytime soon so lets get over the doom and gloom about it.

Bill

 

[Magnus]

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

Arrogant guy .... have you ever tried looking at the differences.

Both hanging on a wall, tri_x scan (nikon 5000) and GRD both printed on high quality printer hung on a wall, size 20x30cm (appr) from 30cm and more you'll better not bet yout testicles to spot the difference. Viewed with a loupe, ok, but thats nitpicking.

 

[Bromo33333]

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

I dunno - I don't see film becoming particularly scarce, nor do I see big price jumps out of proportion to other prices. Might be that I am in Rochester, NY, but I think there is a lot of panick.

I fully expect to be able to find film for the next 30-50 years.

 

[Bromo33333]

[INSULT DELETED] .... have you ever tried looking at the differences.

Both hanging on a wall, tri_x scan (nikon 5000) and GRD both printed on high quality printer hung on a wall, size 20x30cm (appr) from 30cm and more you'll better not bet yout [CENSORED] to spot the difference. Viewed with a loupe, ok, but thats nitpicking.

I will agree that GRD is much more film-like than typical digital noise, but the graininess of TMAX 400 and 3200 (I don't have experience with Tri-X) looks different even from 1-2' away to me.

Also adding "grain" in photoshop doesn't simulate it either.

But, hey, if you like the results and feel it looks close enough, then by all means have fun. This isn't a religious war - it is aesthetics.

 

[gareth]

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

The 5D is significantly higher res than superia 200asa 35mm film. With my modest 2900DPI film scanner I can see every lump of grain in some detail. Zooming into a full frame of that film next to full frame from the 5D, you don't need an expert to tell you that the 5D has recorded much more detail, in terms of resolution that is.

35mm film -- 22Mpix -- ~24 bits per color (72bits per 'pixel')-- 198Mb of information

Umm and what 35mm film would that be? Different films have different resolutions. While I can clearly see the resolution of superia 135 200asa, if I scan provia 100F with that same 2900DPI scanner, well I can't find the grain. So I suspect that provia film is higher res than my 5D.

But as I was trying to point out, resolution or detail is only one small issue. And having just had some very large display prints done from 400asa neg and slide film I'm not half as concerned about resolution as I used to be.

On the other hand I can't ignore the convinence of digital. I can cover much more than I could previously thanks to the 5D, and it's 'good enougth'. But it's not good enougth for me to dump film altogether, nor do I see it getting there any time soon.

 

[jody]

I believe that most photographers who are trying to do something better than a snapshot use both film and digital or just film. I think film will always be around just not like the heyday.

 

[raid]

Let's not start placing bets on testicles and other sensitive portions of our bodies. This is supposed to be fun.

 

[peter_n]

I think it depends on the film. If its a film which is discontinued like Agfapan 100, then yes the lovers of that film (and there are many) would want to stock up. Bulk NP1600; stock up. But in general film is not going away so as someone said above why panic?

 

[woodphoto]

Film isn't going anywhere. Remember there are tens of thousands of photo students who learn on nothing but 35mm film(tri-x, t-max) and are taught by people like us who won't give up film.
I haven't seen a photo one student yet that started with digital.

 

[40oz]

With my modest 2900DPI film scanner I can see every lump of grain in some detail.

Sure, I can use any crappy scanner to show you that digital is better than film. How about you compare a print from digital to a wet print from film and then make a determination? Seems pretty silly to point to a scan and say "digital is better." All you are really seeing is your digital camera takes better pictures than you can scan a negative. I'm not sure why anyone would think that is a test of any validity.

If you followed the posted link to the information you take isue with, you'd find some answers. Haranguing someone who simply copied and pasted the data is silly.

 

[edho]

"Film is going to die"? I hope not, cos' I am stilling buying film cameras these days!
I think film will go on, for at least 5 years time until film companies and labs can't afford to run their business any more due to too limited demand.

 

[sf]

Film is at the quality level, by some measures, to 35mm film. If you have $30K to spend, you can get 645 film quality from digital. But, in all honesty, if quality of the image matters, and you like to print larger than 8x10, film still wins, hands down.

Really, I just want to be able to print 13x19 without worrying about the details.

 

[Bromo33333]

The 5D is significantly higher res than superia 200asa 35mm film. With my modest 2900DPI film scanner I can see every lump of grain in some detail. Zooming into a full frame of that film next to full frame from the 5D, you don't need an expert to tell you that the 5D has recorded much more detail, in terms of resolution that is.

Grain is not the limit of resolution - though I will agree that most folks will try to use grain as the limit. Because of all the aggressive in-camera noise reduciton processing on digital capture cameras, there is less visible noise - making large blowups of the pictures more easy to sell. Aggressive in camera and photoshop sharpening will make the picute have more "pop" without increasing any information.

The 5D does not record more information than a frame of 35mm - there are 8 bits per pixel, and 12 million pixels. Film has up to 22 million pixels and has about 24 bits per color per pixel - allowing for a lot more resolution.

If you are getting acceptable results with a digital camera - then there is no need for further discussion.

 

[Nachkebia]

Arrogant guy .... have you ever tried looking at the differences.

Both hanging on a wall, tri_x scan (nikon 5000) and GRD both printed on high quality printer hung on a wall, size 20x30cm (appr) from 30cm and more you'll better not bet yout testicles to spot the difference. Viewed with a loupe, ok, but thats nitpicking.

How about seeling your testicles to go to optometrist?

 

[Stephanie Brim]

Film isn't going anywhere. Remember there are tens of thousands of photo students who learn on nothing but 35mm film(tri-x, t-max) and are taught by people like us who won't give up film.
I haven't seen a photo one student yet that started with digital.

I, unfortunately, have. Most of the community college photo classes are digital now, at least around here. The high school course, though, is still tried and true black and white. I believe he even makes them use a manual SLR. 😉

 

[Nachkebia]

When my Nikon LS-5000 breaks down in a few years I seriously doubt that there will be a film scanner on the market to replace it. I'm talking about reasonably priced ones.

I am sure at that time you can find second hand drumscanner for $500 🙂

 

[Madrigal]

My question is, sincerely, what is an equivalent, archivable medium for digital? I really can't imagine what it might be at this point. Is any of this going to be usable several generations from now? Even one generation away? Digital formats change so quickly... 😕

 

[planetjoe]

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.

Heh - just got back to this thread. Yeah, I keep it in there; force of habit. The crisper is for beer, the cheese drawer is for film. Weird, yes.


Cheers,
--joe.