Lord Lucan
Member
There were many high quality photo print companies in UK namely Greatrex in City of Bradford,EurocolorLab in London NW10 and Lord Lichfield also had a company named Lichfield Laboratories.
I wolud like to return back to film for surprizing results. But these days a portraiture or weddind photos we need need make sure that no one winked spoiling photos!
I agree that people who never used a camera before are now carrying phone camera and they seem very happy about the quality of images on the phone screen. This proves that people have different level of understanding of the term --quality.
The Costco and Asda stores offer in-house while you wait services. Their quality is not too bad once you have sorted your photos. I mean post processing.
I still have Canon RT film camera body but I dont know how long ago I put a film through. I think I should put a battery in and also a film!
I wolud like to return back to film for surprizing results. But these days a portraiture or weddind photos we need need make sure that no one winked spoiling photos!
I agree that people who never used a camera before are now carrying phone camera and they seem very happy about the quality of images on the phone screen. This proves that people have different level of understanding of the term --quality.
The Costco and Asda stores offer in-house while you wait services. Their quality is not too bad once you have sorted your photos. I mean post processing.
I still have Canon RT film camera body but I dont know how long ago I put a film through. I think I should put a battery in and also a film!
Archlich
Well-known
It's a solid idea, I can totally see it happen in the near future, but the price won't be reasonable. The likely scenario for Leica is it will charge more than twice the price the lab it's outsourced to offers, just for you to drop the film at and pick the envelope (with a nice red dot stamped on it) up in a Leica store.
In the end it's more like buying the life style rather than a guarantee of quality.
In the end it's more like buying the life style rather than a guarantee of quality.
Larry Cloetta
Veteran
This is a good idea; it is the kind of idea forward thinking businessmen like Akio Morita or Steve Jobs have always had. Unfortunately, no one at Leica seems to have had it.
Godfrey
somewhat colored
No problem. It's just that, having been in the photofinishing business for a couple of years, there is a lot of burden to it that makes it difficult to see as something so simple as it seems.
Chemical photofinishing is a labor intensive process regardless of whether you are processing and printing the film, or relying upon machinery to do so. It's a customer service intensive business which requires a good bit of space and personnel to manage inventory, sell services and products, and run the equipment (if you're doing the processing in-house). Photofinishing is reliant upon volume to be profitable—although that $1.50 per roll price I quoted earlier in the thread was real in 1984, it was dependent upon an average of twenty to thirty rolls per day of processing demand to achieve it. Any average under that and the cost per roll grows rapidly to an unprofitable level because the machines must be maintained, the chemistry kept fresh and in spec, and the inventory maintained regardless of whether you're processing anything or not.
From what I see of the current film usage and demographics, I don't see enough photofinishing business existing in today's market for anything other than mail-order only, batch-oriented operations at significantly higher costs. The best that Leica might do is find a couple of high-quality providers, certify them to meet output quality specifications, and offer mailers with the Leica brand and quality certification.
This is analogous to what Apple does with the Photos app when you order prints or books, and it works well ... but there is a deep and pretty complex set of mechanisms behind it that ensure smooth operations. That's a very expensive infrastructure to develop and, like photofinishing itself, is heavily dependent upon volume to be profitable.
G
Larry Cloetta
Veteran
I certainly would not discount any of that. My thinking was somewhat along other lines, that it occasionally might prove much better to create a market than to limit one's thinking to simply trying to tap into an existing one, especially if all you are doing is sitting on your hands and watching that market disappear.
As others have noted, when out shooting with a film camera, it is is extremely common to have a stranger remark "can you still get film for that?" etc.
Professional photofinishing is in a death spiral; anything which could raise the public's awareness that you can, in fact, "still get film for that" would not hurt.
If you are circling the drain, perhaps swimming won't help, perhaps it will, but choosing not to swim only has one result.
Even though Leica is small in comparison to Nikon, or Sony, the cost of doing something like this would still amount to nothing more than a rounding error, I would guess, even if it were done as a loss leader.
Of course, there is the possibility that Leica is not that interested in film any longer. Not being accusatory, perhaps they should not be. Maybe they are growing by leaps and bounds doing it their way.
But, if they were interested, the effort to insert into people's consciousness the idea that film is actually a real thing, and we do it here, could not be a bad thing.
40 years ago someone told me that "you won't sell it, if you don't have it on the shelf." Not sure that is any less true today.
helen.HH
To Light & Love ...
Even though I am mainly a film shooter, I beg to differ
Leica has Enough on their hands
they don't need that headache
True die hards will do it themselves (jackasses like moi :angel
and for those that need processing on occasion or have the luxury of income to send out there are places that do it just fine
Leica has Enough on their hands
they don't need that headache
True die hards will do it themselves (jackasses like moi :angel
and for those that need processing on occasion or have the luxury of income to send out there are places that do it just fine
Roger Hicks
Veteran
Nice idea. Perhaps they could start out with B+W tie up with Ilford.
I can foresee two problems:
1 People refusing to believe that they made any mistakes at all, so it's All Leica's Fault
2 Whining and bitching just because it's Leica
Cheers,
R.
I can foresee two problems:
1 People refusing to believe that they made any mistakes at all, so it's All Leica's Fault
2 Whining and bitching just because it's Leica
Cheers,
R.
zuiko85
Veteran
Speaking of processing film. Are processing machines still being made? Is there service support for machines a few years old? Just wondering. I don't know for sure but didn't these automated C41 processing machines price out at over $200K?
jszokoli
Well-known
In my opinion what Leica should do to promote film use is make a really good film scanner.
I think such a product would be a niche product, and Leica would be in a good position to create and market it. Im thinking something above a mass market product but below a commercial unit.
Joe
I think such a product would be a niche product, and Leica would be in a good position to create and market it. Im thinking something above a mass market product but below a commercial unit.
Joe
brennanphotoguy
Well-known
Phototherm still makes machines and services all their old models.
brennanphotoguy
Well-known
Hasselblad does that already and it's amazing but the price is absurd. And it hasn't been updated in a really long time, FireWire anyone? I think the scanning solutions are kind of out at this point unless someone develops a brand new scanner in the $2000 range that's more reliable that the Plustek 120. But that won't happen I don't think because the R&D to create something *that* niche and come up with a scanning software (unless they wanna license Vuescan or Silverfast) would put that scanner in Hasselblad range which by itself isn't really selling that much.
brennanphotoguy
Well-known
What's the difference between driving to a Leica store to drop something off and paying some crazy premium for them to mail it and driving to the post office to drop something off and mailing to one of the many pro labs in the US, paying less money and being able to contact the lab directly if you need something. It just seems like a terrible middle man plan. Leica needs to work on their pro support before they come up with anymore "services."
Mackinaw
Think Different
Several years back, the folks on the Leica Forum were soliciting questions from forum members to ask Leica management. I asked the question you posed, would Leica ever consider building a film scanner, or partnering with a third-party company to build a film scanner. My question was selected from the hundreds submitted and asked. Leica’s answer was a resounding no, they have no intentions of building a film scanner.
Jim B.
Godfrey
somewhat colored
Leica already makes one of the best scanning mechanisms you can buy: fit a quality macro lens to a Leica M/M-P typ 240 or Leica SL: you have the basis for superb quality scans. All you need is a stand, a jig to hold the film, and a light box. Beyond that, all you need is software to do the negative inversion and correction to final rendering ... which you likely already have already.
G
Mackinaw
Think Different
I’ve started to do this. I have an old Asahi 100mm F4.0 macro lens that I have mounted on my M240. The first tests I’ve attempted look good. I need a better light box and camera stand, but this M240/macro lens combo looks promising.
Jim B.
Godfrey
somewhat colored
If you can find a Leica BEOON macro copy stand, it is nearly ideal for the purpose. Add a flat-panel light box and you have a negative capture system for 35mm up to most medium format sizes.
I've used the BEOON with both Voigtländer Color Skopar 50mm f/2.5 and Micro-Nikkor 55mm f/3.5 pre-AI lenses mounted on Sony A7, Leica M-P, and Leica SL bodies. The markings on the BEOON are set up for a 50mm M-mount lens; for the 55mm I have to juggle the height and tube combinations to get what I want out of it. But it works very well nonetheless.
G
nikonhswebmaster
reluctant moderator
Do u apply that logic to other items? Should fuel be free if you pay over a certain amount for a car?
It has happened. From 2005:
Mitsubishi's "Gas Comes Standard" promotion, which runs through the end of October, gives customers prepaid gasoline debit cards totaling $1,500 to $2,500, depending on the car model.
Volkswagen is offering certain consumers a $50 Exxon Mobil gas card for free gasoline to test drive a certified used VW vehicle. The promotion, which ends Friday, is available to 250,000 potential customers who have received the direct-mail offer.
robert blu
quiet photographer
Film processing could be an idea but I would prefer Leica offers a 35 mm film scanner with image quality similar to the Nikon scanner and a price ...
robert
robert
Archlich
Well-known
Leica's attitude toward film is in line with their release of the M-A and M-D. They need film products in the portfolio as standard-bearers to keep the brand's image of "tradition" and "essence", and that's about it. In reality, digital is much, much more profitable - for each $8,000 camera they sell you are expected to upgrade in 5 years or so (with older models no longer serviceable), while the film cameras you keep for a lifetime.
All these talk about Leica promoting use of film, I see not much action taken, nor would there will be any. A new M4 equivalent, a rebranded Fuji instant camera - that's the whole output from the supposed-to-be last stronghold of film photography during the past 13 years. They even took the trouble to build a digital camera that looks and works like a film camera - just not a real film one.
Even Lomo had done more, churning out at least one (overpriced, but newly designed and somehow unique) film camera every year since the inception of the LC-W. Weird time isn't it.
All these talk about Leica promoting use of film, I see not much action taken, nor would there will be any. A new M4 equivalent, a rebranded Fuji instant camera - that's the whole output from the supposed-to-be last stronghold of film photography during the past 13 years. They even took the trouble to build a digital camera that looks and works like a film camera - just not a real film one.
Even Lomo had done more, churning out at least one (overpriced, but newly designed and somehow unique) film camera every year since the inception of the LC-W. Weird time isn't it.
SaveKodak
Well-known
The FIND lab, Indie Film Lab, Little Film Lab, State Film, Richard Photo Lab, ProDPI, North Coast Photographic Services, etc etc...
How many labs do you need that accept film and do high res scanning? Considering Leica can barely make their own products work properly without some disaster I'm not sure I want them handling my film.
How many labs do you need that accept film and do high res scanning? Considering Leica can barely make their own products work properly without some disaster I'm not sure I want them handling my film.