What we are witness to today is an entire culture ensnared in the clutches of massive change.
Companies are dying, changing and even trying to reinvent themselves in order to survive. Film will not actually die, but what comes out the other end will be different.
It is the end of domination by monolithic companies producing goods on a huge scale. Massive production along with huge sales made the entire system possible. Now we are very quickly moving to a boutique model where I believe that companies will need to be agile enough to engage in a customized manufacturing model, similar to Ilford's annual sheet film sales. Pre-orders with much smaller customized production runs will become the order of the day.
Kodak will continue to make one or two films, perhaps TMAX and Portra. The others will be prepaid orders placed once every year or two. Ilford will be similar. The smaller companies will produce occasional custom batches of specialty emulsions like RPX25 or IR820.
And it goes without saying that the current pricing structures are probably unsustainable. Analog film supplies of all sorts will become more expensive. And Do-It-Yourselfers will flourish. Small companies like Photo Formulary will provide basic chemical and hardware supplies in support of the DIY market.
But don't worry. Since predicting the future is notoriously difficult, I am almost certainly wrong. 😀
