Snowbuzz
Well-known
I bought the highlighted book a month ago. I got all choked up. I think every film user should have a copy.
Sadly Pertinent
- Thread starter Bill Pierce
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raytoei@gmail.com
Veteran
recently i bought a 10 year old minolta 5400 scanner.
the images produced is better than any of the remaining
scanners in production (epson, canon) except for the
plustek. so what happens when all the tonnes of negatives
are around and we do not have a decent scanner to scan it ?
just a scary thought....
raytoei
the images produced is better than any of the remaining
scanners in production (epson, canon) except for the
plustek. so what happens when all the tonnes of negatives
are around and we do not have a decent scanner to scan it ?
just a scary thought....
raytoei
Snapper_uk
Well-known
It bugs me when people talk anout the 'end' or 'death' of film. This is not the end at present - it's a rebalancing, as long as people are out there wanting to use it, and obviously there is.
Although, reading the linked articles, sometimes I wonder;
Mr Burley .... foresees a tipping point beyond which consistent quality photographic film will be impossible to make because of the scale necessary to maintain operations.
What also bugs me is statements like this, from Digital Trends;
As much as we all have a soft spot for film, it isn’t enough to sustain this industry. We will just have to rely on filters on our digital cameras and smartphones to recreate the magic of film.
Magic is magic, it cannot be recreated, that's why it's magic.
Use film.
Now, that's magic.
Although, reading the linked articles, sometimes I wonder;
Mr Burley .... foresees a tipping point beyond which consistent quality photographic film will be impossible to make because of the scale necessary to maintain operations.
What also bugs me is statements like this, from Digital Trends;
As much as we all have a soft spot for film, it isn’t enough to sustain this industry. We will just have to rely on filters on our digital cameras and smartphones to recreate the magic of film.
Magic is magic, it cannot be recreated, that's why it's magic.
Use film.
Now, that's magic.
Larry Kellogg
Established
I'm hoping that the use of film in Hollywood will keep us going for a while longer but, of course, more and more films are being displayed digitally. Still, I have read that Hollywood is backing up digitally created films onto physical film.
Have you guys shot the new Kodak Portra 400? The stuff is absolutely amazing. My lab guys say that the film is better than ever, better than back in the day, and they've had a lot of film pass through their hands. From my understanding, Kodak took the technology from their motion picture film stock in creating Portra 400.
Larry
Have you guys shot the new Kodak Portra 400? The stuff is absolutely amazing. My lab guys say that the film is better than ever, better than back in the day, and they've had a lot of film pass through their hands. From my understanding, Kodak took the technology from their motion picture film stock in creating Portra 400.
Larry
MartinP
Veteran
Just a note to Larry in post #27. The last contracts for camera-neg, 35mm, cine-film end next year. No more shooting on colour-neg for a major production after that. None. Zero. If nothing else is arranged in the meantime, that will be the closure of Kodak film production too. For several years there have been no film cine-cameras produced by the big manufacturers either.
Photo_Smith
Well-known
That may possibly impact Kodak as the contracts end in late 2015 (not next year). So the impact of the end of cine (if it does cease to be) will not necessarily kill film.
Many companies out there like Ilford, Agfa, Foma and even Fuji since they stopped making movie film last year continue to make stills film, the Hollywood studios won't impact those businesses at all.
As for no one making cine cameras anymore you're talking consumer? Because if so they were killed by magnetic tape long before digital.
If you mean Pro Movie camera's like the ones used by Hollywoood then there are still a few makers like this one:
http://www.aaton.com/products/film/penelope/index.php
Or this one:
http://www.arri.de/camera/film_cameras.html
Both major manufacturers of Movie cameras...
sevo
Fokutorendaburando
The entire data processing industry, notably banks, insurances and tax authorities, are backing up data to microfilm as well. But the ideal film for archiving is black and white - colour film sucks almost as much as magnetic tape when it comes to long term storage. As Technicolor demonstrated, storing three black and white separation reels allows for restoration to even better colours than when new seventy or eighty years later, while many motion pictures shot and stored on colour negative in the "dark age" sixties to eighties are already fading from the archives...
Black and white will not vanish - or rather, it is long past the point where it might have been killed by a failure to downsize. We'll see how things go for colour if and when Kodak drop out.
Photo_Smith
Well-known
I often work with some film archives of Rock bands from the 1960's and those films survive remarkably well, just last week end film from that era was shown from that archive in a programme about the Rock group Queen on the BBC and I myself have many images from colour neg from the 1960's – '80's that print very well.
I think your 'dark age' is a little overstated.
Larry Kellogg
Established
You guys are bumming me out. Maybe all hope is lost. ;-) I guess we'll just have to see what happens. Perhaps we'll all have to give up on film and be forced to upgrade our digital cameras every few years, what an expensive proposition.
You'll still be able to print them the old fashioned way...
doolittle
Well-known
MartinP
Veteran
Oops, I thought I had read that the cine-production was contracted until November 2014, so I have probably mis-read that, or there was some sort of extension signed.
Regarding the manufacturers, I had heard that Arri and Panavision were no longer building new 35mm and (Panavision) 65/70mm cameras. However both are listed on their websites - shifting old stock out for hire?? The conversation I had was with a (relatively small-time) director who was complaining that it wasn't possible to hire what she wanted, when she wanted it, for a production starting in 2014.
Certainly, the end of Kodak production is not the end of film. There are far better 'sized' companies around for black-and-white. It isn't so good for colour-neg though as my favourite ones are the Portras. 🙁
There is no need to scan a negative to digitise it. You can re-photograph it using a digital camera - I do this now for black-and-white - and you can also re-photograph a print of course. I am wondering how long it is before a version of the old "slide-copier" stages is commercially produced for use with DSLR's and macro-lenses.
Regarding the manufacturers, I had heard that Arri and Panavision were no longer building new 35mm and (Panavision) 65/70mm cameras. However both are listed on their websites - shifting old stock out for hire?? The conversation I had was with a (relatively small-time) director who was complaining that it wasn't possible to hire what she wanted, when she wanted it, for a production starting in 2014.
Certainly, the end of Kodak production is not the end of film. There are far better 'sized' companies around for black-and-white. It isn't so good for colour-neg though as my favourite ones are the Portras. 🙁
There is no need to scan a negative to digitise it. You can re-photograph it using a digital camera - I do this now for black-and-white - and you can also re-photograph a print of course. I am wondering how long it is before a version of the old "slide-copier" stages is commercially produced for use with DSLR's and macro-lenses.
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
Now is the time to shoot as much film as you can. Over the past five years I have been shooting as much film as I can, without any regard to printing. I know whenever the end happens that I took advantage of using film as much as I could.
Printing has been postponed.
Cal
Printing has been postponed.
Cal
oftheherd
Veteran
I have no doubt there will be conversion programs if the current formats go away. However, how many will use them to update to the new format? Or how many like you propose, will just throw negatives away unshared with family or the rest of the world?
Oh my goodness! You mean we might have to retrograde to wet darkrooms? 😉
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
This is my intent. I exposed and developed my negatives for wet printing not for scanning.
Cal
U
upceci
Guest
I think this Winogrand approach is essentially a waste of time and precious film.
Why, I believe Cal will still eventually get to printing his negatives. It was only a waste for Winogrand because he died before he got to the backlog of film. We should all be so lucky to get as far as Winogrand did by enganging in such a "waste of time and precious film."
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
WHY? I'm exploiting a resource while it is cheap and still readily available. I think that this will lead to less remorse and regrets. Anyways it makes sense to me.
Editing and printing can be time intensive and there is no reason for urgency.
Anyways I think I'm looking at the big picture. B&W will still remain, but it definitely will get more and more expensive as time goes on.
Cal
U
upceci
Guest
The idea of building a huge backlog and then printing is usually a way to rationalize lack of interest in printing. But this not a bad reflection on the photographer, editing and printing are the two worst aspects of photography, time consuming and boring, while shooting is always fun. Winogrand was really not interested in photography, he simply got a buzz from photographing women on the streets. The reason why he became such an idol has to do with the fact that his dead. had he been alive, he'd be another Bruce Gilden, famous for sometime and then derided and forgotten - like all youtube celebrities. The real lamentation for analogue is mostly a lamentation for a time when those with a camera and a darkroom actually mattered.
U
upceci
Guest
Shooting film and then leaving it there to age does not make sense, because if one loves the film-look then it means one craves to look at film prints? Maybe you're shooting film because you like using film cameras, i can identify with that completely.